Give Me All; I Want You

Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year B

The Conversion of St. Paul by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Faith in Christ is unlike any other belief system in human history. The entirety of the Christian message essentially demands that we surrender our whole selves to Our Lord in response to the fact that He has already poured out His entire self for us.

After, Paul the Apostle’s baptism, he spent time with the other Apostles that he might learn from them. During this time, the book of Acts tell us that “he moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord” Acts 9:28. When we hear these words, we must ask ourselves: what would compel so drastic a conversion that Paul now couldn’t stop proclaiming the name of Christ, even at the risk of death?

Encountering Christ in our life results in a drastic response of the soul. Essentially, the soul who encounters Jesus chooses to ignore that encounter and walk away from Him, or the soul cannot help but surrender his whole life to Christ. The one thing an encounter with Jesus Christ will NOT result in is a life of indifference and tepidity.

The early Christians knew this well and, much like Paul and the other Apostles, upon hearing the wondrous saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, they echoed the words of David and proclaimed with unyielding fervor, “I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you” (Psalm 22:31).

We cannot take this reality for granted. The greatest gift a person can give to another is to introduce them to Jesus: the only one who infinitely loves them. This is why family members who encounter Jesus have such a powerful effect of conversion on their family members, especially when parents encounter Jesus and introduce Him to their children. When we introduce someone to Jesus, Christ then looks at that person and says to them, with all the love in His Sacred Heart, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). Jesus resoundingly repeats those words to us every singly day as we continue to encounter Him in prayer, in His Word, and in receiving Him in the Holy Eucharist: “Give me all… I want you…”

There is often an interior fear due to our fallen nature that when we surrender to God, we will lose out on the very things in life that we believe make our lives good. Yet, even we can acknowledge that nothing we have ever received in this life ever fully satisfies. It is pleasurable for a time, but that emptiness in our soul reveals itself again and again, breaking through any pleasure. Our hearts are crying out for the ONLY thing that will satisfy: the love of God. “God is greater than our hearts and knows everything” (1 Jn 3:20), including our deepest desires, and He wants to fulfill them all in Him.

He knows that He alone can be the fulfillment of all our desire; the satiation for our soul’s hunger; the relief for our soul’s thirst; and the healing for our soul’s brokenness. So He invites you and me, time and time again: “Remain in me, as I remain in you” (John 15:5a).

St. Benedict of Nursia learned this reality fairly early in life and wrote this into the rule of life he laid out for his brothers. If Christ is our all in all, then nothing else will shake us. He would compel his brothers by saying, “let them put Christ before all else; and may he lead us all to everlasting life” (St. Benedict), for he knew that this was the only way for us to experience true foretastes of the sweetness of everlasting life while here on earth.

If we call ourselves Christian, professing to be followers of Jesus, then every aspect of our life must reflect this — and I mean EVERY aspect. Christ desires to redeem and sanctify our whole lives! He wants to bear fruit in the entirety of our lives. He Himself told us that, “by this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples” (John 15:8). Why? Because this is how we live out lives filled with the love of God poured into our hearts. This is the only reflection of a truly happy life.

So, my brothers and sisters, I invite you to pray that the Holy Spirit will break down all the walls in our lives. Let us pray that Christ will be everything to us, and then let us boldly proclaim Him to all.

Deus Benedicat