A call to relationship with Jesus

As I was driving Lily home from school the other day, we were discussing (as we often do) “religion things”. She said she wondered what it would have been like to see Jesus back when He was alive. I didn't answer that He is, in fact, still alive today, but not in the same way as 2000 years ago. I don't think that is what she wanted to know. I think what she was asking was “Wouldn't it have been great to meet and travel with Jesus as He walked from town to town and witness all of His miracles first-hand?”

I'm beginning to think Lily is a Jesuit at heart. One of their spiritual exercises is to place oneself into the gospel as a first-hand witness and meditate on how it affects our lives today. I sometimes try this exercise myself and often I find myself lacking in faith and practice of my beliefs.

So the accounts of those who did walk with and talk with Jesus on a one-to-one basis every day get my “meditative juices” flowing. Today is the feast of St. Bartholomew (otherwise known as Nathaniel), one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus.

I’m in awe of how easy it was for those first followers to come to a knowledge and faith in Jesus. With John the Baptist’s brief testimony, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” Jesus begins to gather an interested group who in turn invite others. They all drop what they are doing and, curious, they follow Him.

Nathaniel is the only skeptical one, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathaniel likes to lay it on the line, and one gets the impression that he has both an innocence and a sardonic wit that would have made him the guy who everybody wanted as a dinner guest. Jesus, upon hearing of Bartholomew's statement, immediately embraced him as one of the inner circle. Bartholomew's straightforward and clear-eyed observation allowed him to straddle that boundary between innocence and experience that helps each of us best serve God. As Jesus Himself tells us, "Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves," (Matthew 10:16) and He gives us Bartholomew as the example of this behavior.

Philip replies with the invitation, “Come and see”. Nathaniel, easily impressed because Jesus anticipated his coming, eagerly follows—effortless, uncomplicated and undemanding.

Surely the early disciples came to faith the way we do… over a long period of time, imperfectly, eager one minute, hesitant the next; hearts full of doubt and full of hope; a history of broken promises and re-commitment.

Accepting an invitation to relationship is not easy. We long for the life that Jesus promises, but we carry the hurts and heartbreak of human relationships. Can we take the risk? Is our desire for fullness of life greater than our need to hold onto our wounds, the battle scars of human relationships? How is Jesus inviting me into relationship through the circumstances and people of my life? I say it often—we won’t know unless we are open-minded, listening, and looking.

Here are some questions to consider:
Is there anyone in my life who sees something greater in me than I can see in myself? Do I trust him or her? If I believe what they see in me is true, how do I use those gifts for the greater good of my community? Or to serve God?

Jesus invited Nathaniel into relationship… Who is inviting me to a deeper relationship? Who is inviting me to greater love, greater hope, greater compassion and greater life? Is it a family member? A neighbor? A stranger? The Holy Spirit?

Jesus promises that Nathaniel will see even greater things -- that Jesus himself will unite the heavens and the earthly, reveal the presence of the eternal within the temporal -- that all may know that the goodness and compassion of God are now carried in us, in our humanity and our everyday, mortal world.

So my answer to Lily's innocent question of wouldn't it have been great to be in a one to one relationship with Jesus is yes! But we can still have that relationship with Him through the Eucharist. The kingdom is among us!