Where Do We Look to Find Jesus?

This insert was in our church bulletin last week and I thought that y'all might like it as well. The new liturgical year is a good time to start afresh and this begins a series that will take us back to basics in looking for Jesus.

Where Do We Look to Find Jesus?

“ This is the context in which we need to read the conclusion of the prologue to John’s Gospel: “No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart who has made him known” (Jn 1:18). It is in Jesus that the promise of the new prophet is fulfilled. What was true of Moses only in fragmentary form has now been fully realized in the person of Jesus; He lives before the face of God, not just as a friend, but as a Son; he lives in the most intimate unity with the Father.

We have to start here if we are truly to understand the figure of Jesus as it is presented to us in the new Testament; all that we are told about his words, deeds, sufferings, and glory is anchored here. This is the central point, and if we leave it out of account, we fail to grasp what the figure of Jesus is really all about, so that it becomes self-contradictory and, in the end, unintelligible. The question that every reader of the New Testament must ask—where Jesus’ teaching came from, how his appearance in history is to be explained— can really be answered only from this perspective. The reaction of his hearers was clear: This teaching does not come from any school. It is radically different from what can be learned in schools. It is not the kind of explanation or interpretation that is taught there. It is different; it is interpretation “with authority.” …

Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from “face-to-face” dialogue—from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father’s heart. It is the Son’s word. Without this inner grounding, his teaching would be pure presumption. This is just what the learned men of Jesus’ time judged it to be, and they did so precisely because they could not accept its inner grounding: seeing and knowing face-to-face. ”

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger

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Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King. This Sunday, we begin Advent and a new liturgical year. How fitting that we begin and end the year with our eyes fixed on Christ as he is the center of our faith and the Church’s reason for existence.

Yet, often that very task can be more difficult than one might imagine. There are many interpretations of Christ presented in books, on television, and in movies. Newly unearthed “Gospels” told by Thomas, Peter, or Judas are not found in the Bible but flourish on store bookshelves. Popular thrillers such as the Da Vinci Code are sold as fiction but claim roots in older nonfiction texts. Ancient heresies are dusted off, given a new name, and taught as spiritual truths. We are told that there is no such thing as an absolute truth in this relativistic age and that all of the world’s main religions are basically the same. In other words, we continually have new, misleading information given to us with an authoritative tone. No wonder we are confused.

As Catholics we do not have to look for Jesus all alone. The Church has written down her teachings to help us understand Holy Scripture and Tradition in one handy book: the Catechism. If you haven’t opened your Catechism lately, take a look the next time you have a question. Use it for daily meditative reading. There is a wealth of over 2,000 years of cumulative Christian wisdom between those covers.

More recently, “Jesus of Nazareth” was written by Pope Benedict precisely to help us fix our eyes firmly on the real Jesus shown in the Gospels. No one sees the swirl of confusion, misinformation, and flawed scholarship to which we are subjected more clearly than one who carries the papal shepherd’s crook. He takes us back to Scripture in order to show us Jesus Christ clearly, as well as providing much good material for meditation.

In the weeks to come, we will look for the real Jesus using these books as well as other informed sources. We will also consider occasionally some of the difficult questions of modern times in the light of Church teachings. We will fix our eyes on Christ together.

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Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) is available at the St. Jude Library.