How do you know?

Today as I was driving in to work I was listening to one of the CD’s I have concerning the Catholic Faith. This particular CD was on the Eucharist and the true presence of Jesus in. The presenter asked the question “Do you believe that Jesus is God?” seems like a simple question really, I mean all Christians would respond “YES”. Really a no brainer if you ask me. Except he went on to ask “Why, Why do you believe Jesus is God?” Now it got a little tougher. Regardless to the response, he had a comeback, something to shoot down your response.

“Because the bible tells me so” …. “The Muslims have a bible, the Koran, and they don’t say Jesus is God”

“Because he preformed miracles” … “People perform miracles today, are they God?”

And so on, there was a comeback to each and every reason that Jesus is God, except one. There is one reason that we know Jesus is God.

“Because I know him”

That’s it, one simple statement of knowing him, think about it, that really is the only reason that is needed, and the only reason the truly proves Jesus is God. It is through knowing him that we understand that he is God.

We can learn all that there is to know about Jesus, we can quote the bible all day long and even know all the rules of the Church, but unless we know Him, unless we have a relationship with him, we will never know that Jesus is God.

I know a few people who can tell me all the facts about Jesus, quote the bible to me and even the Catechism of the Catholic Church or other Church documents, but that in-of-it-self does not mean they know Jesus is God. Intellectually they may, but personally they may not.

In a world that is based on doing more having more and being more, it is hard to take the time to truly know anyone. We text each other, send email’s and chat on line, all fine forms of communication, but really not the same as a face to face. We pencil in 30 minutes for our friends to have coffee, than we are off to some other scheduled event. We allow the Holy Mass to take up one hour on a Sunday, as long as it does not interfere with too many other events in our daily life.

Our children are scheduled to the max, with no real free time; we taxi them from place to place, and event to event with no real time to be with their peers. Than we wonder why we have a generation of youth that cannot integrate in to our society, can’t get along and display anti-social behavior.

We work jobs that demand more time, more effort along with our family life and what social life we may have. So it is no wonder that most of us do not truly know Jesus. When do we have the time? We can’t IM him or text him. And that hour we spend at Mass on Sunday, well we have other things on our minds, we are thinking about all the stuff we could be doing besides sitting here, wasting our time.

To get to know anyone we have to invest in them, we have to take the time to know them, but more importantly we have to want to know them. So many it seems that they feel knowing Jesus should be automatic. Almost life a prize, I attend Church every week, so therefore I should know Him. But like anything in life, knowing Jesus takes work, and lots of it.

Attending Mass is not like a rewards card, you don’t earn points for each “Church event” you attend. Attending Mass should be like the 30 minutes you spent with a friend over coffee. We attend Mass to be with Jesus in a very special way. We attend Mass so we can be with others who also believe as we do and want to be with Jesus. But more importantly we attend Mass so that we may truly receive Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist that we will truly know Jesus is God; it is in the Eucharist that we commune with God on a personal level like no other. But we must believe this, we must want it and we must truly love.

The Catholic Church is blessed to have the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, no other Church can lay claim to this, we, as Catholics, have the true Body, Blood and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ with us, here on earth, and all we have to do is believe. WOW, let me state that one more time,  , we, as Catholics, have the true Body, Blood and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ with us, here on earth, and all we have to do is believe. Think about that for a few minutes.

You want to truly get to know Jesus; you want to truly know that Jesus is God, than take some time to spend with Him. Lent is here, we are called to prayer, fasting and alms giving. Lent is a time of reflection and a deep conversion of our heart. Lent calls us back to Him who died for us, Lent is a time to renew our faith and to reclaimed it as our own. This Lent pencil in some time with Jesus, spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, have a cup of tea with Jesus in deep prayer or attend daily mass if you can.

We seem to find time for ballgames and our favorite TV shows, surly we can find time to get to know our Lord Jesus Christ. Any moment you can spend with Jesus is a moment with God, a moment with love itself.  

Jesus is God, and I only know this because I know Him, I spend time with Him and allow Him to spend time with me. Jesus is God…

Paul