1) To know
It is common, when meeting a celebrity, to ask them to take a picture with her, a “selfie”. My nephew Toño recently had the opportunity to greet the stars of the movie “Top Gun: Maverick”, Tom Crusie and Jennifer Connely, and of course he took some videos. Thus, there is evidence of those experiences that will later be shown as part of his own life. Having valuable experiences enriches life.
If meeting someone famous gives us an exciting experience, meeting God not only provides the most valuable experience, but also makes us more valuable to ourselves. Pope Francis says that only thanks to the encounter with our Lord in the celebration of the Eucharist allows man to be fully man. Since it grants him to have the fullest relationship that there can be, with God, and also with his brothers and with creation. Thus, the celebration becomes the privileged place, although not the only one, of the encounter with God.
2) To think
The desire to meet God has been so strong in some that they have not even hesitated to give their lives. For example, there are those who opposed the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler when they were called up to the Army. They were men with a simple life who went unnoticed: peasants, workers, office workers, artists… who showed great human and spiritual mettle willing to fight against evil even at the cost of losing their lives. Among them those of a beatified Austrian who has been made a film called “Hidden Life” (A Hidden Life, 2019).
Another was Alfred Andreas Heiss, affiliated with a Catholic party who defended his religion to the end. In a letter to his parents he said: “Defending our faith is the only thing that can be the basis for understanding between peoples.” Heiss criticized National Socialist politics and ideology, especially the measures against the Church, which he considered a clear advance of atheism.
When called to arms he refused to serve as a soldier, despite knowing the consequences, and declared: “National Socialism has an anti-Christian stance.” The War Tribunal sentenced him on August 20, 1940 to the death penalty and he bravely died as a true martyr.
3) To live
Pope Francis comments, in his letter on the Liturgy, that it is the community that was formed after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that, through the celebration of the Eucharist, can make Jesus Christ truly alive with his Word and with his body.
The Holy Spirit formed with that first community the beginning of the Church, which since then facilitates the encounter with Christ through the Sacraments. From the very day the Holy Spirit arrived, the Apostles administered the baptism that reconciles us with God. The New Testament account tells us that about three thousand people were baptized that day. Our Lord Jesus Christ, with his Passion and death, has removed the obstacle that prevented us from having a true encounter with God, sin has overcome and we can now be forgiven. That we know how to value the Church as the instrument that God has arranged to unite us with Him.
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November 8, 2022
Father Jose Martinez Colin: Systems Engineer from UNAM, Bachelor of Philosophy from the Universidad Panamericana and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Navarra.
Chaplain of the Chapultepec School in Culiacán.
He has been teaching for more than 20 years, mainly Logic and Gnoseology, at the Culiacán Seminary.
For 20 years he has published articles in various newspapers in the country, especially commenting on what the Pope said.