Mar 20 Thu
How can I have a ‘personal relationship with Jesus Christ’?
It’s easy to have prejudices when evaluating our relationship with God. When asked if we truly have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” we picture an emotional, warm, intimate feeling of an encounter. Of course, as Catholics, we may easily respond, “Yes, indeed, I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ every time I receive Him in Holy Communion.”
An emotional response when receiving Communion can be a welcome consolation, but it is often lacking. Mother Teresa of Calcutta turned to a priest during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and lamented, “I feel nothing.” Would Mother Teresa, given her now well-known spiritual desolation, stand accused of failing to cultivate or find a “personal relationship” with Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist?
Shortly after the miraculous multiplication of loaves, Jesus began to reveal his Real Presence under the appearance of bread and wine: “I am the bread of life...” Yet “…many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.” (Jn 6:35-66)
At the Last Supper, Jesus completed the revelation of the mystery of the Real Presence: “And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body”—and similarly with the wine. (cf. Mk. 14:22-24) No metaphors. The Real Presence under the appearance of bread and wine. What the senses fail to fathom, let us grasp through faith.
Faith is necessary to enter into communion with Him. The Divine plan is to spark a response of faith rather than promising good feelings as in any friendly personal relationship. During spiritual desolation, God redirects the love of his consolations to authentic Christian love. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15) Faith is tested and strengthened when God suspends his consolations for a time.
A visual presence of Jesus in modern times would lead some to expect “new and improved” revelations hoping to render obsolete inconvenient teachings such as, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23)
True faith, rather, directs our attention to Jesus through the unchanging Deposit of Faith handed down throughout the ages after the death of the last Apostle. And cultivating personal relationships is the pastoral duty of his disciples who are commissioned to “baptize all nations” in his name.
Jesus entrusts Himself to the members of His Church. So, our encounter with Him is through healthy personal relationships with his representatives, the members of his Mystical Body. Through the Mass—and by the ministry of the ordained priests of the Church—our faith directs us to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. The ministry of the priest gives way to a direct and true personal relationship with Jesus in faith.
Such a relationship may be unemotional, even dry, plodding, and frustrating. But a ready faith remains spiritually profitable, always ready to say with Saint Peter in times of confusion, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Only you have the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:68)
Reception of Holy Communion in faithful obedience to Christ is the perfect personal relationship with Jesus, whether or not we feel it. But there is always something sweet and consoling about a good conscience at peace with God’s will.
Excerpts from Fr. Jerry Pokorsky
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