Spiritual direction

People always ask, “What would Jesus do?” or “What would Jesus think of…(fill in the blank scenario or situation)?” Well, I’d like to answer the question, “What would be Jesus’ greatest disappointment if he were to return now and comment what disappoints him the most?” It would not be the unbelievable depravity of humans today, only because that would be no surprise to him, since he knows the hearts of all men and women and what they are capable of doing. And it would not be the social issues, because as he predicted, the poor will always be with us, and so again, this would be no surprise and hence not his greatest disappointment. No, Jesus’ greatest disappointment with humans would be how they have distanced themselves from God himself. If you read the scriptures the constant mission of Jesus was to bring knowledge of God to humans. Jesus never asked for personal worship and constantly pointed all of his knowledge, powers, wisdom and miracles back to God, who he was entitled to call the Father, as predicted in the scriptures. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his excellent book “Jesus of Nazareth” that Jesus brought God as his gift to humans. Jesus brought a God that people could see and comprehend sufficiently to have the way to God with hope of certainty revealed to them. Jesus constantly taught how to know God, how to approach God (even teaching humans how to pray to God in the form of the “Our Father” prayer), and how to understand God’s love and will for humanity. Yet rather than grasping this “first hand” knowledge of God that Jesus brought, today humans barely think of God. Even the most pious focus on Jesus the man, the human, rather than understanding that Jesus is constantly pointing through himself and back to the source of all, who is God. Until these past two generations even the simplest uneducated person knew that they were to seek God, to obey God, to love and to serve God, and to ponder his mysteries and his ways. Yes, human ancestors loved Jesus and Christians proclaimed him as the Son of God, but they never lost sight of God himself and their journey toward, or away, from him. Jesus would not care about the many nut jobs who think they are “reincarnated Jesus” or who think Jesus “clues them in on prophecies,” since he himself pointed out that false prophets will always be a condition of humanity’s brokenness. So again, this would not be his greatest disappointment. But he would be “horrified” (to use a human concept, which he would not actually feel, if you know what I mean) that people obsess with “being Jesus” or “if Jesus really existed” and “what would Jesus do” and “bathroom questions about Jesus” and so forth to the exclusion, therefore, of any focus on what Jesus brought, which is the will and knowledge of God, and focus on God alone. Yes, Jesus came to “save” humanity, but um, how does one be saved? Through Jesus but by God alone are people actually admitted to eternal life, or damnation. Jesus is the way and points the way, but the way to where and to whom? God, obviously, if you read anything at all that Jesus actually said. The greatest disappointment that Jesus would have with humans today is that they actually use misdirected focus on Jesus to veer away from God rather than return to God.

People like to focus on Jesus’ poverty and modesty. But when they do that they miss the point. Jesus was totally focused on God the Father. He did not need anything else. So people either expect Christians to be “poor like Jesus” or “have prosperity Gospel because Jesus said it was ‘OK’”. Meanwhile, all they are doing is obsessing about what Jesus would wear, what car he would drive, whether he’d invest in IRA’s, if he went out to eat regularly, whether he ever wanted nooky, did he go to the bathroom like everyone else, and did he “know who he really was?” (duh). The problem with wasting one’s time thinking about these things is that they have no bearing at all on knowledge of GOD and obedience to GOD. Jesus would be extremely frustrated and disappointed to know that heretical and prurient ruminations about him, both historically and in “theory,” take place at the extreme level that they do because that sucks up focus, brain cells and grace away from humans as they focus on the celebrity and not on his message, which was God, God, God.

Jesus is not here. The angel once said this when the women sought the body of Jesus at the tomb on Easter Sunday. I have to remind you yet again that Jesus is not here on earth. Jesus is ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of GOD and he will not return to earth until the end of times. He’s not “reincarnated” (reincarnation does not exist at all; it is one soul, one life, one chance and that is it). And Jesus is not subject to “revisionist” “scholarship,” because he is exactly who he is as witnessed to in the Gospels and by the Apostles and their successors. Jesus is not here except in the sense that every person can reach Jesus and walk with Jesus through prayer and works, and through love of him. So Jesus is never out of reach, but he is not here on earth nor will he be until God sends him for the harvest at the end of times. Jesus left a treasure on earth, which is the one sacramental and Apostolic Church, plus the Gospel of the good news, which is the understanding of God and how to be accepted into eternal grace and life in the presence of God (and yes, Jesus too, and Elijah, and Moses, and Mary, in the communion of saints). Jesus would be deeply disappointed about the neglect of God by humans, and would say so if Jesus were, through the imaginary scenarios that humans are so fond of, “here” and “interviewed about that question.” Jesus spent his entire ministry to bring believers to God, to comprehension and love of the one true God. He would not be disappointed by the idiot “atheist” moneymakers who rack up bank accounts trying to divert souls from God and shake their belief because again, since when is that news in the sad history of “humanity?” There are always people who make money pulling others down the sewer drain with them. But what would truly disappoint Jesus is the total lack of focus among the “faithful” on God’s reality and will. Ironically atheists mention “God” more in the course of their money making and endless attention seeking activities than do many pious people that I know. People love Jesus (a bit too much like the incredibly indulgent good guy of their ultimate fantasies) but forget completely about GOD himself, God the Father. Jesus sat on a rock and taught a prayer that starts with the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” OK, think this through. Jesus was sitting there in person. He was teaching people to pray to God who is in heaven. Jesus wasn’t teaching people to pray to himself. Jesus was bringing the face of God to humans so that they could reach for and comprehend THE GOD IN HEAVEN.

