An encounter with Christ

That’s what Christian life is all about. It’s actually meeting him and following him as best as we can. It’s not just a matter of acting on an idea or a theory, no matter how good and ‘holy-sounding’ an idea and a theory are. It’s engaging with Christ in vivo, dealing with him live.

That we can meet Christ live is no gratuitous, baseless presumption. Whether we like it or not, believe in it or not, the fact is that Christ told his apostles that “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28,20)

He is actually everywhere, because he is not only man but also God in the first place. As God he is omnipresent, not only in a passive way, but in a most active way. We just have to learn to adapt ourselves to this assertion of Christ by exercising our faith.

It may also be pointed out that we would find ourselves most of the time awkward and unprepared to always be with Christ. Some of us may even say that having Christ with us always would undermine our identity and our privacy, etc.

We should not worry so much about these apprehensions because Christ, for his part, will always understand us no matter how we are and is all too willing to adapt himself to us.

Let’s not forget that he gives special attention to the weak, the sick and the lost. He is very compassionate with them. For our sake, he made himself like man without committing sin. He has borne all our sins by dying on the cross. He came not to condemn but to save us.

We can say that he is most lenient with us. But at the same time, he is also most strict, because he himself said that if we want to follow him, we have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and then follow him.

We just have to do our best to make these two seemingly contrary attitudes of Christ toward us compatible with each other. These contrasts are due to the tension between our nature and the supernatural goal we are asked to aim for. They are made sharper by the consequences of our sin that produces a tension between the unnatural and the supernatural.

If we just try to be as simple and humble as the apostles and the other disciples of Christ, we can manage to live with this tension without much worry. Christ will always understand us and will take the initiative to make things attainable by us.

The important thing is to have a living encounter with Christ. This can be done if we exercise our faith to the fullest, taking care of its fundamental requirements like studying the doctrine of our faith, getting to know the details of Christ’s life and redemptive work by habitually reading the gospel, availing of a certain plan that would keep our piety alive in all situations.

The important thing is to exert the effort and to try our best, even if our best can always be better and even if we continue to make mistakes along the way. As long as we continue to move on, learning how to begin and begin again, as often as necessary, then Christ can be alive in us and we can manage to follow him.

In the end, we can hope that where he is, we can also be, as he himself promised and assured us.