
Charles J. white, S.T.L
What think you Of
Christ

This question Jesus asked His Apostles some few months after He began His public mission. Peter, for himself and the other Apostles said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Shortly before His death, Jesus, one morning in the Temple, asked the Jews gathered about Him: “What think you of Christ?” Not wishing to profess belief in His divinity, they would not answer. Jesus today, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, asks each one of us: “What think you of Christ?” We are Christians, we cannot evade the question, and with Peter we must declare: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
We are Christians, we cannot evade the question.
We call ourselves Christians, followers and friends of Christ. We believe that Christ is the Son of God. Yes, and we believe that He is our Redeemer and our Friend. We believe that He is with us in the Holy Eucharist—true God and true man —under the lowly species of bread and wine. Do we, however, act toward Him in the Sacrament of His love as if we believed Him to be our God, our Redeemer, and our Friend? Is there not reason for Christ to ask each one of us, “What think you of Christ?”
A true follower of Christ, a true friend of Christ, is one who is willing to spend and does spend time, energy, talents, for Christ. When we love a person he or she is frequently in our thoughts. We strive to please those we love. We do nothing to displease them or cause them pain. We are willing to sacrifice our own interests to help them. Is this true of us with Jesus, our Friend, in the Eucharist? How often do we think of Jesus in His tabernacle home? Is it only on Sundays and holydays when, under pain of mortal sin, we are obliged to hear Mass, that we think of Christ: and even then our thoughts wander far away from Him? How much of our time up to the present have we spent with Jesus in the Sacrament of His love? Have we tried to please Him? Have we heeded His wish and the urgent pleading of His vice-regent, the Pope, to receive Him frequently in Holy Communion? Have we caused Him sorrow by remaining away from Him, by seemingly forgetting Him? Have we labored for Christ by trying to bring our friends and associates close to Him? Have we employed whatever talents God has given us in making Jesus better known and loved, not so much by our words as by our example? Has not Jesus reason to ask us, “What think you of Christ?”
… no matter how strong a friendship may be, let friends be separated, let time go by without one friend seeing or hearing from another, and that friendship is doomed…
Asking ourselves these questions we are forced to admit that we have not thought very often of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist; that we have given very little of our time to Him; that our talents have not been used in His service. Why? Burdened with business cares, anxious about the needs of our families, goaded on by ambition, enticed by the prospect of happiness, allured by the pleasures of the world, we think only of ourselves, of our own interests. We become selfish. We forget Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. The soul, constantly beset by the things of this world, has little time for reflection. The very atmosphere in which we live is filled with the dust of labor, and stifles thought of the interests of the soul. Man is urged on and on until life is exhausted and the end comes to still the weary heart. Jesus, our Friend, while not altogether forgotten, is not often in our thoughts. With what result? Unrest, discouragement, bitterness, fill the heart. Truly did the holy writer centuries ago exclaim: “With desolation is the land laid desolate because no man thinks in his heart.” It is beneficial for us to think of Christ.
Jesus from His tabernacle home calls to us again and again to come to Him and spend a little time with Him. Jesus knows that friendship demands thoughtfulness on the part of friends. He knows that no matter how strong a friendship may be, let friends be separated, let time go by without one friend seeing or hearing from another, and that friendship is doomed. And knowing this, Jesus, for our good, wishes us to think of Him often, to come to Him frequently, to talk with Him daily. When we hear Jesus’ gentle voice asking “What think you of Christ?” is it not because we seem to have forgotten Him?

While we have believed that He is our God, our Redeemer, our Friend, yet we must admit that we have not acted toward Him according to our belief
Reviewing the days that are gone we are not at all surprised that Jesus asks, “What think you of Christ?” While we have believed that He is our God, our Redeemer, our Friend, yet we must admit that we have not acted toward Him according to our belief. Those about us know that we are Christians, they know that we believe that Jesus dwells with us, they know that we are urged to receive Him frequently. What do they think of us when they see us leaving Jesus alone? They too, with reason, may ask us, “What think you of Christ?” If we answer that we believe Him to be our God, our Redeemer, and our Friend, must they not conclude then that we are treating Jesus in a most indifferent and thoughtless way? May they not with reason even doubt our truthfulness? Can we hope to bring those about us to Christ if we, by our actions, show that we are indifferent to Him?