About recognizing false prophets, let me remind you of the ultimate sniff test. If the person is not constantly talking about GOD, then the person should not “even be in the running” in your fantasy “Wow, an angel? Jesus “reincarnated?” Mary Magdalene’s imaginary descendants?” I mean, duh. Read the Gospel with open eyes this time. Jesus constantly taught GOD, not himself. The Apostles asked Jesus about GOD, not about Jesus’ likes and dislikes. The saints constantly sought GOD, using the way through Jesus. If someone is not constantly preaching about GOD himself, they are not even in the running for being “saintly” or “divinely inspired.” I mean, duh, how much more obvious could this be? Take my word for it, I have walked this earth for over fifty years now and there is no one living who has had a truly genuinely saintly thought, say nothing of being some imaginary “reincarnated saint” or *gag* *choke* “touched by an angel.” Yes, there are people who are true servants of God. That is a totally different matter. These are the people you should admire and emulate, those who view themselves and conduct themselves as servants of God. Modern day saints who are in the process of being canonized by the Church fall into that category. They are humans, real simple humans like everyone else, no “karma” or bogus “reincarnation” “short cuts” who conduct themselves as true servants of God and thus achieve saintly grace. They generate it anew, from the bottom up, rather than “tap into” some sort of airy fairy arcane knowledge or spirit. Real saints are servants of God. Real saints discern the quiet voice of God in their daily life and their prayer life and live their lives within the framework of where that relationship with God leads them. If you read the lives of the saints you will see that this is exactly what each of them did too during their lives. Each unique individual person with one life and one soul starts “from the bottom up.” Babies are born with their guardian angels and the thirst to know and love God that is not only the evidence of their souls but also a hard wired genetic need of humankind. But while life used to be oriented toward bringing the infant into the religious life and pointed toward God as soon as possible, modern life conspires to deprive the child of God. One of parents’ most common and strictest responsibilities was to raise the child in their faith and assist even the youngest child with their nightly prayers. Now so many children only hear “God” in their family as a swear word. The Bible and the Qur’an are both very clear on a parent’s responsibility to raise the child within the faith and with knowledge of God. Now there is either the horrible abyss of the vacuum and lack of any faith formation within the family (and there’s hardly any families left in large segments of modern society at all) or there is the formulaic approach of “picking out” the “right church or faith” that “suits one’s lifestyle” and “feels right.” Um, who cares if it “suits you?” Is it what God wants? Oh yeah, God. You know, God. God, the one who is the reason for life and hence “faith choices” at all! So the biggest disappointment of Jesus would be to “see” how people, both faithful and not, have turned away from God and his will, his timetables, his requirements, his presence and toward “picking out” what “feels right for one’s lifestyle” (and yet remarkably seems to require a lot of anti-depressants and so forth, even though it’s “the right choice?” Isn’t that a big clue?) God knows what is right and healthy for humans and what leads them to happiness. Trust me, humans would eat garbage and wallow in garbage if left to their own “choices,” while crowing how “happy” and “authentic” they are, while they certainly are not. There was no greater expert on human nature than Jesus, and of course God is the architect who knows all there is to know about everything because God is everything, and all goodness comes from God. Jesus brought an incredible treasure of understanding of God to humans and the gift of the Church itself. It is mind boggling how the orientation toward God has completely fallen apart in the last two generations. That is what would “disappoint Jesus” and trust me, he’d be mad as a hornet too. Check out some of the descriptive language in the Book of Revelation (sword from his mouth) if you don’t want to take my word for it. Jesus has a “purpose driven life” alright, and that life for all eternity is to point humans who believe, hear and obey toward God himself. Humans better remember that in a hurry.