I just read a great article in our new magazine that our friend Maria K. gave us a subscription to, “Faith and Family”.

Patty Kiernan writes in the first-person about her life. She grew up nominally Catholic (twice-a-year Mass goer). In her mid-twenties, she went to Hollywood to find fame and fortune where she found some small acting jobs and accepted vague New Age beliefs as her religion.

She writes: “Seven years, two dysfunctional relationships, and one child later, I found myself a single mom and frustrated actress. With nominal acting credits and a slew of commercials under my belt, I fled to New York seeking solid ground both physically and emotionally.”

She realized in New York that fame was an empty god who brought no true peace or joy. And it was at this time that God made His move in her life, through her 5-year-old daughter:

I accompanied my daughter and a few other children across the street to a bodega to purchase some snacks for the ride back to school. As we perused the aisles deciding on the perfect post-tortilla-making snack, my daughter stumbled across a shelf stocked with religious candles. She pointed to the one of Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and asked, “Who’s that guy?”. I looked at her blankly. I was stunned at first that she did not recognize Jesus, but it quickly dawned on me that I had never introduced her to him, and plainly replied, “That’s Jesus.”

I thought the tone of finality in my voice was enough to end the line of questioning and move on, but she pursued it. “Why is he crying?” she countered. That was too much. “I will tell you later,” I said. “Let’s go!”

How amazing that a little child asks the questions that are so obvious: “Who is this man? Why is he crying?” that most adults don’t want to ask nor find the answers to.

As we boarded the bus for home I felt relieved to have narrowly escaped an in-depth discussion I was not prepared for and settled in for the ride back to the spiritual safety of the upper eastside.

The next morning, as was our routine, we set out on the 15-minute walk to school, holding hands. Two minutes into the walk my daughter piped up, “So, you said you would tell me about that guy.”

“What guy?” I said, feigning amnesia.

“The guy with the thing on his head. You know,” she said, shaking my arm, hoping to jar my memory.

“Oh, him,” I said, as I took a deep breath and launched into a very politically correct explanation of who Jesus Christ was, relying heavily on my recent New Age insights….”Some people think he was a prophet, some think he was a very highly-evolved soul, some think he was the Son of God, some think he was an alien (even I knew that one was a stretch, but I wanted to be thorough), and some think he was the most enlightened human being that ever lived,” I explained.

She listened, thought for a moment, and since we were at a stoplight, she looked up at me and said in that simple way that only a child and God can, “What do you think?”

Silence.

The defining moment of my life and I had no idea what to say. I choked back the emotion that was beginning to well up in the back of my throat and said the only thing I could, “I don’t know, sweetie.”

Thus began her journey to the Catholic Church and her rebirth of faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord! Her daughter asked her so directly, “What do you think?” just as Jesus asked Peter and the apostles, “But who do you say that I am?” to which Peter responds with faith, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”.

If only more adults could see the world with new eyes, with honest eyes, and ask without pride, without cynicism, without doubt or at least with a small openness to faith, “Who is Jesus?”, God himself would come at light-speed to them and tell them who He is.

Especially in the United States, where 80% – 90% of people say they are Christians, people receive a sort of vaccination of Christianity growing up that inoculates them against Jesus Christ and His love, power, and beauty, against True Mercy that is the only thing that will save them.

They think they know who Jesus is and what the faith is because they went to church sometimes or even often when they were younger, but then they learn in high school and in college that “faith is for suckers and idiots”, that “we know better now”, and instead of honestly looking at Jesus and the Church and opening up their heart to the possibility that they are true, the vaccination they received when younger closes their hearts to it.

There is no time like the present to take another look at the faith that many of us grew up with and to ask Jesus any questions we have with candor, then to seek the answers He will surely give us. Patty Kiernan’s daughter asked such questions of her, leading her to ask the same questions of God, who then responded in overwhelming love, entering their hearts and lives anew.