Tuesday, April 3, 2012

A Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ

Every Christian is called to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, even Catholics. Though the phrase "personal relationship" may seem like a Protestant term, it is perfectly apt for Catholics as well. Dietrich Von Hildebrand, a twentieth century Catholic theologian (who was a Protestant), describes a personal relationship with Christ as an emptying of oneself to Christ, allowing Christ to impart grace to the person so the person may be transformed in Christ. One way for a person to encounter Christ and develop a personal relationship with Christ is through that person's active participation in the liturgy.

Father Jean Corbon, a French Dominican friar, says that Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross was a kenosis, or an emptying of Himself. Christ emptied Himself to His Father, thus enabling Him to maintain a relationship with His Father. All Christians are called to this kenosis. Submitting yourself to God is an act which is not full of pride; rather, it is a very humbling experience. Just as Christ went to the Cross in obedience to His Father's will, so too must the Christian empty himself to the Father and humbly accept God's will in his life. Man comes to know this kenosis through his active participation in the liturgical life of the Church.

The liturgy is not the work of the people. The liturgy is God's work and man responds to this by carrying out the actions of the liturgy, both the priest and laity. The liturgical life of the Church teaches man to submit his whole self to Christ. In baptism, the person being baptized dies to himself and puts on Christ. Saint Basil the Great, the third century bishop from the East, says that man dies to himself and this is symbolized in the immersion in the Holy Water fount. Man is buried with Christ so man can rise with Christ to new life. But this death is not a physical death, it is death of a former way of life to begin a new life, a new life in Christ.

The liturgy, even at baptism, teach man that his first obedience is to God. Obedience to God, though, is an act of the free will; God does not demand obedience from His creation, rather, He gives man the option of emptying himself. The liturgy allows man to learn from his Savior's example to render his whole self to God. In the Sacrifice of the Mass, man joins his sacrifice to Christ's through the sacramentization of the priest's sacrifice. For the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrifice of the Cross are one sacrifice; it is only logical then that man unites the sacrifice of himself to Christ's Sacrifice carried out through his active participation in the liturgy.

Man is called to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Just as Christ surrendered Himself to His Father, so too does man surrender himself freely to the Father. By imitating Christ, man strengthens his relationship to Christ and becomes Christ through being Christ. Active participation in the liturgical life of the Church shows man how man can surrender himself to the Father. Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross is re-presented in Mass and man unites his sacrifice with Christ's once and for all Sacrifice. Man becomes Christ when he learns how to imitate Christ in the liturgy.  

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