It isn’t easy to stop. It isn’t easy to take time with people who need our time. But Jesus didn’t deal with people while He was “on the run.” He took time with those who needed Him. Likewise, we can’t expect to have much good effect on our loved ones and on others if we don’t stop long enough to be with them.
The giving of time – and with it, showing real respect towards someone else as a person who matters – meets a fundamental human need. Too often people just want to lump other people together as a particular class, or a particular group, and not as individuals with special worth and dignity.
Jesus Christ, as the Incarnate God, didn’t come generically “to the world,” but He came to every individual person in the world. When He walked upon this earth, He didn’t simply preach to the crowds, but He stopped to spend time with individuals in need.
And that’s the way He has remained. When He meets us in the confessional, He gives His forgiveness to us individually. When He comes to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, He’s telling each one of us, “I love you. I died for you. I give myself to you.”
There’s no doubt about it: when it comes to our relationship with God, He makes it very personal indeed.
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Painting: "Christ Healing a Sick Child"
by Gabriel Cornelius von Max (1840-1915)