Conversations with God: fact or fiction?

What if you could have a dialogue with Jesus? What if he would answer nearly all your questions? What if he’s talking to you right now – for real – and you’re just not listening?

There are many beliefs connected with how we communicate with God. “Normal” experience tells us the talking part is all one-way: We pray words of love and faith to God, and we hope he loves us in return; we ask requests of God, and he may or may not answer our prayers with the blessings we’ve requested.

This conjures the image of a sovereign God that is gracious and remote, beloved and loving from a far-off throne of power in a palace we call heaven.

But heaven is not remote: Jesus told us, “The kingdom of God is within-among you” (Luke 17:21). Jesus is describing a dimension that is intimately conjoined with this material world. And if the spiritual

world is that close, that intimately close, then why would communications through the thin dimensional curtain come as such a surprise to us? After all, such glimpses of the eternal get reported all the time.

Often such events are connected with death as either a near-death experience or being present at the death of a friend or loved one. Some people feel an angel has intervened in their lives in a way not otherwise explainable. Some people have prophetic dreams.

Different religions give different weight to such experiences. Some denominations teach that God speaks to us through Scripture, and that all we need to hear from God has already been said in the Bible. Any direct spiritual communications are therefore held suspect by these churches as works of the devil or the result of some terrible psychological condition.

But when we read the Bible, what do we find? We find over and over that God speaks to people directly through angels and in dreams. In Eden, God (in the timeless form of Jesus, perhaps) walked and talked with Adam and Eve. God gave bad news to Cain, and good news to Abraham and Sarah; God made promises to Jacob, and even wrestled with him; he spoke to Moses from a burning bush, from a mountaintop and regularly from the Ark of the Covenant. God spoke to the prophets in dreams, through angels and in person.

And that’s just skimming the Old Testament. In the New Testament, God continues to speak to many people, including Mary, Joseph, the wise men, the disciples and Paul. Because of this long history of God-and-person conversations, the Catholic Church has pointed to exceptional people down through the ages who, they verify through sainthood, spoke directly with Jesus and-or his mother, Mary. These people, they say, are rare and blessed, and should even be talked to in prayer.

And then there are individuals such as Vassula Ryden, a practicing Catholic and former model turned messenger for God, who claims to have been dialoging with Jesus for more than 20 years. The Catholic Church has been divided by her writings, as some bishops have endorsed her while others have been critical. Pope John Paul II rejected Vassula for promoting a “false understanding” of the Trinity; yet many Catholic churches (including one in Bangor) have regular meetings to discuss, and pray about, her conversations with Jesus. (You can learn more about Vassula at her Web site, True Life in God, www.tlig.org).

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, a Franciscan favorite on the Catholic network EWTN, has been quoted as saying, “I am jealous of people who see what I believe.” That sentiment is echoed by the millions who have flocked to places where apparitions of Jesus or Mary have been reported, places such as Fatima, Zeitoun, Medjugorje, Lourdes, Beauraing and Knock. Some of the people who have gone to these places report personal experiences with the spiritual world – sometimes life-changing events for themselves and their families.

Recently, Medjugorje expert Wayne Weible came to St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor to discuss the miraculous appearances of Mary, and the messages and warnings she has given to certain chosen people in that distant city. More than 200 people filled the church to hear Weible’s report. After his talk, I asked Mr. Weible if he has been approached by people claiming to have received communications from the other side. “All the time,” he replied.

And in my own work, I have heard many firsthand accounts of encounters with angels, deceased relatives or Jesus himself, as yet another, newly gifted visionary peered across that narrow threshold into the world of the eternal.

My conclusion? I believe the experiences of a Vassula may not be nearly so rare as the church would have us believe. In fact, it could even be that God is speaking to us all the time, and it is only because our spiritual ears have not been opened that God’s words are going unheard and unanswered.

As I pursue my doctoral studies, I’ll be exploring such communications in depth, including reports from a well-respected Bangor man who claims to be having credible, powerful conversations with Jesus. Stay tuned for more on that.

Lee Witting is a chaplain at Eastern Maine Medical Center, pastor of the Union Street Brick Church in Bangor and a doctoral candidate at Bangor Theological Seminary. He may be reached at leewitting@midmaine.com.