Do we really believe that Jesus is God?….An authentic encounter with Christ changes a person…How could it not?

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St John how Jesus drops the “bomb” on the Pharisees…He tells them straight out..He is God…And they go ballistic….."Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area”….Clearly the Pharisees did not believe the claim that Jesus was God…But here is the question for all of us to ponder today - Do we?…This is a rather shocking question to ask, but let me expand upon what I am getting at…If we truly believe that Jesus was God…That this man died and rose from the dead…Last time I checked no one else has done that!…If we believe that….Then wouldn’t that have to mean we have to believe EVERYTHING he said and then try our very best to do it?….If we are thinking in a linear and logical way…That is the only conclusion we could arrive at….Ultimately, we can give “lip-service” to the fact that Jesus was God and that he rose from the dead…But if we do not listen to what he said and taught, do we really believe it?…..So this is the point I am getting at…..Our life…The choices we make…How we treat people…What we value…What we do with our money…What we do with out time…All these outcomes address the question I asked today……Do we really believe that Jesus is God?…Because if we did, our life would be radically different.....Think about it

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

There is something about a person who lived a “wild life” who then encounters the Lord and radically changes course…If I were to be honest…These are my favorite people…They have a deep insight into life….They did not “learn” the faith from a text book…They graduated from the “school of hard knocks”….Many famous saints were people like that…St Paul…Mary Magdalene…..St Charles de Foucauld….Servant of God Jacques Fesch…..These people interest me…How does a person change like that?….I mean, these people really changed…Something radical happened to them….Let me try to explain what happened…They encounter Jesus Christ - For real!….Far too many people give lip service to “Jesus”…Jesus Christ was the most radical person who ever walked the face of the earth!…And when people encounter him…I mean for real!…They too become radical…These are “my people”….I am not interested in “Luke-warm” Catholicism…In fact, it nauseates me!…Many years ago before I was married I served at an AIDS Hospice in NYC run by Mother Teresa’s sisters…..One given Saturday, Earl was siting in the living room…Earl was an alcoholic who lived on the streets…He had enough…Earl had HIV…He told me for years he lived on Chinese food and vodka….Now Earl want to “get right” with God…And for years he did…He lived in the hospice…Stayed sober…Would help the sisters with their work…He rebuilt his life…..Guys like Earl are my favorite…They show just how real an encounter with Jesus Christ is - They give witness to the fact that “god” is not simply a word - But a person!….Most people cannot wrap their arms around going from one extreme to another….But people like Earl can….People like that will “walk through fire” for others…Because they know what it means to be down…This is why Mary Magdalene was one of the only ones who stayed at the foot of the cross when Jesus was in need…She understood “something” that the others did not….And this is why Jesus when he resurrected from the dead appeared to Mary Magdalene first…Think about that…The God of the Universe after rising from the dead appears first to a woman Scripture says was “possessed by seven demons”…..There is a special place in Jesus’s heart for people like Earl…For people like Mary Magdalen….If I had to gather a group of people…People who would “radically” change the world…These are the people I would pick….Because these people don’t give “lip-service” to their Catholic faith….They are not “half-in”….Are we one of those people?…..Do we really believe that Jesus is God?…Because if we did, our life would be radically different.....Think about it

“Look to the LORD in his strength; seek to serve him constantly. Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought, his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.”

Today in the Gospel of St John Jesus rocks the world of the Pharisees..He tells them point blank that he is God…Jesus also tells us the same thing….How do we react?…Is your life radically changed by this statement?…That a mere man, taught the world about what it means to live and when he was crushed because of what he taught, he rose from the dead….I can’t speak for you - But this is “my guy”….Dr Peter Kreeft is a famous Philosophy professor who teaches at Boston College…Dr Kreeft was been on my radio show…He is a convert to the Catholic faith…In one of his books entitled “Jesus Shock” this is what he wrote….”Those who meet Jesus always experience either joy or its opposites, either foretastes of Heaven or foretastes of Hell. Not everyone who meets Jesus is pleased, and not everyone is happy, but everyone is shocked”…..Do we really believe that Jesus is God?….An authentic encounter with Christ changes a person…How could it not?