{"id":20656,"date":"2022-05-19T09:10:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T14:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=20656"},"modified":"2022-05-19T09:19:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T14:19:06","slug":"a-friendship-with-jesus-yes-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/a-friendship-with-jesus-yes-really\/","title":{"rendered":"A Friendship with Jesus? Yes Really."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I remember a long time ago, part of my seminary preparation sent me to a summer chaplain school in a large county hospital in Dallas, Texas. There were 13 in our chaplain class, twelve Southern Baptists\/Assembly of God and one Catholic (me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would meet daily for intensive meetings about the patients we were working with and then we\u2019d break for lunch. It was during our lunches that we\u2019d learn more about each other and what our personal faith traditions taught. You can imagine the attention the Catholic guy got!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments like:, \u201cYou Catholics like statues!\u201d Or, \u201cYou worship Mary.\u201d Or, \u201cthe Pope is as important as Jesus.\u201d Or, \u201cJust go to mass and you go straight to heaven, right?\u201d But the one question that we spent most of our time on was, \u201cDo Catholics accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior?\u201d \u201cDid you accept him, Tim?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It really made me step out of my Catholic world to see what these Baptist classmates knew in their bones as little children . . . \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus.\u201d A real, living, present person . . . my friend Jesus. \u201cYes\u201d, I said, but they made me dig deep inside to realize this friendship<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Catholics are a little slow to answer \u201chave I accepted Jesus into my life\u201d? \u201cDo you mean, do I love God? Of course I do. I go to mass. I say my prayers. I try to live right. Does that mean I have a personal relationship with Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would say \u201cyes\u201d. You\u2019ve got the basics covered there .. loving and serving a God we cannot see. However, I think the question goes a bit further than that, asking in a sense, is this relationship with Christ PERSONAL? Does it bear the signs of a friendship? Is there a familiarity with Jesus that one would have with a friend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there times when there is an emotional level to your speaking with God? (For example: \u201cLord, you know I can\u2019t do this. (I can\u2019t forgive, I\u2019m tired of trying, I don\u2019t want to turn away from some habit. I\u2019m sick and tired of . . .!!!\u201d That\u2019s a personal relationship.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

What if I don\u2019t recognize these feelings in my relationship with Christ? Have I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior? Don\u2019t be too hard on yourself. Remember, you HAVE a relationship with Christ. It\u2019s GIVEN to you in baptism. You are a child of God and you are invited to call God your Father. It\u2019s a gift. Accept it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other personal feeling stuff comes naturally to anyone who loves God and tries to do what is good. If my chaplain friends had asked me, \u201cdo you always FEEL Christ\u2019s friendship?\u201d I would have to answer \u201cno\u201d. Feelings come and go. There are times when we are filled with affections toward those we love. At other times things feel dry and everyday. There is nothing wrong with that. It\u2019s just how life is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is one infallible way to determine whether we have a personal relationship with Jesus \u0016 \u0016 \u0016 \u0016 how do we treat our neighbor in need? Why is this the measure (and not some spiritual feeling)? Because Jesus said so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs often as you (fed, clothed, visited, comforted) these little ones, you did it for me.\u201d Matthew 25:31ff.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhoever has not loved a brother\/sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.\u201d 1 John 4:20<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Christ takes it PERSONALLY when we care for our neighbor. Kindness to them is kindness TO ME says the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loving our neighbor is essential to having a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God bless you and meet you in these spring days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember a long time ago, part of my seminary preparation sent me to a summer chaplain school in a large county hospital in Dallas, Texas. There were 13 in our chaplain class, twelve Southern Baptists\/Assembly of God and one Catholic (me). We would meet daily for intensive meetings about the patients we were working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20665,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656\/revisions\/20665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}