Answering the question about just what my concept of God might be can seem like a tough industrial strength question. Maybe it’s a question that I might wish to default to the trained theologian, or to some really much more spiritual person. But me? Yet at the same time all three synoptic gospels explicitly focus on the question that Jesus asks of me individually, not the theologian and not some other person who is expected to to have a facile answer. The question of Jesus isolates me. I do not guess a pass.
And yet coming up with a response to the question Jesus proposes does not require that I stand alone, fretting to come up with a sufficient answer. Jesus himself, if I allow him to rub shoulders with me, demonstrates the answer to the question. Indeed, Lord, you are my very breath, you are what is most authentic, you are the face of God.
—Jack Goldberg is a retired trial attorney. He and his wife Barbara live in Cincinnati. Jack is the moderator of the Moot Court competition team at St. Xavier High School, Cincinnati OH, and an alumnus of St. X.