Yes, It's Personal!

Coming back to the Church from Evangelical Christianity there are certain terms that are still near and dear to my heart. One of those terms is “Personal Relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ” and apparently it’s one of the most misunderstood among Catholics (specifically among Traditionalist/Latin Only folks). Never in a million years would I have imagined that the phrase would be a source for division. I recently saw a video by someone who regularly speaks for the Traditionalist viewpoint condemning the term. Here is a link to the video so you can see I’m not misquoting them, but be advised that the video contains some pretty harsh words for not only the concept but also for the very Church itself. At times you may have to remind yourself that these are our fellow Catholics.

What does the term actually mean? To the Evangelical Christian it means that the person has accepted the Gospel, repented of their sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for his/her salvation. In Catholic terminology we would call that “being in a state of grace” or, at least, as close as non-Catholics can come to that apart from the Sacraments. It doesn’t mean that the person has reshaped the Gospel into his own image nor that it’s somehow all about “emotion”. There are only two questions we need to ask about this: 1. Does God want it? And 2. Does the Church teach and encourage it?

Does God Want It?

To answer this first question, we need to examine the Scriptures for clues in this rgard. In Isaiah 29:13-e14 God tells the prophet that the people are great at keeping form and ritual, but there is no relationship underneath it. God says that the people draw near with their words but that their hearts are far from Him. In short, mere religion ritual is not what the Lord wants.

In the New Testament this concern is repeated when the Lord Jesus Christ quotes from Isaiah and directed at the Scribes and Pharisees in both Saint Matthew and Saint Mark’s Gospels… Matthew 15:7-9 and Mark 7:6-9. Very few people were better at keeping the form and ritual of the Law than the Pharisees. Yet the Lord told them that they were hypocrites putting on a religious show with no true relationship beneath it. Sound familiar?

In Matthew 7:21-23 the Lord tells His disciples that “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but those who do the will of My Father” Those who only have a religion will protest to Him at Judgment that they have done all kinds of religious acts in His Name. What is the basis for His telling them to depart from Him? Look at verse 23. He says to them “I never knew you!” The idea conveyed here is of a deep, personal relationship like a man and wife know. We’ll talk more about “religion versus relationship” in a minute.

Does the Church Teach and Encourage It?

We can see that the Scriptures clearly teach that God desires to have a personal relationship with those who worship Him. So, does the Church encourage this? Well, the first part of that answer has to that the Church believes the Scriptures to be divinely inspired and part of the total “Word of God”. So, if the Scriptures teach that it is desired by God (and it does) and possible for humans to have (and it does) then she will… and she does.

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis said “"I invite all Christians everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ.". In this he echoed the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who said, “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est 25 December 2005).

In his recent article, “Pope Francis and the Evangelicals” in the National Catholic Register, Bishop Robert Barron also quotes from Evangelii Gaudium when he writes, “Christianity is not a philosophy or a set of ideas, but rather a friendship with Jesus of Nazareth. In paragraph 266, we hear, ‘It is impossible to persevere in a fervent evangelization unless we are convinced from personal experience that it is not the same thing to have known Jesus as not to have known him.’"

Where the Evangelicals Go Wrong

“It’s not a religion but a relationship” This is a common phrased used by Evangelical Christians and it’s as wrong as wrong can be. A study of the Scripture and an examination of the history/writings of the early Church show that it is BOTH. When the Evangelical Christian use the phrase “personal encounter with Jesus” or speak of “having Jesus as personal Lord and Savior” they are speaking of a one-time experience of “receiving Jesus into your heart” via whatever means their denomination/non-denomination/movement teaches that is achieved. As you might imagine, with 30,000+ of those there are at least several variations on that.

Words have meanings and simply because Catholics may use the phrase “Personal encounter with Jesus” it doesn’t mean that they pour the same meaning into it. Just because a phrase is used by Protestants doesn’t make it evil outside of the meaning that they pour into it.

Yes, it is a relationship but it’s a relationship rooted and fulfilled in a religion. The terms of that “relationship” are established by God, not Martin Luther or any other Reformer. God has established a Church and entrusted to her with the means of grace…the Blessed Sacraments. It’s through those … by listening to the full orbed Word of God (Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium) … that He speaks to us and answers our prayers. There is no more personal relationship possible than receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity as we do in every Mass through the Eucharist. However, if we think that God ONLY wants ritual and form without relationship, we are misguided as well.

I take my relationship with Mama Mary, the Lord Jesus and His Church very personally…and express it through the Liturgy, prayers and devotions with which we have been gifted by God. That’s not a “watered down Catholicism” or a “substitute Catholicism”. It’s pure heartfelt, biblically and historically sound Catholicism.