SEEING JESUS: THE PLACE WHERE NO ONE WANTS TO LOOK

This is the second in a series on Techniques I use to be present to Jesus when I am in the presence of Christ in the upper room of my inner self. These ideas are mine, supported by Grok.

I. The Mystery of Faith

• Grace builds on nature.
• God’s knowledge, love, and energy (service) draw all things to Himself.
• Must have God’s help to see what human reasoning can only partially “see.”
• Faith informed by reason.
• God gives of Himself (Eucharist) to help sustain us and forgiveness (Making All           Things New) for us to start over when we fail.
• Christ came not only to tell us how to love but to show us
• Four Assumptions that don’t make sense in each age
• How can the Church be Holy yet be filled with sinners? (except for Christ and Mary?)
• How can the Church be One yet be so diverse without blowing itself apart?
• How can the Church be Catholic with the same heritage and tradition yet be so individual in meeting our needs?
• How can the Church be Apostolic and yet have relevance for each age on how to live in a school of Love with Christ as Rabboni?
• God gave humans his only-begotten Son so that we might discern the Way, and so come to believe in absolute truth, thus beginning to live life at the deepest level of our human evolution.
• Catholics pack for the trip to forever by following the Christ Principle. What we pack in our two suitcases we can take with us to Heaven after we die, a continuation of struggling to see Jesus while we lived in a human temple of the Holy Spirit, but, after death, being in resonance with all that is, was, or will be.

II. DUAL CITIZENSHIP: TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT REALITY

THE WORLD –

• We interact with our environment with human intelligence and choices in the mental and physical universes only.
• We take our values from human rules and experiences. No one makes a choice that they think is bad for them.
• We seek to discover meaning and Love using our senses and reasoning to make choices that fulfill us at this moment.
• We make choices based on what is good for us. Adam and Eve chose poorly. There are consequences for both good and bad choices.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN –  JESUS GIVES US GIFTS TO HELP US WALK OUR UNIQUE PATH.

• We live in the visible and invisible reality of nature in the physical, mental, and spiritual universes. At Baptism, God gives us five gifts: a. Special glasses to see what cannot be seen and to be able to receive divine energy by being in the presence of Christ and waiting; b. Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ each time you join Him in the Last Supper as food for the journey, God’s energy in you through, with, and in Christ to the glory of the Father. Food for the journey on earth and energy to be Jesus in Heaven where the Food of Angels sustains all faithful. c. A Map, the Scriptures as guide to the Way, what is true, and to lead a life of penitence and fulfillment of our evolutionary destiny towards Omega. d. One end of the Golden Thread (linked infallibly with the hem of Christ’s garment), a thread which I alone can thread through what I have found to be good and truthful about life, all of which I can take with me to Heaven to decorate the mansion the Father has waiting for those who are faithful. I can thread through sunsets that remind me of Jesus, all the deeds where I struggle to have in me the mind of Christ Jesus but fail, only to use Jesus to make all things new again and again and repent of my transgressions and Seven Deadly Sins that cause dissonance in my personal life. e. The Catholic Church, the body of Christ, to be that blanket of warm traditions that come directly from Jesus to me so that I can convert my life daily (conversio morae) by an act of my will to become more like Jesus and love with all my heart, all my mind, all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. The Church is my mother, Mary, the Mother of God, like St. Joseph, present to guide me if I but ask, like St. Michael, whom I trust will guard my Six, and Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, the source of my energy (Eucahrist) and one who stands with me before the Father as friend and with the Advocate, is Omega. Satan tried to distract me from the School of Love by raising heretics (presumed to be sincere) and schismatics, SSPX, and others who usurp the Shoes of the Fisherman because of their pride (Genesis all over) and worship the Golden Calf of their egos. The Catholic Church will never sow factions (Galatians 5) but always unity in, with, and through Christ, to the glory of the Father.
• Original Sin is forgiven at Baptism. We still have the effects of Sin (pain, suffering, hatred of others), but Christ gives us the grace to love others as He loves us. He won’t do it for us but with us. Spirituality takes work to maintain (Cistercian practices and charisms, as I know them).
• We seek God where we are using God’s own energy (Faith) to make choices that fulfill our human nature and make us adopted sons and daughters of the Father (Belief).
• Disciples are commanded to love others as Christ loves us. There are consequences for making good or bad choices.
• When you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you receive an indelible mark on your soul (the sign of the cross).
• You also become a pilgrim in a foreign land. You are of the World no more.
• All words now have two meanings: Peace in the World is the absence of conflict; Peace in the Kingdom of Heaven is the presence of Love, the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

III. HOW TO ACCESS THE PLACE WHERE NO ONE WANTS TO LOOK?

Matthew 6:5.

