A Summons to Converse with Christ
During the second week of February, the vast majority of the priests of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester gathered together for a time of retreat. The theme of the retreat was “The Conversations of Jesus”, and the retreat master led us through a handful of episodes from the Scriptures that depict Jesus in dialogue with various interlocutors. Needless to say, we were not able to explore every conversation of Jesus that appears in the Gospel accounts; such an endeavor would require a retreat considerably longer than just five days. Still, I would hazard the claim that we came away with a renewed appreciation for the deftness and care with which Jesus engages those he encounters, inviting them to a richer experience of the Father’s love and the freedom which that love brings to birth in the human heart.
These liberating and life-giving encounters between Jesus and others did not come to a close at his Ascension. While we may not be able to engage Jesus directly and immediately in the same way that his contemporaries could, he remains powerfully active and present in our lives, our Church, and our world through the power of the Holy Spirit. From his place at the Father’s right hand, Jesus gazes upon each and every one of us with compassion and care, inviting us to a one-on-one conversation with him. The season of Lent, which has recently begun, provides us with a rich summons to either begin or continue that conversation in order to savor the Lord’s tenderness, honestly acknowledge our need for conversion, and receive his healing mercy.
One of the obstacles that can sometimes impede an authentic conversation with Jesus is the fear that we may be merely “faces in the crowd,” quasi-anonymous members of a massive sea of humanity. And so we may find ourselves wondering if the Lord of the entire cosmos is really all that interested in “my” very particular and individual journey, especially given that “I” am just one amongst however many members of the human family to ever inhabit this earth. When I find that sense of anonymity creeping into my own heart, I find great comfort in a marvelous saying of Augustine in which he addresses God and describes him as “caring for each one of us as though the only one in your care” (Confessions III.xi.19, Chadwick translation). After all, it is this very same God who saw fit to bring each of us into being under the very particular circumstances which mark our earthly journeys, and so it is not that unreasonable to suppose that he might be somewhat attentive to this project which he himself initiated!
As we continue our Lenten journeys, I encourage all of us—myself most definitely included—to be attentive to the conversation which Jesus wishes to have with us. Admittedly, we might sometimes drift or get distracted; after all, that’s a common enough occurrence in our more everyday conversations, as well. But just as anyone who genuinely cares for us is eager to see us re-engage, so all the more does Jesus himself wait with patience and perhaps even expectation to receive us whenever we take the time to put ourselves in his presence and receive from his abundance.
