Week three: Getting to know Jesus Christ - Introduction

“They should apply themselves in the third week to know Jesus Christ.” 

St. Louis de Montfort, A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 230

Introduction 

“We wish to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21). That’s what some Greeks said when they came to Jerusalem for Passover and met the apostle, Philip. They had a great desire to meet Jesus. Probably, they heard more than once about the Teacher from Nazareth who preached the Gospel about the Kingdom and performed miracles. They heard, but they never saw the Lord. They didn’t meet Him face-to-face. Therefore, they were seeking—

I hope that we also have this desire to experience living Jesus. I firmly believe that the Lord, who knows our hearts, will respond to this desire and show us His face in the Scripture, and thanks to the fragments of the Gospel, we will meet Jesus and see that He comes to us from all directions.

So, ahead of us, there is awaiting a path which we will take with Jesus and following Jesus. We are at the start of a wonderful adventure. We will, like the first disciples, follow Jesus. Therefore, we appeal to the Rabbi of Nazareth: “Where are you staying?” (Jn 1:38). Teacher! We want to attend your school! We want to listen to you and look at you! Please, answer us, the Lord! Where is your home? Where are you? Where are you staying? In the Gospel, we read that Jesus said to the disciples: “Come and see” (Jn 1:39). And today we hear the same…

On this way of getting to know Jesus, we will be accompanied by the Blessed Virgin. Miriam of Nazareth knew the Lord the most fully here on earth. She was, and she is always so close to Jesus. And not only for 30 years of His hidden life in Nazareth. During the three years of public activity of Jesus, Mary was always near. Not physically but spiritually. A strong spiritual bond with Our Lord means life in a real, authentic and most profound communion (friendship) with Jesus. That’s why Mary will help us get to know the Lord. She will open great pages of the Bible for us, and while reading the Scripture, she will repeat that the Gospel is not the past. It is still good news that may touch our hearts and amaze us. The Gospel we read and study happens in us (in our world), and it is the source of knowledge about Jesus and the source of our life conversion! The miracles happen because the Lord always reveals and wants to be known. And once known and accepted by us, He acts and does many great works in our world…

So, we set off! Together with Mary and through Mary (per Mariam) to Jesus (ad Iesum) to consecrate ourselves to the Lord and to entrust our lives into the hands of God being the Love.

St. Philip Neri used to repeat: Nulla dies sine linea! Literary translated, it means: “No day without a line.” This great mystic of the 16th century wanted to express that God’s people should do at least one good deed every day. Listening to or talking about the Kingdom of God is not enough. Every day, we may embody that Kingdom by doing little-great good. Then, our spiritual (invisible) way with Jesus becomes physical (visible) and manifests itself.

And one more essential remark: in this spiritual way of getting to know Jesus in Mary’s presence and with her help, we will also have the help of St. Louis de Montfort.