The Most Resounding Voice

What messages come from Christ? What messages confuse us? What parts of our experience and culture and context make it challenging to hear the truth from Jesus, a man who speaks as no man has spoken before? How do we keep ourselves close to his Word? 

I am reading a book for my mom’s book club this month called “One in a Millenial” and I have been reminded of so much of my context and experience growing up in the 90’s and 00’s. I’m realizing how much I learned about the world through problematic sitcoms, minimally supervised slumber parties, the media’s portrayal of popularity, the mall, and The Limited Too. I’m reminded of never feeling like I was enough. I’m reminded of youth groups that sometimes felt fun and social and sometimes made me feel guilty and wrong and unlovable. I developed a faith in my adolescence and young adulthood that was based on what others were telling me to do, to believe, to look like, to act instead of a faith based on a personal relationship with Jesus. 

In the Gospel reading today, we are met with confusion. Some people receive Jesus as Christ. Some people want to believe, but are confused when the person of Jesus doesn’t line up with their expectations for who they were told he would be. The guards are changed by his words, standing in awe of him instead of arresting him. The Pharisees do their best to make all these people question the way Jesus has impacted their hearts, attacking their education, background, and experience. And at the end of the reading, there isn’t really a resolution. We have to sit in the tension of whether the world will accept the words of Jesus or reject them. 

One of the greatest gifts that I’ve received from Jesuit has been exposure to and practice with Ignatian spirituality, particularly in the way that the life and words of Jesus inspire, motivate, and direct our lives. I have been encouraged to learn about the person of Jesus and to desire an intimate friendship with Jesus.  This has helped me to create a faith in partnership with Christ, guided by his words, informed by Catholic tradition, and centered in prayer and discernment. When my prayer life is strong, I resonate with the guard’s words: “never before has anyone spoken like this man.” My journey toward the life of Christ and the words of Christ has grounded me in a way that my culture has never been able to. 

As I reflect on my own development through my adolescence in the 90’s and 00’s, I also must reflect on the way that my current students’ cultural context must also provide the most confusing backdrop for choosing the “right” messages to hear and trust and act upon. How do they hear the way Christ is calling them amidst all of the competing messages? How do we help guide them toward Christ’s words? How do we allow them to sit in the tension of their adolescence just long enough that they can embrace the way Jesus calls them differently than society does. How can we help them faithfully discern as they grow?

That is my prayer as we return to campus next week. I pray that God provides me opportunities to lead my students to the voice of Christ. I pray that they hear his voice above the noise. I pray that we can all be present to these young men as they try to figure out who Jesus is calling them to be in a world that often calls them to be something different. And I humbly pray the same for us - that Jesus’s words continue to be the most resonating voice guiding our lives and that he brings us trust, clarity, and peace.

Author: Tricia Gerber, Mathematics Department