This night, as I read the meditations on today’s (Sunday’s)
Gospel in The Better Part (Meditation 109), I was struck by the beauty of the
words, explaining how we encounter Jesus through our faith, and then how He
encounters us through the Church He left us.
These are the lines which struck me most:
Christ the Teacher (He
speaks to His church)
“Do not be afraid, only have faith.” If we really learned this one lesson, it
would revolutionize our lives. Do not be
afraid of what other people think of you: follow the way of Christ. Do not be afraid of failure: following God’s
will is the only path to everlasting success.
Do not be afraid of changing your personal plans in order to follow God
more closely: his plans are even better.
Fear, confusion, lack of trust in Christ --- these are the kinds of
things that tie our souls in knots, causing untold needless suffering and keeping
us from experiencing the life-giving power of God’s grace.
Christ the Friend
(He speaks to us)
The woman with the hemorrhage knew that if she could only
touch Jesus’ cloak she would be healed. Why didn’t God cure her without her
having to touch him? And why did Jesus
go all the way to Jairus’s house and take the little girl by the hand in order
to bring her back to life? It is because
God wants to be close to us; he wants to live in friendship with us. That closeness, that friendship requires not
only spiritual contact, but physical contact as well.
The sacraments, the church buildings, the vestments, the
liturgy, the blessings, the art, the music … These are all places where we
encounter God, instruments through which he enters into the very flesh and
blood of our daily lives --- just as Jesus entered into the very flesh and
blood of the Virgin’s womb. Our God
doesn’t keep his distance; He walks by our side.
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