I WANT TO GO WHERE JESUS IS

A Protestant pastor, already inclined toward Catholicism, once went with his little daughter to visit the capital of England. The child was only five years old.

The father first took her into a Catholic church, and the child’s attention remained fixed for a long time on the sanctuary lamp.

— Daddy — she said — what is that little lamp for?

— My child, it reminds us of the presence of Jesus behind that little golden door.

— Daddy, I want to see Jesus!

— My child, the door is closed and He is hidden under a veil; you cannot see Him…

— Oh, Daddy, how I wish I could see Jesus!…

Leaving there, they soon entered a Protestant temple, where there were neither images nor lamp nor tabernacle.

— Daddy, why is there no lamp here?

— My little girl, it is because Jesus is not here.

From that day on, the child spoke only of the Catholic Church. She never again wished to enter a Protestant church, which for her now had no attraction. They asked her:

— Where do you want to go then?

— I want to go where Jesus is.

The pastor was confounded and moved. He understood, like his daughter, that one can be truly at peace only where Jesus is. He would have to become Catholic, abjure his sect, and renounce an income of one hundred thousand pounds on which his family lived, becoming poor from one day to the next.

Nevertheless, father and mother converted to Catholicism, saying with their daughter:

“We want to be where Jesus is.”