Monday, July 1, 2013

Personal Relationship with Jesus: An Insider's View


This guest post was written by Chris Patterson, a good friend, longstanding Young Life leader, and practicing attorney in Kansas City, MO:

Several years ago, I had a wonderful conversation with the Catholic mother of one of my Young Life kids. “I appreciate what Young Life is doing for my daughter,” she said. “The Catholic Church does a good job of helping us have a relationship with the Church. But Young Life does a good job of helping kids have a relationship with Jesus.”

As a Protestant at the time, I appreciated her words. In fact, I had a bit of an honest arrogance about how well our ministry does at helping kids personally know Jesus!  I even found her statement to be true of various Protestant denominations.  My two thoughts were: “What good is it to have a relationship with the church if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus?” and “There are a lot of Catholics and Protestants who don’t have a clue as to what it means to have a ‘personal relationship with Jesus’.”

Then I became Catholic. Things always look different from the inside. In the Catholic Church I found wonderful Christians with strong, personal relationships with Jesus. I also found some who looked confused when I mentioned the concept.

During my journey to Catholicism, I read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (BTW, if you ever want to REALLY KNOW what Catholics believe, in depth and beauty, the CCC is well worth reading). Divided into four parts, Part Four, on Prayer, begins:

"Great is the mystery of the faith!" The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles' Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. That relationship is prayer.[1]

I was delighted! And excited!  The Catechism of the Catholic Church was telling me that Catholic stuff – what we believe, the way we worship and the life we live in Christ – MUST flow out of a living relationship with Him! Sounded pretty Young Life-ish to me!

At the same time, I saw how the Catholic Church helped me understand faith, gave me access to sacramental power to worship well, and helped me to live and love like Jesus. All of that flowed out of relationship with Jesus, but it also made a relationship with Jesus possible!  I started to understand that I needed a personal relationship with the Body as well as the Head!

Even though the Catechism clearly teaches us about relationship with God, why does the concept sometimes seem to be a well-kept secret in the Catholic Church?
The answer is complex. But, I know this: We Catholics need to learn…

1)     to talk to Catholics (kids and adults) about relationship with Christ,
2)    in language and ways that they can understand,
3)    through relationships with each other,
4)    recognizing that we need to earn the right to be heard.

Young Life does this well, and can help us learn. In doing so, we all will grow in our relationship with the Body, as well as the Head.



            [1]  CCC, 2558. 

12 comments:

  1. I remember several wonderful conversations with Chris on his journey to the Catholic Church. I think the "relationship with the Church" and "relationship with Jesus" is an outstanding place to grasp the concept of visible image of our "invisible" God and the vision that sacrament gives us insight into the mystery of God; the Church is our visible image (sacrament) of the life and work of Jesus!

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    1. Nice insight, Al! Couldn't have said it better myself! And, I still appreciate your help in my journey to the Catholic Church! Thank you, again!

      In His love,
      Chris

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  2. Thanks for posting-it's great to find Catholics discovering or rediscovering Christ in the Church.

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement, Allan.
      August 4 is the 6th anniversary of my wife and I coming into full communion with the Catholic Church. What a great day!
      Chris

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  3. Great post! From my experience I would say that your perspective represents a small minority of the Catholic church.
    I grew up steeped in Catholic tradition (church, family, school, confirmation, etc) but became a believer at Castaway Club. From my perspective the vast majority of Catholics have almost no concept of a personal relationship with King Jesus and would struggle, at best, to share their faith. I left the Catholic church a few years after becoming a believer. I lead Young Life for many years and would have felt uncomfortable bringing a new believer to a Catholic church.

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    1. Phil,
      Interesting perspective! I brought up my post in a Catholic Bible study last night on consoling the heart of Jesus, and the concept of having a personal relationship with Jesus. All 10 of them there were both comfortable with the concept and clearly identified themselves as having such a relationship! But they did appreciate the fact that such a relationship is not always in our Catholic vocabulary. I think your Catholic experience, in part, highlights what I am saying. We Catholics need to do a better job of both communicating the concept, and showing how essential it is. BTW, as you look at what Pope Francis has been teaching, you will see that he resonates with the message that we can and must know Jesus personally. Check out a report on his June 25 homily: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/god-calls-each-christian-personally-pope-says/

      Glad you came to faith in Jesus, and sorry that you never made the "connect" between that wonderful faith and what the Catholic Church has to offer to grow that faith stronger.

      Blessings on your journey!

      In His love,
      Chrispy

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    2. Thanks for your reply. I should have also mentioned that I do know people who are Catholic, like yourself, who know what they believe, why they believe it, and have a strong desire to tell people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I also recognize that most of my time in the Catholic church was spent as an unbeliever. I'm sure that the Gospel was presented to me in a lot of different ways, at a lot of different times, but it was foolishness to me and my untransformed heart.
      I look forward to your future contributions!

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    3. Thanks, Phil! I hope Michael gives me the chance to contribute more to the discussion!
      Chrispy

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  4. Thank you Chris! I'm grateful to be your friend; and my own faith has been stretched, encouraged and deepened through that friendship! Blessings to you.

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    1. And thank YOU, Brett! You have deeply impacted my life as well, my brother!
      Chrispy

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  5. Chris! My heart really resonates with your words! I'm a life-long-Catholic who "got it" about Jesus through CRHP (Christ Renews His Parish), and then grew by leaps and bounds through Young Life. (I happened to have 5 boys, ages 3-18 at the time, and would have lost my mind w/o YL!)The YL leaders "came alongside" me in my season of overwhelm, and loved me while they taught me about healthy parenting. Today, those boys are ages 34-49 and our relationships with them are solid, which I pray will lay the foundation for their relationships with Jesus. Thank God for Young Life! And thank God for Michael's work with our church! God bless you both....Mary

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  6. Thanks, Mary. Your story gives us an example of an effective Catholic program already in place that helped you connect with Jesus. And it gives a wonderful example of Young Life helping a Catholic grow. I appreciate your testimony!
    In His love, Chris

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Thanks so much for your input. I pray that this dialogue may be a blessing to you personally and to the ministry you exercise in Christ.

Michael