{"id":5557,"date":"2019-08-24T09:19:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T09:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2019-08-24T09:59:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T09:59:52","slug":"friendship-with-jesus-really-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/friendship-with-jesus-really-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendship with Jesus. Really."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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, 12 Southern Baptists\/Assembly of God and one Catholic (me). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Is there a familiarity with Jesus that one would have in a\ndear friendship? Is there at times an emotional level to\nyour speaking with God? (For example: \u201cLord you know\nI can\u2019t do this. I can\u2019t forgive, I\u2019m tired of trying, I don\u2019t\nwant to turn away from some habit. Please help me!!!\u201d\nThat\u2019s a personal relationship.)\n<\/p>\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 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\nhave a personal relationship with Jesus – – – – how do we\ntreat our neighbor in need? Why is this the measure (and\nnot some spiritual feeling)? Because Jesus said so.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fr. Tim <\/p>\n\n\n

\n

Scripture Readings for the 21 Sunday in Ordinary Time (all)<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21<\/a>
\nResponsorial Psalm: Psalm 117:1<\/a>, 2<\/a>
\nSecond Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7<\/a>, 11-13<\/a>
\nGospel: Luke 13:22-30<\/a><\/p>\n

Scripture Readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (all)<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

First Reading: Sirach 3:17-18<\/a>, 20<\/a>, 28-29<\/a>
\nResponsorial Psalm: Psalm 68:4-5<\/a>, 6-7<\/a>, 10-11<\/a>
\nSecond Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19<\/a>, 22-24a<\/a>
\nGospel: Luke 14:1<\/a>, 7-14<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\"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, 12 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-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557","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=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5564,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions\/5564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}