Jesus, the ruler of all things, wants to have a relationship with you
I often hear Catholics say, “God made us for relationship.” That sounds great, but what does it mean? What does a relationship look like? And beyond that, what does a good relationship look like? Thankfully God not only made us for relationship, He also gave us a good teacher: the body!
Our bodies tell us when we have a true relationship with someone. According to some definitions, one could state that I have a relationship with my local congressman. I’ve never met them, but I am their constituent, and therefore have some sort of connection. While true, this doesn’t really match the kind of relationships God made us for. Real, personal relationships always involve the body. When I consistently interact with someone – which requires my body – I become familiar with them. My body recognizes their body, and I no longer feel the uncertainty that I might feel when meeting a stranger. This explains why I feel safe and loved around friends and family, as my body recognizes them as people worthy of my trust and vulnerability. Inversely, if I am walking down a street at night and a person I don’t recognize approaches me, I will feel a heightened sense of danger and unease. My body teaches me the difference between these two scenarios. But now that I know who I have relationships with, how can I know if I have good relationships?
We can always look to Jesus for a perfect example of good relationships. He shows us that in good relationships, we sacrifice for one another. Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross. We should be willing to do no less for those we truly love, but even in a less extreme fashion, we should also make small sacrifices for others around us. If I’m unwilling to sacrifice my free time to help out a friend in need, they might question our friendship. If I refused to buy my sister a Christmas present because I didn’t feel like spending money, she might justifiably feel hurt. A relationship in which either person never sacrifices for another is likely not a very strong or meaningful one.
Christ also models for us giving His “gift of self.” He humbles Himself in taking on the form of bread and wine to offer himself to us in the Eucharist. We can receive and reciprocate His love through our reception of the sacraments. Similarly, we build up our own relationships by giving gifts of self, or by receiving and reciprocating the gifts of others. A gift of self can simply involve doing someone a favor, telling them a joke, or even just spending time with them. Many of these we do unconsciously, but if we never make a gift of self to our friends, we probably have a pretty bad relationship with them.
God made us to know one another and to love one another. We learn about and care for each other through relationships, and we can look to Him for examples of how to have a healthy relationship. We can learn this by reading the Gospels and meditating on the life of Jesus, as both provide ample demonstration and example of how God desires us to live with others.
Good relationships require sacrifice
Chris Tarantino is the Communications Director for TOBET. He studied History at The University at Texas A&M and has written for the Tennessee Register and Nashville Catholic.
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