REFLECTION:

I was having a conversation with one of our parishioners recently about a particular problem, and as we were talking about it, he finally said to me, “Father, the answer to this problem is Jesus.” And I responded, “Well, Jesus is always the answer.” He laughed and said, “Yes, Father, that’s true.”

It was a funny little exchange, but afterward I thought about it. We Christians say things like that all the time: “Jesus is the answer.” And sometimes it can almost sound too easy. You have a problem? Jesus. You’re struggling? Jesus. You don’t know what to do? Jesus. It can begin to sound like the answer we give when we don’t know what else to say.

But listen to St. Paul today. Paul basically says: take Jesus—and especially the Resurrection—out of Christianity, and we have nothing. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain.” Everything depends upon him. Our preaching, our faith, our forgiveness, our hope, even what we believe about death—it all comes back to Jesus Christ.

And then the Gospel gives us Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and many others who traveled with Jesus and supported his ministry from their own resources. For them, Jesus wasn’t simply “the answer” they could say with their mouths. Jesus had become the answer they were living with their lives. They gave him their time. They gave him their resources. They followed him.

Maybe that is the challenge for us today.

It is easy for me as a priest to say, “Jesus is always the answer.” But when I have a problem, is Jesus actually the first person I turn to? When I have an important decision to make, do I pray first—or do I make my decision and then ask Jesus to bless it? When I am hurt, angry, worried, or afraid, do I really believe that Christ has something to say about it?

Because our faith is not simply that Jesus has some answers. Our faith is that Jesus himself is the answer.

And Paul tells us why we can stake our lives on him: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead.”

So maybe today, whatever question you are carrying, whatever problem you are trying to solve, whatever uncertainty is sitting in your heart, begin there.

Bring it to Jesus.

Because sometimes the simplest answer really is the deepest one: Jesus is always the answer.