Jesus as a Person

How many people here would say they had a relationship with God?

Had you asked me that question 5 years ago, I would have had to honestly tell you that I didn't know if I had one or not. I mean, what does that mean, a "Personal relationship" with God?

When I was in High School, I used to go to various youth group type things where we would sing songs to God- Songs like "I Love you Lord" "and "Father, I want you to hold me" and "Wrap your strong arms around me" and frankly, I wouldn't want to sing it, since I wasn't sure if that was true. I loved the stuff of God- I loved reading the Bible and going to youth group and praying- I thought all that stuff was fun and exciting and drenched in meaning. But people would say things about a personal relationship with God, and I had to admit- I didn't have one.

After High School I went to the John Paul II Bible School where I learned that 'We are all called to be Saints' (Mother Teresa). There I decided that I wanted to be a saint. After that I started spending some real time in prayer- like an hour everyday, plus Mass. Because I wanted to be a Saint. After a couple of years I even joined the seminary, because I thought if I was gonna be a saint then the best way to do that was to be a priest.

Eventually, though, I thought I was being called to leave the Sem, and I figured that that was OK, as long as I kep getting holier.

So even after spending time in the seminary, I still didn't get it. What was everyone talking about when they talked about a personal relationship with God? I didn't feel like I knew God- Like He was a person at all.

I started wonndering if maybe this idea of a personal relationship was a protestant idea. Maybe it was just a bunch of emotionalism. There's a really cool website called EWTN.com which answers your questions about stuff like this. So I wrote them this question "Where in the Bible is the concept of a personal relationship with God? Is this biblical, or is it a historical development?"

Their answer? "Jesus died for you. How much more personal does it get?"

I was mad!

Later I realized that the Pope, JPII at the time, certainly jhad a relationship with God. And as I read the lives of the Saints, they had relationships with God. And after all, the first commandment was to Love God- not just obey Him! Love implies a relationship!

This is the difference between Christians and Muslims. The word Muslim means "One who submits." To be a Christian means to have a relationship with the person who is God. The problem was, I was trying to get holy, not because of love of God, but for the sake of holiness itself. In short, I had made holiness my God! as for Jesus, I thought he was a means to an end. That means I believed in God because I thought God could help me to accomplish my goal of holiness.

But no person can ever morally be a means to an end.

St Paul compares the spiritual journey to running a race. In a race you have to look where you are going. You can't spend your time looking behind you at where you came from. And you can't keep looking down at yourself and checking what it is you are doing to get where you want to be. You keep your eyes on the goal.

And the goal is God, a person. Everything we do should be done for the love of God- not for some other reason. Not even to become better men. I have asked a lot of you about what virtues you are working on right now. It's great if you work on virtues- but know this, no matter how obedient and charitable and joyful and dilligent and respectful and courageous you are- you are nothing without the love of God.

Many of you also have a prayer life- maybe you pray a certain amount every day. Good for you. But do you really talk to God? Do you really listen? Or do you just rattlke off some formula of a prayer?

A relationship with god is no different than that with any other person. reading about Him wont do the trick- and learning about Him, and even doing good things for Him- these will never give you a relationship with Him if you never spend time in genuine, open dialogue.