When you think about Jesus, what comes to mind?
For some, it might be Jesus on the cross. For others, Jesus in the Eucharist. And being we just recently celebrated the Christmas season, it might be Jesus in the manager.
How often do you think of Jesus as a friend? As a brother? How well do we really know Jesus?
But it might be easier to look at it from the other direction. When Jesus thinks about you, what comes to his mind? Close your eyes and imagine Jesus looking at you right now, right here? Imagine what he is seeing as he looks at you in the pew? Then imagine what Jesus is thinking?
If we look at the first reading from Isaiah, there is a line that says, the Lord delights in you. Think about that for a moment, the Lord delights in you. He experiences great pleasure in simply looking upon you. He finds great joy, simply looking at you. Last week in the bulletin cover, as we celebrated the baptism of the Jesus, I wrote about his baptism and ours. I included a quote about when we are baptized, our souls are marked as one privileged of God. Think about that, as Jesus looks upon you, he sees that mark on your soul.
And if we turn to gospel, where it talks about the mother of Jesus being there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited, Jesus delights in being there. And when the wine runs out, and Mary brings this to Jesus’ attention, even though he responds with how does your concern affect me, Mary tells the servants to do whatever he tells them, and when they do, it delights Mary. And the servers experience delight when they see the miracle. And the head waiter, even though he doesn’t have a direct encounter with Jesus, he is delighted to be able to serve the “good wine”. Even the young couple getting married, are delighted Jesus is present.
When we look at a wedding, when the bride and groom see each other at the start of the celebration, they delight in the first glance of each other. Parents delight when they see their newborn child for the first time. Even grandparents, like myself, delight when we get our first glimpse of our grandchildren, in person, or even when we see them at the start of a video call. These are all examples of how we experience delight, and it should be the same when we encounter Jesus.
At Mass, it doesn’t matter how good the music is or is not. It doesn’t matter how good the homily is or is not. We should experience delight, this great pleasure, great joy, simply by being in Jesus’ presence at Mass.
What can you do if that is not your experience? We need to learn from Jesus. Perhaps you can attend an extra Mass during the week. Maybe you can spend some time at Eucharistic Adoration, allowing Jesus to look at you while you look at him? And if those are not possible, you can also simply spend some time with him before the tabernacle. You can even have a crucifix or an image of Jesus, such as the Divine Mercy image, to look upon Jesus while you are praying each day. You could even turn on a live Eucharistic Adoration video to allow Jesus to look and delight in you, as you look and learn to delight in him.
By doing these things, it will help change us. So, when we think about Jesus, what kinds to mind, is Jesus delighting in us, as we delight in him.
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