CATHOLICS AND A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS
As I mentioned in the last post, a great many Catholics lack a personal relationship with Jesus. In this post, I’ll explain why this is and what can be done about it.
Most Catholics are baptized as infants. Then our religious education typically takes place in Catholic schools or parish religious education classes. The curriculum for Catholic education of children is divided into at least 12 yearly sections, so our faith is carved up into different pieces depending on the age of the students. As I mentioned in my previous post, this curriculum leaves out some of the most essential elements of the Catholic faith.
My experience, which unfortunately is shared by my contemporaries and even by much younger Catholics, is that no one ever suggested, in all my formal years of Catholic education (20 years!), that I should make Jesus the center of my life, that I could have a personal relationship with Him and experience His love and His grace in a personal way. For many if not most Protestants, their primary focus is on such a personal relationship with Jesus. Many of them “accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior” in a moment when they said what is known as the “Sinners’ Prayer” or its equivalent.
The effect of all this on Catholics has been compared to a baseball diamond. Home plate represents our baptism, 2nd base represents religious education, 3rd base represents active discipleship. Catholics go from home plate directly to 2nd base, religious formation. What’s missing in the typical Catholic experience is 1st base, which represents a personal relationship with Jesus and a decision to make Him the center of our lives. Without going to 1st base, what happens at 2nd base is just information. Catholic youth learn about what Catholics believe and what they do, but without the relationship with Jesus it’s all just information, information that doesn’t inspire, doesn’t motivate, doesn’t reach the heart. And so tens of millions of Catholics leave the Church, obviously not believing that they are leaving anything valuable behind. Many of them will say, after experiencing life in a Protestant church for a time, that it’s in that Protestant church that they met Jesus.
Thankfully, there is now developing what might be called a “discipleship movement” in the Catholic Church. Many parishes are promoting full Christian discipleship. Many well-known Catholic authors have just in the last few years written books on forming disciples in the Catholic Church.
Step One in all of these discipleship efforts is focusing on the personal relationship with Jesus. Programs such as Alpha, which is offered all over the world, and Discovering Christ, offered by ChristLife, emphasize the importance of knowing Jesus, experiencing His love and making a commitment to follow Him and share Him with others. Theses resources have had a dynamic impact on Catholic parishes where they have been introduced.
There is now in the Catholic Church a focus on the kerygma. The kerygma is the joyful proclamation that Jesus Christ is a living Person to be encountered, who through His Resurrection has defeated sin and death. Catholics around the country are, many for the first time, being presented with the kerygma and prompted to embrace it and share it.
In my ministry, I frequently encourage Catholics to take adult ownership of their baptism by committing their lives to Jesus. I often lead them in reciting the Sinners’ Prayer. This is a new experience for so many of us. The Creed, which we recite at Mass, and our baptismal promises are expressions of belief but not so much expressions of commitment.
Catholics don’t need information so much as they need transformation, conversion. As Pope Saint John Paul wrote in 1990, “Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple.” It is this conversion which changes hearts and changes lives, bringing grace and joy into our lives.
NEXT: We’ll examine the relationship between Catholics and the Holy Spirit.