- I heard that you have become a Christian, so you must know a lot about Christ; in which country was he born?
- I don't know.
- How old was he when he died?
- I also don’t know.
- You must know at least how many sermons he preached?
- Hum...this also I don’t know.
- You seem to know very little for someone who claims to be a convert to Christ.
- That's true, and I’m ashamed that I know so little. But what I do know is that before I was addicted to alcohol; I was up to my neck in debt; my family was torn apart; my wife and children dreaded the hour when I would come home late at night; there was no money for notebooks or furniture. After knowing Christ I stopped drinking, got out of debt, and now my home is a happy one.
- Hum... and you really believe that he turned water into wine?
- I don't know, I wasn't there, but what I do know is that in my house he turned wine into furniture and notebooks, and misery into happiness.
Dogs or cats without owners are in danger for their lives, and they wander around, approaching people, begging someone to save them. If someone is moved by them, and gives them a pat on the head or some food, they will follow that person wherever he goes. The same thing happens among humans, despite the millions of years of evolution that separate us from these animals. The blind man in Jericho, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, are examples of people lost in life, without bread, without health and without love; when they met Jesus, they found salvation and, leaving behind their old life, they followed him and became his disciples.
It has always amazed me that most of the saints of the Catholic Church were people who had everything that the world can offer and what most people seek so much: youth, wealth, nobility, beauty, fame and power. If they left all this behind upon meeting Christ, it must not have been because they were stupid, but because they found something better and greater in Christ.
In life we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes; however, since life is short and there isn’t enough time to make all the mistakes and learn from them, why not learn from the mistakes of others? In this way, why not accept the testimony of so many saints, and stop searching for what they had and judged to be rubbish, in order to cling to Christ, the only way, the truth and the life?
Bartimaeus - The encounter with Jesus cured him of his blindness; it opened his eyes and he began to see life in a different way, in one leap he left behind the former life (symbolized by the cloak) and followed Jesus. (Mark 10:46-52)
Samaritan Woman – Having found in Jesus the true water, she abandoned her pitcher at the well, symbol of a life of wandering, in search of water that can never satisfy.
Paul of Tarsus - His encounter with Christ reversed the course of his life; the same energy he used to fight Christ was later used to spread the good news of the Master throughout the entire ancient world.
Francis of Assisi - Young and the only son of a rich bourgeois family who could afford his every whim; he met Christ and abandoned material wealth to embrace spiritual wealth.
Nuno Alvares Pereira - Young, noble, famous hero of the battle of Aljubarrota, he owned half of Portugal and deserved, more than the Master of Aviz, to be the king of Portugal; he abandoned all for a greater treasure, Christ.
Francis of Borgia – A nobleman from the great Borgia family, he served with dedication the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, he married the beautiful Isabel of Portugal, eldest daughter of Dom Manuel I. When he saw the young and beautiful empress on her deathbed, he said: "Never again, never again serve a master who may die on me."
Beatrice da Silva - The queen’s jealousy caused the beautiful young Beatrice to be imprisoned in a cell; there she encountered Christ, and when she managed to free herself, she said goodbye to the court life and followed her master.
In all these lives, there was one before meeting Christ and another after meeting him. Anyone who says he or she has met Christ and has an intimate and personal relationship with him, but has not changed, walks deceived and deluded.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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