Most world religions are about humanity reaching for God; Christianity is about God reaching for humanity, and doing it through his Son.
by Jeannette de Beauvoir
I had been living in the United States for a few months and was dreadfully unhappy, terribly homesick for France. I was attending college, and in a fit of what can only be called pique I decided to spend my spring break away from everyone. I rented a tent and went off to a campground in New Hampshire that was, at that time of year, virtually deserted.
The week I spent there changed my life forever. I was given the gift of a startling spiritual clarity, a sense of incredible closeness with Christ, and the absolute assurance that I was where I had been called. Even now, decades later, when I feel distressed or like my life isn’t following the right path, I close my eyes and I summon that empty campground, the sun slanting down through tall pines, the odor of my meals cooking over the open fire, and I can feel that closeness with Jesus all over again.
At the entrance to the church of St. Paul in Alba, Italy, the cradle of the Pauline family, there is an inscription that reads, “Live and communicate to all the world Jesus Master, Way, Truth, and Life.”
Live Jesus.
In these past few years of working with the Daughters of St. Paul I have come to appreciate my firsthand experience of the spirituality that fires the sisters' mission. The Feast of the Divine Master is at the center of the Pauline spirituality because Jesus is at the center of our life. Most world religions are about humanity reaching for God; Christianity is about God reaching for humanity, and doing it through his Son. He became incarnate and, in doing that, bestowed blessing on the most ordinary and mundane of activities: celebrations, meals, friendships, journeys. He made sacred the very context of our lives by living it with us.
So how do you live Jesus? By enjoying those ordinary human moments that he blessed by his incarnate presence, and by finding him in them. By allowing him to be present in your heart and to use you to reach out to others. By taking the Gospels seriously: reading them, reflecting on them, and incorporating their teachings in your life.
Why don't you share in the comments below your own special ways of living Jesus in your life?