Jesus Sacrificed Himself for the Truth: Will You?

The author of this article has requested to be anonymous. This article wasn't written by Genuflector Catholic.

I remember when I was about 12 or 13 and my grandma and I went to confession on the Monday of Holy Week. In my diocese, the monday of Holy Week is like a statewide confession day and you can go to any church and they will have confessions all day. And knowing my grandma, who is very Catholic, I knew we were going. To be totally honest, at this point in my life, I wasn’t going to confession outside of school at all. We would go twice with school (once in Advent and once in Lent) and that was enough for me. So I wasn’t thrilled about going. Not only were we going to confession on my Easter vacation, we were going to a Church where I had never been before with priests I didn’t know. She didn’t even go to this Church, it was just easier for parking, since she has problems with walking.

So we got there and I was really nervous. I had never been to an actual confession, excluding the first confession we made before my first Holy communion. The confessions we did in school were in a gymnasium, and to be blunt, very casual. It was face-to-face, we said the act of contrition as a group, etc. Needless to say, I had never been in a confession with a kneeler, and didn’t really know what to do. I was going to tell my grandma that I was just going to wait outside for her, but I knew that she wouldn’t like that, and I thought how bad could it really be. The funny thing, it wasn’t like I didn’t like or respect confession. At the time, I was considering a call to the priesthood. It's just I wasn’t feeling confession that day, at that time. Then before I could do anything more, it was my turn. I walked in, completely lost, especially since there were kneelers. So I kneeled and luckily there was a printout of the rite of confession in front of the kneeler. So I started and I think the priest kind of knew that I was new to this type of confession. But he also somewhat recognized something else. He recognized an internal struggle. After my confession he said something like this: “I don’t know if you have ever thought of it, but think and pray for vocations,” and he gave me a bulletin that had a section about vocations. It was so random but so perfect. I felt like God spoke to me. And for a little while, I thought that I would be a priest. I got even more into my faith and began getting much more serious about it. I think my family thought I would be a priest too. Then high school hit.

And I ignored that and other signs I had felt throughout my life and convinced myself I would be a doctor and a pilot. And isn’t that kind of what these tenants did in this gospel? They rejected all of the predecessors to the son of the landowner. They came bearing a message: it's time to pay up. Not too complicated. But the tenants rejected it over and over, despite how clear the sign was. Why? Well they did that because it wasn’t the best for them. It wasn’t the most convenient for them. It wasn’t the right time. Isn’t that basically what I said? Yeah maybe that time in the confessional and other times was God speaking to me. But I don’t really want that. I have seen the signs and you know what, I don’t really want it. In essence, by my total ignorance of his actions I said to the Lord “Thanks, but no thanks.” It is crazy to think about it when I say that, but it’s the truth.

But the Lord doesn’t give up. He doesn’t just send one messenger or one sign and call it a day. He makes it clear to us what our end or purpose is, we just have to learn how to listen to it. So, in the senior year of high school, my heart just became on fire about the priesthood. I once again found it so intriguing and felt like I could see myself being a shepherd for the Lord, and I felt that call slightly again. Then came college, and then I ignored it. That isn’t to say I wasn’t Catholic, I actually got really involved in campus ministry. But I once again rejected the messenger the Lord sent me. I rejected the sign. But once again, that wasn’t it, the Lord didn’t give up, simply because I ignored his calls because I didn’t think they were convenient. So about 2 months into college my heart became on fire for the priesthood again, somewhat influenced by the priests at my college. And that is when Jesus really spoke to me. I always carried around these rosary beads that my high school gave me in a Black pouch. For about 2 weeks I thought that the pouch was really bulky but I didn’t think anything of it. I finally decided to open it to see why it was so bulky and I realized that there was another set of beads in there. I didn’t put those in there and I asked people that would have and they didn’t either. It was almost a little eerie. Like where did these come from. It is also important to mention that the original pair that was in there was broken and I was meaning to get a new one. And the same day that I realized there was another set in there, I was watching videos about the priesthood, as I was listening to other priests' vocation stories. I had decided to lay in bed for about 20 minutes to watch this video and then, out of nowhere, my parish priest called me to talk about the priesthood (I had asked him weeks ago to talk – we never discussed when, a date, or time). He just decided to call me, and of all times to call me, he called me as I was watching a video about the priesthood. That was something I couldn’t ignore. And for me, that was like the son of the landowner. Except I accepted it. I accepted that this time, I think He is really speaking to me. But that isn’t always the case. Sometimes Jesus hits us in the face and we ignore it, or purposely go against it.

I’m sure many of you have heard of the eucharistic miracles. Long story short, in two different miracles, the host became bloody and after inspection by an atheist cardiologist (who later converted) the eucharist consisted of living heart tissue (we know its living because of the white blood cells present) and that the tissue seemed to be distressed, meaning that it had undergone quite a lot of pain. Then the DNA was sequenced and it is consistent with a man who lived 2000 years ago in the middle east region. That isn’t a prophet, that isn’t a good king, warning us about Jesus. That isn’t a priest telling you to receive the eucharist. That is Jesus Christ. That is the Lord telling us straightforwardly: all that stuff that you hear in the gospels about the Eucharist being my body is true. There isn’t any way to get around it. That is the son of the landowner coming to the tenants to spread the fathers message. But yet, the world and society still reject Jesus and the Eucharist. Just like those tenants rejected the son. They rejected the son because it wasn’t convenient for them, just like his call for me way back when wasn’t convenient. But guess what, we don’t work on our time. We work on God’s time. It's not about following our hearts. It's about following God. Sometimes what God has in store for us isn’t what we want. But what makes more sense: to trust the all knowing God or our limited knowledge minds?

Jesus has made it clear that it's time to follow him. That’s its time stop surrendering the world around us. Its time to stop sacrificing our faith to make ourselves seem better. Its time to stop falling into the mob mentality of attacking the Church and attacking Jesus. Because guess what – “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” Putting this together with the other parables we have heard the past few weeks – even if your baptized, even if you went to communion, even if you go to Church; if you reject Jesus, if you deny him, if you don’t live out the faith, your not one with him. You don’t know him.

Jesus knew that coming into this world he would be rejected. He knew he would be hated. And he still is. We ignore his signs for us and we reject his miracles.

He sacrificed himself for the truth. Will you?