"Personal Relationship with Jesus"

If you've ever been asked the question, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?" and didn't know how to respond, I highly recommend this short post by Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a former evangelical, now Catholic priest. Here's an excerpt:

The problem I had was that I felt more and more that the 'personal relationship with Jesus' was more 'personal' than 'Jesus'. As I grew older and got a wider experience of Evangelical Christianity it all seemed rather sentimental and subjective. Not only were the different denominations idea of the personal relationship different, but every individual's personal relationship seemed as different as could be, and I naturally began to suspect that much of the , 'personal relationship with Jesus' consisted of sincere, but subjective emotions, and that the Jesus people had a personal relationship was often more of a reflection of their own inner desires, their own personality, their religious preferences and what they had been taught about Jesus than anything else.

I then began to meet a few Catholics who seemed to be closer to Jesus than anyone I had ever met, but they never spoke about a 'personal relationship with Jesus.'

Similar is the "Are you saved?" question. Maybe I'll come up with a post one day on how we as Catholics can respond to that one. Let me just say that it's perfectly acceptable to respond that you have hope in your salvation, or that you're working it out in fear and trembling. We dare not make presumptions on the mercy and justice of God.

Any thoughts you'd like to add?