The Risk of Searching for Christ

In St. Matthew’s Gospel, we encounter an immediate sense of the risk involved in following God. As a protagonist event, the temptation of Jesus in the desert reveals what will occur if you choose to follow the will of God[1]. In the case of Jesus, the entire temptation sequence reveals the sins he will encounter throughout his journey to save the souls of humanity through his death on the Cross. As Jesus withstood the Devil’s antagonistic temptations of the flesh, the Devil left, and Jesus was cared for by the Angels. The significance of the Angels ministering to Jesus reveals that he was not alone in his journey. It expresses that when properly ordered, our journey to Christ does not need to be in isolation. The desire to seek the Kingdom of God through the Son is expressed by Jesus through the analogy of the narrow gate, where Jesus urges us to enter by this gate, even though this path will be hard because it leads to life.[2] Jesus provides a more vivid description of the risk of following him,

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you up, do not be anxious about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes.[3]

These biblical narratives provide us with a clear understanding that there is a risk in following and actively walking with Jesus Christ. One might ask if the risk is greater than the reward when the subject is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Word made flesh. The risk of searching or following Christ requires that we stop thinking of ourselves as greater than Jesus himself. The fallacy of building an impenetrable spiritual wall that falsely claims no need for Christ is simply an illusion of the mind and hardening of the heart from developing a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. The act of giving yourself totally to Christ, a totus Christos, means that our love for Christ is greater than our love of self. The risk in this ask declares that Christ is more important than anyone else. This act of faith initiates the path toward having a personal relationship with Jesus and, potentially at great expense, losing relationships and friendships that may view this newfound faith with disbelief, or worse, anger and resentment.

A genuine search or a relationship with Jesus Christ involves and requires that you and I shed our pride and human desires that contradict Jesus as the way, the truth, and the light.[4] We are no longer of the world and instead embrace the risks involved in following Jesus Christ.  It is important to consider that when someone seeks Christ for the very first time and understands the great risk involved in doing so, it is the sacrament of baptism that confirms when you and I became members of the Kingdom of God on earth.  In a very direct and poignant manner, Jesus provides a clearer picture of the risk involved in following him,

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.[5]

The search for Christ requires us to conform to him, as St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians.[6] The Catechism reminds us if we are to call ourselves a disciple of Jesus Christ, then, the disciple of Christ,

must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: “All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks.” Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.[7]

The search for Christ means that you refuse to remain in darkness and desire to be in the light of Christ’s grace and mercy. This means that those who choose to remain in darkness will be in conflict with you, reject you, mock you, and tempt you because of the lifestyle you have chosen that contradicts theirs. St. John reminds us that when you choose to live a life that reflects Jesus Christ, you shun the lie of the world that claims you can be happy and joyful apart from God. The risk of searching for Christ is that ultimately you may end up falling in love with Him and desiring nothing else but him. You run the risk of conforming your life to his will and surrendering yourself to a life of humility, surrender, and redemptive suffering.

I am created to do or to be something for which no one else is created: I have a place in God's counsels, in God's world, which no one else has. Whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.

St. John Henry Newman