Encounter, Follow, Worship, Share

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

What would make Peter, Andrew, James and John drop everything and follow Jesus?

They more than met him – They encountered him.

An encounter stops you in your tracks.  It grabs your attention – and oftentimes, it changes your life.

My Encounter with a black bear.

Whenever I walked that logging road again, I was also more alert – more watchful – I always scanned the horizon as far out as I could see and I was always just a little uneasy.

My first encounter with Jesus was on a retreat when I was 17 ½ years old.

Through the talks, and the music, and the prayer, I encountered Jesus in a powerful way.  I left there knowing that I was called to serve Jesus through His Church in some way – I didn’t know how – but I knew it was what I was meant to do.

Oh, there have been many encounters since:

• Mission work in Easter Kentucky
• Deciding to ask my wife to marry me
• The death of our son, Christopher
• The birth of our daughters
• People I met in my ministry with the schools
• Families I helped
• My formation as a deacon
• My ordination
• The birth of our grandchildren
• Coming here to Stella Maris

Each one of these events was an encounter with Jesus Christ. 

Each one of these changed by life forever.

That’s what happens when you encounter Jesus – your life is changed forever.

This person (me) who was living in darkness has seen a great light – as we hear in our first reading.

My darkness was not the deepest, darkest depths of despair. 

I was not a terribly wretched sinner who turned my life around in an instant, but my encounters with Jesus opened my eyes and helped me to see things in ways that I never thought possible.

It’s like being in a darkened room and suddenly you turn the lights on –

The room is the same, nothing has changed except that you now you see things differently – in a new light.

In each of those situations, my life had changed and there was no going back.

In teaching, I often had the experience of helping a student to “see the light,” to understand something that they did not understand, to see that lightbulb come on so to speak.  They say, “now I get it!”

Once that happens – they are different.  They learned something and it changed them.  They can’t un-learn it.  It will be with them forever. 

Encountering Jesus is like that.

That’s what happened to Peter, Andrew, James and John.

They could never be the same after that.

Encountering Jesus changed them forever. 

Have you had an encounter with Jesus?  Have you encountered him in your life?

Not just do you know him.

Not just do you believe in him.

Have you encountered him?

Has he changed your life forever?

If not – why not make that job #1 for 2023?

Make a retreat. Make a pilgrimage.  Do a mission trip.

Come to our next Entrust in May.

Maybe it will happen in Reconciliation.

Maybe it will be a book you read.

Jesus is calling – follow me.

It does not matter what brings us to Jesus.

Your road might be St. Faustina and Divine Mercy.

It might be Dorothy Day and social justice.

You might encounter Jesus at a Steubenville conference, or in a Bible study or a book study, or in RCIA.

Maybe we encounter Jesus just by opening your heart and inviting Jesus in.

St. Paul tells us – it does not matter how we find Jesus – through Paul, or Apollos or Cephas.

What’s important is that we do find him.

Progressive?  Traditional? It does not matter.

Gender, race, country of origin, we were all baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

We were all baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ – his Church.

And what matters is that we follow him.

As we follow him and listen to him, read his words in Scripture…

As we let him speak to us in the silence of our hearts…

We grow in our love of him.

Beth wrote about falling in love with Jesus in her column this week:

…the Spirit led me to a quiet, interior life.  There was a great desire placed in me to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist.  In a nutshell, the Lord was forming me and “growing” my soul.

Are we growing in our relationship with Jesus?  Do we love him more today that we did last year at this time?

Our relationship with Jesus is like any other relationship we have.

What happens to friendship if we don’t talk to our friend or don’t spend time with our friend? 

What happens in a marriage, or in a family if we don’t communicate -- we drift apart.  It’s sad.

In our relationship with Jesus, if we spend time with Jesus – following him.

Praying, coming to Mass and receiving him – body, blood, soul and divinity – in Holy Communion.

Letting him lead us into our day – asking him to go there – into our homes, schools, workplaces, among our friends and family.

“You go first, Jesus, I’ll follow you.”

We grow in our love – we grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And then, a really wonderful thing happens.

It happens, often, quite to our surprise…other people begin to notice.

We can’t help ourselves, but to share Jesus with others.

People start to wonder what is different about us…

Did you get a haircut?

Did you lose some weight?

Did you meet someone?

Yes!  I met Jesus!

The happiness we find…the joy that supports everything we do…

It is unmistakable.

People notice and they want to know what’s up.

They start to think, “I want some of that!”

And we have the opportunity to share Jesus with others.

This is the most powerful form of evangelization – we live as citizens of the kingdom of God – and we exude the love of Jesus Christ.

Our readings today are a lesson in Discipleship – taught by the Master.

He shows us how to become a disciple.

Encounter Jesus

Follow Jesus

Love Jesus

Share Jesus.

Bishop Donald Hying of Madison:

The meaning of our lives is bound up in the love story of God for His people. God made each of us to love Him and one another, to be in an eternal relationship with the Lord.

Sin and death shattered God’s original plan, but he never gave up on us.

He sent us Jesus Christ, who by His life, ministry, death on the cross, and resurrection, forgives our sins and leads us to eternal life.  When this astonishing Good News – we are eternal, created for God, forgiven and saved in Christ, called to live for love – fills our heads, hearts and souls, we come to know our identity, purpose and destiny.

We are beloved children of God, called to live the Lord and bring everyone we meet to Jesus Christ, and destined to live forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Catholic Church tells us the story of our salvation, brings us to Jesus through the sacraments, and sends us forth as witnesses of the Gospel.