Dallineation

Since starting down this path of exploring my LDS faith as well as learning more about the Catholic faith, one of my guiding mission statements has been: “I want to know God's will for me and have the faith and courage to do it.” But this morning I had the thought that maybe I need to add an additional mission statement: “I want to know which church can best help me to become more like Jesus Christ.”

This is really what it's about for me. Whatever doubts I may have about each church, whatever difficulties I may have with aspects of each church's doctrines, community, practices, policies, etc., I want – I need – to be an active participant in which ever church will help me to become more like Jesus Christ.

And it comes down to LDS or Catholic for me because I do believe that Christ organized an institutional church during his mortal ministry, gave the apostles his authority, and intended for that authority to be passed on and for the institutional church to continue. Catholics believe the authority and institution have continued to the present day. LDS believe they were lost and were restored in the 19th century by God through Joseph Smith. So that's where I'm at.

Here's the bottom line: Jesus invites all to follow him and be like him. That is all I want to do.

As I have reflected on this, I felt like listening to part of a particular episode of a Catholic apologetics podcast on EWTN, the “Called to Communion” podcast with Dr. David Anders.

Starting at the 29:23 mark, a caller asks a question about a Protestant friend who says she doesn't need to go to a particular church because she has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The caller later clarifies that this friend says she reads the Bible, prays, and that she and Jesus communicate with each other. Like she has an interpersonal dialogue with him through the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Anders – himself a convert from fundamentalist Presbyterianism – explains that there are variations of understanding of what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus ranging from direct communication like “God told me,” to using the Bible almost as a Ouija Board or Magic 8-ball. For example, praying, opening the Bible to a random page, and then finding a scripture on that page that gives them direction or inspiration relevant to their particular situation. Others feel that by praying or meditating on scripture that they have a heightened connection with God and awareness of his love.

As a lifelong LDS, all of Dr. Anders' examples in the above paragraph are accepted manifestations of “personal revelation,” and a personal relationship with Jesus is necessary to ensure this personal revelation can be available to us.

LDS are taught that this personal relationship with Jesus can be cultivated through things like daily prayer and scripture study, service to others, obedience, and binding ourselves to Christ by making covenants through priesthood ordinances.

Dr. Anders goes on to make what I think are some profoundly insightful comments on this from the Catholic perspective that have really broadened my understanding of what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He says:

Catholics absolutely believe in a personal relationship with Jesus, but here's what we mean by that. To have a personal relationship with Jesus is first and foremost to obey his teaching.

Christ said to the apostles, “go into all nations and teach them to obey what I have commanded you.” So number one, it's obedience. Anybody who claims to have a relationship with Jesus and doesn't obey his teaching doesn't have the kind of relationship that Jesus wants us to have.

Secondly, imitate his example. “Whoever wants to be my disciple has to take up his cross and follow me.”

The third one is you don't just obey his teaching. You don't just imitate his example. You actually come to have his mind. And I don't mean that he speaks little thoughts into yours. I mean that you think about reality the way Jesus thinks about it. Principally, in respect to things like sacrifice, humility, and love of the poor and the outcast.

St. Paul says this explicitly. He says, “have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. Namely, though being in very nature God, he didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing and took on the likeness of a servant, was found in human likeness and was obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” So, having a relationship with Christ means having the same mind in me that would humble myself to death on a cross in imitation of Christ. That transformation he describes as the fruit of baptism, when he says that we are baptized by Christ into his death and rise again with him into new life.

So Catholics do strive to have a relationship with Christ, but it is not the relationship of Jimmy Stewart with Harvey the Invisible Rabbit, the invisible friend that whispers in my ear. It is the relationship of a coin to a coin press. Of metal that is being molded and shaped by a mold. St. Maximus, the confessor, says it's the relationship of iron to the fire. When iron is brought into the fire, it begins to glow white hot like the fire, it begins to resemble the fire.

That's a very intimate relationship.

As I wrote in my last post, I absolutely do believe that personal spiritual practices like prayer, scripture study, meditation, etc. can and do draw us closer to Christ and are an important part of our life. Going to church and participating in the church community can also draw us to Christ. For LDS, going to the temple for ourselves and for our ancestors can draw us to Christ. But those practices in and of themselves are not our relationship with Christ, nor do they best reflect or represent that relationship.

It's so much deeper than that. It's about becoming like him, trying to do what he would do, seeking to have his mind and think about reality the way he thinks about it.

Having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is about becoming like Him, not having a conversation or visit with Him.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 134) #faith #Lent #Christianity