What an absolutely absurd question. Does my opinion of you change who you are? Does my perception or interpretation of another's words or actions change the actuality of those words or actions? The plain answer is of course not! One's view or opinion of the world around him does not impinge itself on the object or person observed changing the fundamental essence of the observed. To say so would be to give an incredible and unbelievable power to humans. It would be to say that one's opinion has the power to change reality. Let's experiment.
My opinion is that I have a million dollars, drive a Ferrari, live on the Italian coast, and am best friends with the Michael Jordan and Abraham Lincoln........... Unfortunately, the experiment does not seem to have worked. I do not have a dollar more, the Chevy Malibu remains the same, and I know nothing further about the personalities of Jordan or Lincoln. It is an obvious thing that our opinions do not affect reality in this way. Perhaps the actions that proceed from our opinions can affect reality, but even then they do not change the truth of the person in front of us. People, their whole beings, are not like inanimate objects that we can fundamentally change. For instance, I can shred a piece of paper into tiny bits and it ceases to be a whole peace of paper. Or I can click certain buttons on a computer to make it do things. I cannot however, tell Joe Schmo the Viking that I disapprove of his habit of raiding and pillaging villages and Monasteries and expect my disapproval to forcibly change his way of life. No more can my opinion that the color black is actually green make this black computer green. So you see, our opinions do not affect the world in this way and even our actions cannot have this affect upon people for we can never touch a person's intellect, we can never make choices for another person. We may destroy or manipulate the body but we cannot directly affect the soul either by action or opinion.
So back to the original titular question, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" I wonder at the frequency I hear this question asked and the almost constant answers given even when the question is not spoken. People right and left have opinions of who Jesus Christ was and is and they are so willing to share these opinions with others. Perhaps we would be better served asking Jesus Christ, who are you, and who am I? Not because of His opinion, but rather because He knows Himself and He created me. You see the mindset of asking this question is actually quite dangerous for it takes the person of Jesus and puts Him under our control. Who He is does not really matter anymore but what matters is my perception. Why this is so frightening is the tremendous frequency my perceptions are wrong or distorted. Not only that, but this mindset allows me to shape Jesus to my liking accepting and rejecting His teachings as I see fit for if what matters is my perception of Jesus, I might simply perceive that He did not teach as He truly did. If I can remove all of His teachings that I dislike because that is not my perception of Him, I can live as I please according to MY Jesus.
This whole question came to my mind because of the response of my students to statements of absolute truth. They questioned if our perception of Jesus is wrong or perhaps these teachings of the Church are not the teachings of Jesus. They are not willing to accept the fact that Jesus said He founded a Church and gave His authority to that Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These same students however accepted the validity of Sacred Scripture but when faced with these words of Jesus they began to question how we can know the Scriptures are the inspired word of God. I think this revealed to me that these students fundamentally have a problem with saying that anything is absolutely true because when things are absolutely true, it requires a passing of judgment upon things that are not true and perhaps even friends, family members, and even oneself who persists in such untruths. It is true as many have said, the last sin is the sin of being judgmental or intolerant. In Christian, Catholic circles I think this is plainly shown in the asking of this question, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?"
I propose that instead of this question, we ask, "Who is Jesus Christ?" After asking this question we need to then examine this question, "What is my relationship with Jesus Christ?" I am deeply concerned because I think that if some of my students were called home today, they would not be too pleased to meet Jesus Christ because He ends up not being the Jesus Christ they have opined. This is why we must learn what actually is true, because at some point we will be confronted with what is true and if our lives have been spent in denial of that truth we will persist in that denial because we persist in making ourselves in control of Jesus. We persist in making ourselves God. Why, one might ask, do we make ourselves God? Why do we reject absolute truths? Why do we want to be in control? Frankly, because we think life will be much easier if we are in control or at least telling our Father in heaven how things ought to be. Sadly, an easy life often leads to a miserable eternity and a loss of a joyful life and the opportunity to lead others to a glorious reunion in heaven. To steal from Gone with the Wind, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn," who Jesus Christ is to you, what I do give a damn about is that you meet Jesus Christ as He truly is and give Him all of your love in thanks for the love He offers you each and every day. May His peace be with you!
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