“What are you thinking about?” My roommate,
Paul, asked me as I lied in bed and blankly starred up at the ceiling.
His
question pulled me out of my thoughts and back into the bedroom. I paused to gather myself, then paused for
another measure to think through how to articulate what I was processing in my
mind. I turned my head so my eyes could
connect with my friend’s, then turned back to the ceiling, “Paul, why are you a
Christian?”
It is
an honest question and its subject is so entrenched into who one is that it can
be surprisingly difficult to answer. It
is a question that is important to ask, to ask yourself, to remember why you
believe what you believe. Living in
Israel, this place where Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all intimately meet,
I have been forced to ask and ponder this question often.
An
answer to this question came in class this past week. Dr. Doug, my program’s director, pointed out that
there was something about Jesus, something he had, something about himself,
that compelled people to follow him, and when they did, they were changed. Encountering Jesus changes people, and I think
this still happens, and I think this is why people are Christians today.
A
beautiful story about someone meeting Jesus and being changed was told to our
class this past week by a Jewish (ethnically) Jesuit Catholic Priest, Father
Newhouse. He told us that, when he was
fifteen, he was living in Jerusalem, attending a religious school but was contently
nonreligious himself. He said religion
didn't interest him, but, for some reason, he was particularly interested in
Russian history, namely with the Romanov family. While living in Jerusalem, he had heard that
a princess from the royal family was living in the area, on the Mount of
Olives. One day, he decided to go visit.
The princess had become a nun and
was on her death bed. When he arrived to
her house, the nun who was taking care of the princess allowed him inside to
visit, but, to his dismay, was unable to communicate much with her because of
her condition. The assisting nun noticed
his disappointment and informed him that there was a friend of the princess, another
lady from the former Russian aristocracy, who was also a nun, who was bright
and social, and who was living close by.
Father Newhouse told the nun that he very much wanted to see this woman
and so he was directed to her house. He found
the woman, Sister Barbara, and said that she changed his life.
Sister Barbara, although bright and
social, was paralysed and bedridden. She
had been immobile for the past twenty years of her life. Father Newhouse said that, despite her
physical condition and a life history that was overwhelmingly tragic, Sister
Barbara shined. After hours of talking
to the nun, fifteen year old Father Newhouse concluded that Sister Barbara was
the happiest person he had ever encountered, and this confused him greatly. His
conclusion burned inside him and he had to ask, “Why are you so happy?” At
first, Sister Barbara was reluctant to respond with the whole truth. She knew he was a Jew and that religion could
be quite a divisive topic, but after he pressured her more, she finally told
him, “It is because I am in love…”
Sister Barbara was in love with
Jesus. She had an active, living
relationship with him, and it changed her, it made her shine. Young Father Newhouse soon came to also fall
in love with Jesus, and as I listened to him share his story, I could see that
he also shined. There is something infinitely
compelling about Jesus, and so we must follow.
