RSS

Jesus A Dialogue with the Saviour

Chapter IV

Must we see Jesus? More than that: we must touch Him. “Which we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the word of life . . .,” writes the apostle John.

The woman afflicted with an issue of blood declared that if only she could touch Jesus’ garments, she would be healed. She touched timorously, from behind, Jesus’ tunic; and she was cured of her illness.

I ask that no day pass without my being able to touch at least the fringe of Jesus’ garment without a power going out from the Savour which will be unto me a pledge of salvation.

We must touch Jesus in secret conversation with Him, in contact with the human members of the Body of Christ which is the church, in the mystery of the Lord’s Last Supper.

We must not suppose that we have touched Jesus because we have drawn near to Him. But there are privileged moments when a kind of ineffable shudder, a sort of irrestible evidence (which, if authentic, cast us into the depths of humility) make us cry out: “I have just touched Jesus,” or better, “Jesus has just touched me.” Lord, I am not worthy to lift my eyes towards You. Be merciful to me, a sinner.

How the facts of Christ’s life perplex us! Never are they exactly what we are expecting. And yet they go even further and are more positive than we were expecting. Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus, but Jesus is He whom no sepulcher can contain or restrain.

The women bring aromatic spices to the tomb; now it is a God already risen whom they plan to anoint. A woman breaks a jar of perfume on the Lord’s living body, in order to give Him glory; now Jesus says that it is with a view to His burial that she performed this act.

The cross seems to destroy hope, but the resurrection destroys despair. The divine acts, which ruin our plans, go beyond either hope or despair.

Thus it is with each of Jesus’ interventions in our personal life. Every one of them makes something explode, but also makes flight possible. Jesus won’t fit into any of our plans. His presence, His word break every bound.