An Encounter With Christ

Details: 14 September 2012

Many people have thought and said through the years after the Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven, where He is seated at the right hand of the God the Father, "Oh how I wish I could encounter Jesus while I am here on this earth! Then I could touch and embrace Him!!"

Little do they know that there are several ways to encounter Jesus this side of eternity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of his minister, ‘the same now offering, through the ministry of the priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,’ but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised, ‘when two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them’ " (CCC 1088).

Several days ago I had several encounters with Jesus Christ. These included my holy hour and Mass. The sisters at St. Gianna and I received Jesus in His Sacred Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion. We were able to touch and embrace the King of Kings. Later that same day after the office closed, after exiting the building and having crossed the street to my parked car, I noticed a man who looked to be in his 40s sitting on the sidewalk with his back resting against our building. It was obvious he was homeless. A few seconds later I found myself talking to him and confirmed that he was living on the streets.

It turns out he has left his wife and children in another state looking for work and is now homeless because of his alcoholism. This was readily apparent since I could easily smell the alcohol on his breath. Recently we have started a sandwich program because of people like him who live on the streets by our office. We figured since this program is such a success in Hastings, why not start one in Lincoln?

Since we had run out of sandwiches, I made a fresh one with the trimmings from what I could find in our food pantry, and threw in a half-liter of a power drink and some cereal bars. After a huge gulp of juice he started to cry and embraced me. As I hugged this man with dirt and dead grass on his clothes from sleeping on the ground, I was reminded that I was hugging Jesus Christ who IS present in the poor and needy. Did not Jesus say, "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink … Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of the least my least brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:35-40)?

Permit me to thank those who support Catholic Social Services so we can love Jesus present in the poor and needy and to ask if anyone is interested in helping us expand our sandwich / sack lunch program in Lincoln, please contact me. Together, we can have more encounters with Jesus Christ!