How Is Your Relationship With Jesus?

“How is your relationship with Jesus?”  Have you ever been asked that question or have you ever asked it of yourself?  You may groan inwardly thinking, “Oh no, another one of those Jesus freaks!” You may feel challenged or feel like your privacy has just been invaded.  You may dismiss it without giving it any real thought saying to yourself, “My relationship with Jesus is just fine.  I go to Mass, I say my prayers, and I go to confession.”  Does that answer really satisfy you or does it leave you with your feathers a bit ruffled?  Do you feel slightly uncomfortable?

A Relationship With Jesus?

What is really involved in a relationship with Jesus?  A relationship often involves communication, listening and speaking, shared interests, and enjoyment from being with the other person.  It is time well spent and we look forward to our next meeting and spending more time with each other.  A sense of love or personal growth often accompanies our shared time together.

Deepening our relationship with Jesus can also involve these things!  Sometimes we think that Jesus is too remote for us, mere mortals.  “I’m not so sure he is listening, anyway.” and  “Why would the creator of the universe want to have anything to do with me? How can he be interested in me, one of the billions on this planet?  I think he is kind of busy for me but if He does check-up, He’ll see I am being a good Catholic, I’m punching my ticket!”

Maybe we have a slightly empty feeling and begin to really think things over.  Does this question irritate me because I really don’t have such a great relationship with Jesus or practically none at all?  Am I putting enough time into growing closer to Jesus?  I begin to realize that this is actually a serious dilemma.  What can I do about this?  I think it is an area that we may think of occasionally but just seem to get distracted from or are too busy doing other things.  We’re human!

Be Thankful

First, let’s be thankful that God created us and realize that He wants to be closer to us more than we want to be closer to Him!  He has gifts He wants to give us more than we want to receive them.  He loves us beyond words and cherishes everything about us.  He made us just the way we are.  Well, that’s a surprise, we may think.  Yes, it is even said that if you were the only person in the world, Jesus would die on the cross for you, just you!  Now that is real love.  You just can’t get better than that!

Jesus actually wants to be part of everything we say, think and do.  He is truly on our side, our biggest cheerleader, even bigger than our Guardian Angel and that’s going some.  He wants us to become more and more familiar with Him so that one day we may spend eternity with Him in Heaven.  Just think, peace and true joy forever.  No sickness, no death, no wars, no fears, no worries, no sin, and no poverty – the list goes on and on.  We will have all we need and never be bored.  We will have experienced the Beatific Vision; we will see Him as He really is.

Divine Love

This type of love can be a call to action for us.  How can I respond?  What can I do to show my appreciation?  Well, we can pray, of course, lifting our hearts and minds to God.  We can go to Mass and the Sacraments.  We can attend devotions and many many other very good things.  However, sometimes we may think that if we cram enough Rosaries, Masses, Novenas, and other practices into our day, we have done our part.  But have we?  Would it not be better to do these things slower and more meaningfully?  Sometimes we think that sheer numbers will do the trick but perhaps fewer numbers with more experiential meaning may bring us closer to our goal.  God’s ways are not our ways.

The Eucharist

One very important way is to receive the Eucharistic worthily, in the State of Grace. Here we let God absorb us; it is a great moment of shared intimacy.  If we can learn to slow down, do these things in a non-mechanical or perfunctory way and enjoy the moment of being one with God Himself, it will cause us to want to repeat this miracle every day!  And we can!  We will not be “punching our ticket” anymore, we will actually be experiencing God.  We will be getting to know Him better and better.  We will be getting closer to having a real relationship with Jesus.

Listen

We can also spend time listening to God before the Blessed Sacrament.  Just be there and experience God – He is true being.  Clear our minds and just listen, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.  And if you do not speak, I will continue to listen.”  Sometimes the hardest part is clearing our mind from distractions.  Distractions may come but we gently push them away without being frustrated and reorient ourselves to listening to God, the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we may finish our prayer time in this manner and think, “What was that?”  Or “I don’t think I really got anything out of that.”  However, very often, after our prayer time, we experience deep peace, we begin to understand things better, to see things differently.  We look forward to our next prayer time, deepening our relationship with Jesus.

Read Scripture

Soon, we may begin reading scripture – the Bible – the story of God’s love affair with man.  We may pour over several chapters or just one verse that really resonates with us.  It is quality and not quantity that matters.  We realize that this is the inspired word of God Himself, speaking directly to me in this time and place.  I must take this to heart; I must live each word of this Word more deeply – every day!  I am going to live in the experience of knowing God and feeling the intensity of His loving presence in my heart, every day!  I have to make a choice, a decision I thought I have had made a long time ago.  Am I going to put God first in my life?  Am I going to fervently do His will and not mine?  Am I going to realize that my life is not about me – it is about God?  Am I going to keep saying yes to God, regardless of the question, trusting that His will is always the best way?  Am I going to, with God’s help, become a saint?

Expressing Our Love For God

When we get to this point, our great love for God and our desire to serve Him spills over to all areas of our life, as it should.  I may be a little more patient, giving, non-judgmental.  My life will become more virtuous and my attitude towards others will become more generous.  Didn’t Jesus die on the cross for them, too?

Maybe I will help by donating clothes or food for those in need.  Maybe I will give more generously to worthy causes, even if it is only a few dollars.  Did you ever notice how many people are going to stamp out poverty and so many other evils on earth once they hit the lottery” Do what you can now.  If everybody did a little, great problems would be solved!

When was the last time I wrote to my local representative or called their office to explain that as a Catholic I am opposed to my tax money going to fund abortions?  There are scores of issues that are crying out for your voice to be heard.  So many of us just sit back believing that “someone else will take care of it.”  Meanwhile, we get steamrolled regarding issues that mean so much to us and we wonder how it ever happened.

These are only a few suggestions about deepening our relationship with Jesus.  There are many, many others, of course.  It is up to each one of us to do what we can according to our means and ability.  “And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”  (Matt 10:42)

To help put this in perspective and as an incentive to be Christ’s hands and heart in this world, realize that Catholics account for less than 18% of the world’s population.  Less than one-fifth!  There are literally billions of people that are not Christian.  Many may not even have heard about Jesus Christ, the Savior of all men.

What can each of us do to fulfill Christ’s command to

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matt 28: 19-20