Blog # 185 Close to Jesus

Blog # 185 Close to Jesus If we really love someone, including the Lord, we wish to be and live in close union with the persons we love, husband, wife, children, family, friends, God. We keep photos of those we love in our billfolds, on our desks at work, and on the walls of our homes to remind us of them, in honor of them, and to keep them close to us. With Jesus should it be different? And so we have pictures statues and crucifixes in our churches and in our homes. We wear medals and small crucifixes around our necks. And along the same line but in a very special way we recall and celebrate the life death resurrection and glorification of Jesus in our liturgical readings week after week Sunday after Sunday through the entire Liturgical Year. Jesus is no longer just a memory from two thousand years ago, no longer just a friend of Peter James and John,no longer living dying and rising in Jericho and Jerusalem. He lives in the here and now of Augusta. He is our friend in 2011. He is as close to us as our prayer to Him is close to our minds and hearts. He shares the same story conversation relationships and love with us by faith that He shared with the Apostles and with his mother. Because Jesus is God and loves us this much and because we love Jesus enough to trust Him and to believe, all of this is possible for us. But as was the case with the early disciples we also have the freedom to be somewhere else, to forget, or to turn away. "If today you hear His voice harden not your hearts." (Ps 95:8)