Have You Given Your Life to Jesus?

Have you given your life to Jesus?  That is truly an important question, but a positive answer to that question is like Baptism, only a start on the life-long path to BE LIKE Jesus, as we will fully attain in heaven.  And that journey, from a commitment to change to a happy ending, is a long one, one that many fail at, many fall along the way, and many get lost.  There are remarkable saints who have made that journey alone --- well, alone except for the grace of God, which is no small support --- but most of us need help for the journey.  We need friends on the same journey.  We need to grow our minds, to educate ourselves how and most importantly why to make this journey, from our own earthly woes and cares, to His.

The call to visible, group commitment is seen early in Scripture when Moses tells the Jews to mark their doorposts so the angel of death might pass them by.  Why did God ask them (through Moses) to do that?  Didn’t He know where His people lived?  He did it to have them participate in His saving actions; they did it together; He didn’t dictate it.  It was a visible commitment to Him, but it was also visible for them to see among each other.  Why do sacraments all have us come forward, to voice participation and commitment in front of our community?  Couldn’t God just forgive us our sins, give us graces, hear us when we pray our commitments to Him?  Why must we even go to church, or even get out of bed?  Couldn’t He do all of His wonders while we laid back?  Of course He could; He is God --- but we are not.  That is why we need the visible commitments, to support each other in our journeys; we need to grow more like Him, so that we might at some point say like Paul “It is not I but Christ who lives within me.”  We need friends for the journey, for “where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am there.”  We need to join groups to support us, to walk with us.

Our journey is never to late to start, but we must also be diligent in helping the young in their start.  The personal verbal commitment to “give your life to Jesus” is not unlike the commitment a child might make to his parents to always go to church on Sunday.  But as studies now show, a huge portion of young people entering college never go to church on Sunday again, not even on that first college weekend!  Any earlier commitments to Jesus or to their parents are quickly forgotten when they are alone (as even some adults feel).  Many commitments the young made as children are quickly forgotten when they become, or feel, totally in control of their lives.  For the first time, freedom!  Freedom to do what they want, and to experiment, to try to figure out what that is.  And for many, what they want is freedom itself, to do anything they want with no one telling them of consequences.  That “I give my life to Jesus” put them on a path, but now when walking alone, it is easy to “stop and smell the roses along the way,” and to get lost in the forest of options.  In college, many drop any prior commitments they made, leaving themselves totally unprepared for life beyond college, where commitments define who you are.

It's like I wrote in an earlier blog posting, about the poor people invited to the wedding feast of the king.  They made a commitment saying they wanted to go to the king’s feast.  But that commitment to answer the king’s call is also a commitment to change --- to leave the streets where they lived “as they wanted”, to don the wedding garments to get ready for the feast, and then to get into the right mindset for the feast, to take part in the King’s joy, not just eat his food.  It is one thing to speak of a superficial commitment; it is a REAL commitment, however, to change your heart, to want to always be with the King, to always seek as your primary goal in life to please Him, to desire to be at His eternal banquet always, to turn from that “freedom to do anything I want on my street corner” to instead use that freedom to choose to be what and where He wants you to be --- always with Him.

And as with the college experience example, it is tough to go it alone, thinking freedom means “to do anything I want” versus “anything I ought to do”.  We need others to help us make and keep that commitment, to continue to stay on the path.  In most colleges there are Catholic or Christian support groups, like FOCUS.  They help young people to stay on the path by offering support and education in how to keep to The Path, and why.  But that type of support should have started long before college.  Most younger people have no relationship with Jesus, even in our parishes.  They don’t know Him or feel Him a part of their life, so it’s very easy to ignore Him when they leave home and start college.  They need to form stronger commitments to Him while younger.  We need to help them.  The doubling of young suicides in recent years shows how alone the young feel ---- despite their internet “friends” who “like” them.

I personally saw a Catholic altar call once at a weekend conference I attended.  The priest speaker was talking about vocations, and the importance of seriously, seriously asking God at some point: “What would You want me to do with my life?  Why was I created?”  Now the speaker could have said “Will you commit your life to Jesus?” and everyone would have shouted back “Yeh!” and the talk would have ended on a high note.  But what he actually did was ask “Will you commit to spend some time asking Jesus, seriously, ‘What do you want of me, Lord?’  Will you come up here, to this stage, now, and in front of all these people and make that serious commitment?  I’m not asking you to commitment to be a priest or a nun, I’m asking you to commit to seriously asking God ‘What do You want, Lord?’  Will you come up here and just make that commitment to ask God?”  It was an altar call, and well over 100 young people came up and were prayed over.  But that wasn’t the end.  The next day I saw in the various displays outside the conference auditorium some religious order displays, and I noticed some had sign-up sheets for “discernment weekends” at their religious house.  One told me they now had four weekends full, and that I could put my name on a waiting list if I wanted, until they figured out when they could hold more discernment weekends.  (Coincidently (?) I noticed on my parish bulletin board this weekend that the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist are planning 4 discernment weekends in Ann Arbor.)

There is a lack of vocations?  All someone had to do was ASK for a serious commitment to investigate vocations and provide support for those who might answer, showing them that they weren’t answering alone, and the people came forward.  We need to build support structures for all young people to learn to learn their faith, to make commitments to God, to develop a relationship with Him where they can confidently talk to Him.

I think parishes need to initiate something like that altar call, a means for young people to commit, together, that they’ll learn who Jesus is, how He really exists in the Eucharist, and how He would have them live their lives.  They need ongoing support groups as they grow up, like weekly teen nights and masses, and Catholic summer camps.  They need parish exposure --- and prayers --- that these kids are making commitments to a Catholic life, as God planned for them.  And the parish support needs to reach out and stay connected even when kids go away to college.  We need parishes that support community and family, not places where people “might” come on Sunday.

I’ve seen parishes like this.  We need to change our parishes to be like this.  We can “give our life to Jesus”, but it’s hard to walk alone.  That singular commitment is not enough, albeit a good start, to really make a difference in a life, or in this world.  It needs to be the Primary thing we teach our kids; it needs to be the primary focus of OUR lives.  Young or old, we need to know why we exist, what our life --- and sufferings --- are about.  We need to develop a relationship with Jesus.  It needs to start early, but it is never too late.

I myself echo St. Augustine’s words: “Late have I loved Thee O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new; late have I loved Thee”.

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I would strongly urge any who could, to read some of the articles in the September 1 edition of the National Catholic Register newspaper.  They should be on the Internet somewhere.  There are a number of articles on restoring belief in the Eucharist and how the Church combats the loneliness of young adults.  They are very well written.

And as for this blog post, it is only words I have had in my heart for a number of months, but there is more.  My next post will address the further parts of the journey to Christ, parts which many never attempt, but to which God calls me.  We CAN move beyond knowing Jesus --- a head knowledge --- to having Jesus in our hearts.  We can know Him as St. Paul did.