Knowing Jesus - July 9, 2006
by Fr.Gus Carter

Jesus own friends and relatives reject Him because they think they know him. I recall a remark made under several circumstances: "As soon as you label someone, you are making sure that you will not be able to really know that person." The evidence is that for most of his life Jesus lived an ordinary human life. He was known as the carpenter's son. How could he be anything special? Jesus was a Galilean and a Nazarene. In Jesus nation such people were considered backward. Not much was expected of them. They were a joke among their own people. In John's Gospel we read of Nathaniel, also know as the Apostle Bartholomew, saying, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Those who listened to Jesus and spent time with him eventually came to realize that Jesus is God's descent into human history. The Creator of the universe sent His Son to come among humans to save them. He came to share in our condition, even to the extremity of the cross. Jesus is the ultimate divine miracle.

If we learn to be fully open to receive the gifts Jesus brings, we will discover what God is like, and we will find out what it means to be fully human. Jesus' words and actions reveal to us God's work on behalf of His creation. Jesus is the visible way to contact the mystery of God. For example, when Jesus welcomes sinners, it is God who welcomes them; when Jesus shows love for humans, it is God who is loving them.
The best way to know Jesus Christ is be imitating him. This is certainly a situation in which we learn by doing. The historical life of Jesus is the fullest revelation of the Christian God. Paying attention to Jesus gives final point and purpose to each of our lives. Anyone who really knows Jesus is attracted to him. We humans are made for God. Hence, we have the potential to be Godlike. Jesus stirs up in us our natural desire to be like God. The Gospels were written to keep alive through time the reality that Jesus started. From within ourselves we are challenged to be like Jesus. In following Jesus we ask ourselves: is hope wiser than giving in to fate? Is love more humanizing than egoism? Is giving one's life better than keeping it to oneself? Is the mystery of God ultimate happiness or nonsense?

Doing something Christ-like is how we most deeply experience grace. We experience our power to do good. Jesus lived the truth and faced it honestly. Because he was dedicated to the truth, he saw the world the way God made it. He saw through the fraudulent lives of those who abused the unwitting in the name of religion. Jesus favored the "little ones" of the world, those who were poor and oppressed. We find deep-seated mercy in all his actions. Mercy shaped how Jesus acted. It directed his life and made it mercifully effective.

Imitating Jesus enables us to sense the inner dimension of his person, the faith, hope and love that animated his life. Thomas Aquinas summarized the teaching of the Church Fathers when he said that we come to understand God be acing in God-like ways. When we begin to understand what is most real in Jesus, when we begin to have a feeling for what Jesus would do in particular circumstances, we are living life in the Spirit of Jesus.

Committing ourselves to act like Jesus declares that he is our Messiah and Savior. We are enacting God's plan that we be His sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of Jesus. The best way to experience God as Father is through faith in Jesus and by being practicing disciples. If it is God's plan, then it is possible for us to live Christ-like lives. Being a Christian in the last analysis means being like Jesus. In the Letter to the Hebrews we are told in times of tribulation and persecution, "Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus." Reading the account of Jesus' life in the Gospels provides the best way to give truth and substance to our faith and encouragement to our lives. We must make Jesus himself the "good news" by which we live.