Close Encounters of the Divine Kind

How do you encounter Christ?

" Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord.” - Lamentations 3:40

I was raised by two of the best Catholics you will ever meet, with good Catholic siblings at a good Catholic school. For most of my early childhood, my faith was given to me, and I did not consider much else. But, as I got older, I started to question my faith. I questioned the legitimacy of the Church, the fundamentals of Catholic moral teaching, even the written word of God. I doubted that Jesus would keep me above the water, so I fell in.

Through the entire first half of high school, I struggled not only with my faith but with my own anger and bitterness with myself. Years of Catholic school religion teachers telling me that they could “hear God speaking to them” had made me resent the fact that I had never heard God’s voice. I had never had an “encounter with Christ” - I didn’t even know what that meant. I tried to convince myself He wasn’t real (unless I needed help on a math test, in which case I tried to become a firm believer in God for the two minutes I spent asking Him for help). I let myself fall even further, allowing my pain to control me and turning to everything but God to ease it.

Luckily for me, God did not plan on letting me wallow in my own self-pity. A bunch of friends of mine approached me about going to a retreat through my school, and I accepted because I thought it would be fun. On the retreat, another student gave a talk about the importance of self-reflection and how it had helped them get over the anger and bitterness that had followed them all throughout high school. That hit too close to home for me to ignore, so I gave it a try.

This is when I had my first “encounter with Christ.” I sat on a bench, closed my eyes, and thought about all the pain I was experiencing. Since it was a religious retreat, I decided to give asking God for help a try. Within 30 seconds on that bench, I was sobbing.

I always thought “encountering Christ” would mean Him deciding to reach out and say something in my ear, or perform a flashy miracle, or bestow upon me Newton-like calculus abilities. I could not have been more wrong. I “encountered Christ” by realizing that he’s always waiting for us to reach out to Him. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, he is always waiting. Not only that, but he’s always within us, with us, and around us. He wants us.

From that moment on, I took my faith seriously. I do my best to pray often, I go to Mass every Sunday, I even joined a great Bible study - and these are all definitely amazing ways to encounter Christ. But ever since that day, I learned that the way I encounter Christ is through personal reflection. I encounter Him in quiet moments, in long runs through Charlottesville, in my amazing friends, and in good music.

I’m still no expert on encountering Christ; as much as I wish I could pause for a few minutes whenever I want in my day, ask God for advice, and hear His response loud and clear, I’m not sure it will ever be quite like that. But what I can do is pause for a few minutes whenever I can, ask God for advice, and sit in silence. More often than not, my heart slows, my breath calms down, and a wave of peace washes over me - I truly believe this is God’s way of reminding me that everything is in His hands. Everyone encounters Christ in different ways, but I promise it’s a whole lot easier if you don’t try to anticipate what that encounter is going to be like.


My name is Christopher Johnson, Class of 2025. I’m from Alexandria, VA (real NOVA)
Some fun facts are that 1). Everyone calls me Critter, 2). I’m half-decent at playing the guitar and 3). My backup plan for my life is to be a farmer.