How close must we get to Christ before we believe?

How close must we get to Christ before we believe?

We may never find the truth of our salvation if our treasures lie in just what the world can give us to make us happy.  It could be the only god that many find to worship without sacrifice.  Giving back to the essence of life and everything it demands from each one is a pathway to finding Christ as he is, the only giftedness that we can’t earn or buy.  

As we share the reasons of the Incarnation just presented to us at Christmas, it can become a lost entity if the reality of God's Love grows dim like the lights on the German Tannenbaum are taken down.  The one diminishment of Holy Seasons becomes just that, put on a face of belief that lasts but a moment in time.  

Christmas is not a day, but a season that should not end like a single chapter in a novel.  The same is so true regarding the Passion/Resurrection of Christ, reflected by the crucifix which all Catholic Churches are required to have on or near the altar.  There are many who criticize the crucifix’s presence in our church because Christ no longer is suffering.  St. Paul said; “Now I rejoice for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body.”  (Col 1:24).  Nothing is lacking as far as the Passion of Christ, which is his suffering, but the need for all of us to also take upon each one as a sign of our belief in his ministry.

The question of how close must we get to Christ before we believe?  Closing the door on the continued adoration of these sacred events will keep us away from the essence of what the Incarnation of Christ through his Ascension means to us, in reality of our Father in heaven.  Without the continued worship of Christ and his love for us by Calvary’s ignominy we will have failed in how close we must get.      

This adherence of ringing in joyful song and praise at Christmas and Easter then forgetting just as quickly their full meaning towards our salvation is the very failure of a lasting essence that should always be with us as the number one entity Christ died for us.

Without that understanding we shall become like the rose that blooms overnight reflecting warmth and beauty and lasts but a moment then dies.  It’s time to give hope to those who look upon the beauty it has will collapse and not grow again.  That is exactly how our short-lived exultation will end without a foundation to keep our worship and praise filled with life and praise of God.

Ralph B. Hathaway