PUT JESUS FIRST / Fr. Martin Chittadiyil V.C.

We are children of God. We have a divine call to put Jesus first in our lives.  “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Revelation 3:20).

Sr. Briege McKenna is a well-known preacher and faith healer. In her book  Miracles Do Happen she narrates an incident that happened in the early days of her spiritual struggle.  Once in a vision Jesus gave her an image of a house. In this image of the house, she was inside and a man came knocking at the door. She opened the door and the guest seemed to be a very nice man and she permitted him to get in.

She told him, “See all these rooms. Make yourself at home, go anywhere you like in my house.”  Then she followed the man as he walked through all the rooms. There were many of them and they were very pretty and spacious. Suddenly he came upon a locked door. On the door in large type it was written: PRIVATE PROPERTY-DO NOT ENTER.

He turned to her, and as he turned, she recognized him to be Jesus. He asked her, “Briege, why can’t I go in this room?”

She replied, “Come now, Jesus, look at all I have given you. I want to keep a little something for myself.”

She heard him say, “You know, if you do not open that door, you will never know what it means to be truly free.”

She asked herself, “Now what is in that closed room?”

The Lord said, “I’ll show you.” The door was open. Inside that room was her reputation, what others thought of her.

About that moment Sr. Briege writes, “I didn’t want Jesus in that room because I was preserving my good name and my reputation.  I wanted the approval and acceptance of the people. I wanted to follow Jesus, but I wanted control of my life. I wasn’t going to be a fool. Anything to do with the cross, with picking up my cross,  that was out of the question.”

She was confused what to say and what to. Then she heard Jesus saying to her, “I thought you gave me your life.”

Jesus demands our full life. But we have this temptation to give Jesus our lives, but on our terms. Until we abandon every part of our lives and willing to be a fool for him, we would never know fully the joy, the peace, the meaning and eternal life Jesus wanted to give us. According to spiritual masters the demands and distractions of life must not steal our priority of Christian life.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mathew 6:33).

I read about the life of a child of God who led a life of Gospel values. His friends mocked him calling, “Fool!” He was sad and upset about it.  In his prayer Jesus said to him, “Please do not be discouraged. Indeed, you are a fool.  Let me explain.  Fool means Focused Only On the Lord!”