Jesus and the Questions of the Heart

In an article that appeared in the June 9 issue of L'Osservatore Romano, Julain Carron expounds upon the priest expressing his authentic humanity. However, within the article he elicits a broader reflection of Christ's message to our humanity, enlisting a statement by the Communion and Liberation founder, Fr. Luigi Giussani:

“Christ proposes himself as the answer to what ‘I’ am and only an attentive, tender and impassioned awareness of my own self can make me open and lead me to acknowledge, admire, thank, and live Christ. Without this awareness, even Jesus Christ becomes just a name” (At the Origin of the Christian Claim, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal 1998, p. 6)

The importance of such a recognition is profound because is this not the central question that burdens the heart of modern man - "what am I?" In our times, humanity suffers from a radical alienation of the self. We no longer know what we are; we no longer perceive the inherent meaning of human life; and we find ourselves perpetually uncomfortable with ourselves. The questioning of our humanity becomes more and more palpable with every passing year and the answers of our culture become less and less satisfying. Yet the answer has been with us for quite some time. As the Second Vatican Council declared, “it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.” The Creator instructs the creature of its meaning by joining with it and living its life to perfection. Mankind cries out “what am I?” and God replies by being born into our flesh and declares, “this – this is what you are! Rejoice.” Christ proposes the answer to the riddle of human life, an answer to what “I” am. His earthly life was (among other things) a rehabilitation of a genuine awareness of our nature and what it was created for. His heavenly life is a perpetual invitation to receive this remedy and experience a fuller human life, a life imbued with grace and mystery. Do we have the courage to accept this invitation?