A New Relationship with Jesus - Fourth Sunday after Easter

Fourth Sunday after Easter (A) 11 May 2014

John 1, 1-10

José Antonio Pagola

 In Christian communities we need to experience a new relationship with Jesus by reviving the one we have with him; placing him clearly and unmistakably in the center of our lives. To move from a Jesus believed in and followed in a routine manner to a Jesus accepted as the essence of who we are. The Gospel of John makes a few important suggestions when speaking of the relationship of the sheep with their shepherd.

 The first requirement is to “listen to his voice” in all its freshness and originality. We must not mistake it for respect for traditions nor with novelty of the latest tendencies. Let us not be distracted or thrown off balance by other strange voices that, though they are heard within the Church, do not communicate the Good News.

It is important to feel called by Jesus “by our name”, to allow ourselves to be drawn to him personally; to discover slowly and with increasing joy, that no one provides answers to our most decisive problems, no one responds to our deepest longings and ultimate needs as he does. 

 It is decisive to “follow” Jesus. Christian faith does not consist in holding beliefs about Jesus, but in believing in him: by living a life of trust in the person he is, being inspired by his way of life, directing the course of our lives by his clearly and with responsibility.

 It’s crucial to live our lives having Jesus “before us”: not to live our lives all on our own; to know for once , even though it be roughly close to the reality, that it is possible to live life in all its depth; in the depths of the experience of the God offered us in Jesus, more humane, more friendly, intimate and more saving than all our theories make him out to be.

 This vital relationship with Jesus is not born automatically in us. It goes on being awakened in us in a fragile, unnoticed manner. At the beginning, it’s almost only in desire. Generally, it grows full of doubts, questions, and resistance. But, somehow, there comes a time in which contact with Jesus begins to decisively leave its stamp on our lives.

 I am convinced that the future of the faith among us is being decided in large measure in the consciousness of those of us who here and now feel we are Christians. Now itself, faith is being renewed or it is being extinguished in our parishes and communities, in the hearts of the priests and faithful that form them. 

 Unbelief begins to penetrate our lives the very moment in which our relationship with Jesus weakens, or remains dormant through routine, indifference, or neglect. That is why Pope Francis is aware that we “need to create spaces that motivate and heal... places to regenerate faith in Jesus. We must heed his call.

- Translated by Rev. Fr. Valentine de Souza