The Ultimate Examination

The Ultimate Examination

A number of years ago, I stumbled across a video of the late Pope Francis speaking to priests and religious gathered in Naples, Italy. And in that meeting he had a special message for the seminarians who were present:

“If Jesus is not central, postpone ordination.  If you are not sure Jesus is the centre of your life, wait a little longer.”

I am currently writing this reflection while visiting our Resurrectionist seminary in Tanzania, where we have 30 young men in various stages of formation.  It is easy for us to think: “Wow!  If only we had numbers like that here!”

And while certainly with less opportunities and a faith that simply has a much more prominent role in their lives and culture than our so convenient and compartmentalized North American approach to faith – the fundamental question is not different for us than it is for them.

And the question is: who or what is at the centre of my life?  Who or what am I living for?  Can I honesty say that Jesus is central, that Jesus is the centre of my life?  Or are there other things, other people, who honestly are more important to me?

There is a Catholic campus ministry initiative called “Catholic Christian Outreach”,  which “is a Catholic movement raising up Christ-centred, Spirit-filled leaders to evangelize the world one person at a time.”

They focus on university and college students, but are not limited to that.  And one of the approaches that they use is “Faith Studies”, where a group of people led by a facilitator meets a few times to go through a series of booklets that explore the fundamentals of being a disciple of Jesus.

One of these faith studies is titled “the Ultimate Relationship”, and it has a diagram which shows the three stages of any romantic relationship.  There is the first stage, where the person is outside of our lives, represented by a heart outside a circle.  The next stage is where the person we are romantically interested in, is part of our life – part of the circle of our priorities.  And the final stage is where we have made a commitment to this person and they are with us, at the centre of the circle of our lives.

The Faith study then goes on to propose that it is exactly the same with our relationship with Jesus.  The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – “Christ the King” – is the last Sunday of the liturgical year before Advent begins.  And as the “ultimate” or final Sunday of the Church year, perhaps it is a good opportunity for us to reflect on the “ultimate examination” – where is Jesus in the circle of my life?  Is Jesus someone I find interesting, but who is practically an outsider to my life?  Or do I have a relationship with Jesus, but he is just one of many priorities that are important to me?  Or, have I made an actual commitment to welcome Jesus to be with me at the centre of the circle that is my life?

In our Gospel today, we have a number of people at the Cross with different relationships to Jesus.  And the Gospel shows us that the ones who choose to turn to Jesus and ask him to be at the centre of their lives are not the ones we might expect.  Who would you be in today’s Gospel?