Use what is human to see what is. Use what is from Jesus to see how to see what is, is at the deepest level of humanity.

Contemplation is the highest form of Lectio Divina. It comes only after preparation of the mind and heart to strip away human needs, to willingly enter that place in the upper room of your inner self, and to wait for instructions in the presence of Christ. Unlike going fishing, you may not know if you will catch anything, but just being in the presence of Christ means you made a conscious choice to be with Jesus.

Use the human mind to see a deeper reality (All the Sciences, Philosophy, Religion, Literature) and discover meaning and truth.

Use the human mind and freedom to choose God as your Center. This is the process of moving from self to God, of dying to self to rise again with Christ, of denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Christ. This is achieved with contemplative spirituality, particularly using Cistercian practices and charisms, as I know them.

To access that place where no one wants to look, the upper room of our inner selves where we meet Christ not as He is but as we are now, then, in silence and solitude, wait for what He chooses to share with me. Full circle means I must listen “with the ear of the heart,” and Do What He Tells Me. I am the tabernacle where the real presence of Christ resides, and as keeper of the keys, I receive as new wine each day what is kept and guarded from the corruption of matter. No free rides. Taking up the cross of Christ as my own means I must actively make all things new each day, by creating new wineskins to hold the new wine Christ shares with me, His Body and Blood.

Only I can open that upper room to someone. I can put evil thoughts or behaviors there which I covet and maintain, or I must daily clean house and first brush away extraneous human characteristics and needs to empty myself to receive rather than to dictate to Jesus my needs. I want to listen to what Jesus says I need, but to do that I must over and over (conversio morae) deny my humanity only to realize that, with Christ, I have entered a level of humanity intended by my human nature all along. This deepest part of my evolution is only entered with the help of divine energy, as mediated through, with, and in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

The Catholic Church is the living presence through the Body of Christ, helping me sustain the umbilical of energy from Jesus to right now in the Eucharist and Making All Things New, while tied to this moral body.

I must struggle to be a Catholic (getting my hands dirty in fighting daily to keep Jesus my focus). I must pray unceasingly (not saying the Rosary every minute of the day, praying, good as that might be), but rather to be aware that I am aware of being an adopted son (daughter) of the Father, and heir to the kingdom (both while I live and in the life to come).

When you build your own Catholic Church, which you do using Christ as the cornerstone and the traditions handed down through each of the centuries, with the Shoes of the Fisherman as our spiritual guide, I have found that I must try the techniques that work based on the practices and charisms of the Cistercian Way infused with the sacred traditions handed down from the Apostles.

My Catholic Church is “doing” what Jesus tells me from my being in His presence. If you don’t have this interaction, receiving the Eucharist becomes just a way to remember what Jesus said and did (not to discount that), but not the same Jesus that sits at the right hand of the Father and that same Jesus in the tabernacle of my inner self.

What I have learned by “Having me in the mind of Christ Jesus,” and discovered about Loving others as Christ loves me, plus by being a servant to all others I meet to share the unfathomable joy that comes from being in the presence of others, is my Heaven on earth and the treasures that I take to Heaven after death with me to decorate the mansion the Father has waiting for me.

For all the anawin, myself included, this level of intimacy happens within me, based on how I use the Catholic Church as the “Abbot’s Table,” taking what I need that Christ offers rather than demanding Christ give me what I want. All you or I have to do is ask, and we will receive; knock, and Christ will open it; and seek Jesus each day in whatever form it unfolds, to the glory of God the Father, with the Son, and with the energy of the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen (Cistercian doxology)

Copyright 2026, Michael F. Conrad, Ed, D. The Center for Contemplative Practice. All Rights Reserved.

Six Core Websites Every Catholic Should Memorize and Use Frequently: www.wordonfire.org; www.scotthahn.com; www.usccb.org; www.newadvent.org; https://thecenterforcontemplativepractice.org/; www.vatican.va

uiodg