I just know

I don’t have a memory of the day I was told that God exists.  I’m not even sure anyone did tell me.  In my heart, I just know that He’s always been with me.  The human heart, a person’s deepest self, is where God has written his covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  How else do we know, seemingly by instinct, that there is a God?  And why do we turn to our Creator in times of distress or sadness?  

It's because God has written His names (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) on our hearts since before we were born (Jeremiah 1:5).  Consider a newborn baby.  He (or she) isn’t "taught" to look for his mother's breast when he's hungry.  He just knows that’s the source of his nourishment.  Or how does she know which woman is her mother in a crowd of mothers?  By the special "scent" that is a bond between mother and child.  If you think about these things, you just know they’re true.

It’s the same with knowing that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He’s truly present in each of us.  Even atheist have to make a choice to ignore this instinctive knowledge.  When Jesus was with the Apostles and asked them, "Who do people say that I am?", they replied that some thought He was John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others thought He was one of the other prophets.  But when He asked his friends, who knew Him best, "Who do YOU say that I am?", Peter blurted out "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!"  This was revealed to Peter by God, according to Jesus. (Luke 9, 18-24).  And it was.  But it’s also been revealed to each of us through Scripture and Tradition.  Even without Scripture and Tradition, as in my own personal experience, if one really searches their heart they know this to be true.  

Do we know Jesus as the Christ?  Do we think Jesus is human?  Divine?  A symbol?  An example?  Might I suggest we all take a moment and imagine that Jesus is asking us, “Who do you say that I am?”

My answer to the question of who Jesus is has been evolving the past few years.  Today, I would say that, primarily, I am in relationship with the Christ within, calling me to transformation and union.  I am being invited to let go of my false self and move to a place of functioning out of my True Self.  Another way to so say this is to turn my whole self toward God, the Christ within.  

Once we can name who we think Jesus is, we can then begin to consider what that means for our lives.  What difference will knowing Jesus make in our life?  Jesus suggested to Peter that it was going to get hard, the journey was going to have moments and times of great suffering.  Peter balked at this (Mark 8:27-35).  How do we balk at times of suffering in our lives?  As we travel our spiritual journey toward the Christ within, it will get hard sometimes.  Our friends and family won’t necessarily be encouraging us to embrace change.  Change itself is difficult.  The world wants us to be of the world and live out of our egos accumulating more money, more things, more friends, more status.  The Christ within calls us to simplicity, less, dependence and union with god, a life of living with and for others.  Will we balk or will we surrender?

Jesus encourages us to persevere, to surrender.  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”   He’s asking us to let go of our egotistic desires and to live out of the place of the Christ within, not out of the world.