God's Secret Influence

We approach "religion," and Christianity in particular with a set of beliefs or doctrines to which we must adhere.  But what I love about Jesus is His "Come and See" approach.  When He encountered Matthew at the money-table, He simply said, "Come."  When He met Andrew, He said, "Come and see."  He taught the multitudes, healed the sick, and told the apostles to go into the whole world -- all before there was a set of beliefs to follow.

Before theology developed, something happened to people --something like an electric current running through their souls-- that adhered them to Jesus Christ.  Should we believe today that this current no longer flows from the heart of God to us?  Should we believe that God's secret influence, as C.S. Lewis calls it, no longer exists to draw people to Jesus Christ?

Seventeen people have come to RCIA this year to investigate the Catholic Church.  Three of them are "Cradle Catholics" who have never left the church, but who feel "something is missing," in their own words.  They want to know what they are doing -- but in my mind, they want the Power and Presence of God in their lives.  Their practice of religion is leaving them cold, and they want the warmth that is given only by the Holy Spirit, the "Secret Influence," the "electric current" that runs through our souls and changes everything.

Fourteen others have come from different faiths--Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, etc.  They have come for whatever reasons they cannot name, as did Emilie Griffin in her classic Turning.  Something happened to them, something they cannot name but cannot resist either.  "Theology" follows to give a name, a word, to their experience -- to explain that mysterious force that embraces and fills the entire universe.

In Jesus' day, there were many non-Jews who "knew" Him and came to Him--the Roman centurian, the Syrio-Phoenician woman, the Samaritan woman at the well.  Today, throughout the entire world, in every nation and language, there are people who are God's children by His 'secret influence,' though they could not name Jesus Christ or the theology of Christianity.  When someone gives them the "Name," or the "Word," their hearts leap for joy in recognition at what they already know. 

God is so much greater than our minds and world-systems and theologies.  He knows those who belong to Him, and He knows how to influence their hearts and minds toward Him.  I think we can trust that He has more options than we can guess toward salvation, joy, and peace.