We are but a choice away from finding Christ

We are but a choice away from finding Christ

The question that always confounds us is how much do you really know Christ.  Can you remember when as a child preparing for your first Holy Communion?  Learning the prayers that later in life are so familiar, and getting ready for that special day when your and your classmates would walk together down the aisle in the Church to receive Jesus for the first time.  The days we spent going over the mechanics of processing and making sure we were ready to meet the Lord.

Even though this was our second sacrament it was one that should make a difference in the life of a Roman Catholic.  What makes this so special is it somehow represents one of several graduating levels of increasing our understanding of God’s presence with each of us and perhaps presents a know-it-all attitude that placed us on an expert dimension about God.

Of course that didn't occur and as we continued making our way through Confirmation we felt that now I know Christ and all there is about his life for me.  It appears that the more we learn regarding the reason for and the manner these questions are uncovered about Christ, the Church, and questions regarding church doctrines and our adherence to everything, we can become confused with trying to discern our role as Christian believers.  

After spending years of study and employing our tireless efforts to open the books of hidden examples on Church teachings we begin to see that everything is not always as it appeared in our adolescence.  One thing is certain, the more we learn about God the more we realize we have just begun to understand God’s complexity of his Spirituality. 

At each step through the sacraments when the answers regarding God seemed to be complete in our minds we found the knowledge about them was just beginning.   During our seminary education my class discovered how much we really did not know and how far removed from theological premises and even the intent of Scripture that opened a world of wisdom was just opening to us.

I probably mentioned this before in other writings but, once we have some semblance of understanding hidden truths about God and the Church, we now have accepted a responsibility to teach others who may not know these facts.  Within that responsibility it now places us with the mandate of teaching with the requirement of accountability as well.  If one willingly accepts the gift of knowledge, as in Holy Orders, our agreement to teach what we have is rather strict and compelling.  

Everything any of us has learned about God stands as a requirement to share with someone else.  That is called evangelization using what level our learning entails and makes that choice of reaching out in what limited giftedness we have in our ability to share Christ.  No one is expected to teach theology if that isn’t our gift, or explain the depth of doctrine.  However, God’s gifts come in many realms and the most uneducated person may have a simple gift of greeting people and sharing human traits of love.  Each step is a choice and we all shall be held accountable.  In life the Lord gives each person a task of reaching some or many persons with his Truth.  That Truth lies within the Spirit of God that resides within our soul and every choice we make will get us closer the the essence of Christ who came to forgive us and those we reach out to.

Ralph B. Hathaway