My daughter was begging me to let her skip religious education earlier this month.
“Whyyyyyyy do I have to go?” she asked me.
“Because it’s good to learn about Jesus,” I answered.
“But I already know EVERYTHINNNGGG about Jesus,” she pleaded with me.
“Sweetie,” I said patiently (for real, it was a good day for me), “We never know everything about Jesus. He is not a subject like history to understand, He is a person with whom we have a relationship. Our relationships are never really finished until death.” I was pretty proud of this answer. Bonus points for bringing in the brief duration of life during Lent. My daughter continued on…
“Does this mean I have to go to religious education FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE?”.
“Yeah, kind of,” I replied. “That’s why we keep coming to church and doing learning stuff.”
At that point we had reached the classroom and coloring pages were out so the conversation naturally resolved 🙂
My chat with my daughter was a good reminder to me that faith is not some thing that we hit milestones in. We don’t strive for that doctorate degree and then some bonus gigs. Our faith is a living relationship with a person who has always existed and who existed as a human.
This was expressed another way in a homily I heard last week. The Gospel was around the man born blind from birth and Jesus’ healing. I love to jump in on chastising the parents for picking their community over their son, and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But the homily changed the focus to the man born blind himself, and his relationship with Jesus.
First, their relationship is one of healer-healed.
Next, the man encounters Jesus — this time after professing Jesus as a prophet. Their relationship is now that of teacher-learner. The healing was the catalyst for this recognition, and the relationship has grown to a new level.
Finally, it is Jesus who shepherds the relationship into its final, proper state — Lord and beloved. Lord and follower. God and friend.
Jesus longs to have this relationship with all of us. How we encounter Him varies. I am very blessed that I have known Jesus from the beginning of our relationship as Lord, and friend. If we only treat Him as an order-taker, as someone to learn from, we’ll never fully be in communion with Him as we are intended; as creator and beloved creation.
I pray that until my last minute He will be that rock, that confidante, that friend who has always urged me onward and to be better, until I can rest safely with Him for eternity.