Self-help or helping ourselves?

"I came that they might have life, and have it to the full (John 10,10), Jesus once said with great gusto.

Go into any bookshop today and you will find all sorts of titles that claim to provide the answers: books on yoga, books on meditation techniques, books on crystals, books on diet. In our supposedly 'godless' society, people are still looking for the answers that elude them. Either that or you've got a whole load of bookshops about to go bust.

The Catholic Church claims one thing above all: if you are really looking for answers, look no further than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He it is who will provide the means of peace and satisfaction on this side of the grave.

It is Jesus Christ who is the satisfaction of our desires. All of them.

St Paul, one of the earliest teachers of the Christian faith, says, quite plainly, "As you received Jesus as Lord and Christ, now live your lives in him, be rooted in him and built up on him..." (Colossians, 2,7). Well, we receive this "Jesus as Lord and Christ" in our baptism. Now it's up to us to do the next bit - live our lives "in him". Rooted in him? Built up on him? That's pretty radical. But it is the call for all of us who would follow Jesus Christ.