Today officially begins The Year of Faith. Pope Benedict XVI has asked that it be a time to "make our relationship with Christ the Lord increasingly firm" and arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction." He commissions us to develop a stronger relationship with Jesus which can be done by spending more time with him in prayer, by reflection on the Gospels...perhaps a chapter a day...or even a few verses, mulled over and digested with the question in mind, "what does this tell me about HIM?" Jose Pagola's book, Jesus, an Historial Approximation, which I have mentioned before, is an excellent resource for meeting Jesus, as I found, for the first time. Asking Mary to "show us her Son", to give us her Son could be part of this prayer. Seeing him in the lives of other people, a place sometimes overlooked, but by taking time to see what is GOOD in another person, will help us meet him in them..
As our relationship with Jesus grows, it then behooves us to share it with others: "to PROFESS" it by our lives and words. If people see us acting like Jesus, it has to make an impact on them, for the actions of Jesus were so unconventional, so "on the other side" of current practice in his day, that they drew the crowds to him by the thousands. Reflection on his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well is an excellent example of his defiance of accepted custom for the sake of the person in front of him: talking with a woman, and a "despised" Samartian at that, along with his loving outreach to her heart without condemnation. No wonder she ran for joy to tell the townspeople that she had met the Messiah. May we someday (soon) be able to have such an effect on those we deal with every day.
Bro. Rene
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