If Christianity, as has so rightly been said, is not primarily a doctrine but a person, Jesus Christ, it follows that the proclamation of this person and of one’s relationship with him is the most important thing, the beginning of all true evangelization.  To reverse this order and put the doctrines and moral obligations of the Gospel before the discovery of Jesus would be like putting the carriages in front of the railway engine that is supposed to pull them. 

Insisting on the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ is not a sign of subjectivism or emotionalism but is the translation, onto the spiritual and pastoral plane, of a dogma central to our faith: that Jesus Christ is ‘a person’.

 Let us recall the most famous ‘personal encounter’ with the Risen Christ, that of the Apostle Paul.  “Saul, Saul!”  “Who are you, Lord?”  “I am Jesus!” (cf. Acts 9:4-5).  The apostle himself in the Letter to the Philippians describes this encounter: “But whatever gain I had [that is, being circumcised, of the seed of Israel, a Pharisee, blameless], I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him.”  (Phil. 3:7-10).

 I still recall the moment when this passage became an active reality for me.  While studying Christology, I did a great deal of research into the origins of the concept of ‘person’ in theology.  In one sense I knew everything about the person of Christ.  But, at a given moment, I made a disconcerting discovery: yes, I knew all about the person of Jesus, but I did not know Jesus in person!  I knew the notion of person better than the person himself.

It is possible to have an impersonal knowledge of the person of Christ.  A contradiction and a paradox, alas, that is all too common!  Why impersonal?  Because this knowledge leaves you neutral as regards the person of Christ, while the knowledge that Paul had, made him consider everything else as loss, as rubbish, and filled his heart with an irresistible yearning to be with Christ, to divest himself of everything, even of the body, to be with him.  Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus is not like entering into a relationship with anyone you may run into.  To be a ‘true’ relationship, it has to lead to recognition and acceptance of Jesus for what he is, that is to say, Lord. 

 The personal knowledge of Jesus thus consists in this: that I acknowledge Him as my Lord and Savior, which is like saying: as my center, my meaning, my reason for living, my purpose in life, my glory, someone to whom joyfully “I surrender all”.

 This living and personal knowledge of Christ doesn’t come from us; it can’t be obtained by way of conquest, but only as a gift of the Holy Spirit.  “Nobody is able to say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).  It is only after Peter on the day of Pentecost has been “filled with the Holy Spirit” that he can proclaim with such boldness: “The whole House of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36).

 There is an essential link between the gift of the Spirit and this living knowledge of Jesus.  Nobody can proclaim “Jesus is Lord” unless he or she is moved by the Holy Spirit, and nobody can be moved by the Holy Spirit unless he or she proclaims that Jesus is Lord.  This is a fact of experience: the “power of the Spirit” is not given except to those who proclaim Jesus “Lord” in the same strong and absolute sense as St. Paul does in 1 Cor. 8:5-6.

 We need to subject everything, literally everything, to Jesus Christ as the “only Lord”, and only when we have decided to do that, do we experience a new certainty in our life and authority in our ministry.