Five Jesuses: The Four We Invent and the One We Meet – a  reflection Tom Hoopes in http://www.aleteia.org/en/

There are several Jesuses running around in our heads and I thought it would be helpful to sort them out. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to list all the bad guys’ wrong answers to the question “who is Jesus?” then wink to fellow good guys and give our right answer. The truth is I fall regularly into each of the wrong answers — and I suspect others do, too.

The first Jesus: An especially vivid and loving imaginary friend.

The second Jesus: The moral support for my ideology

The third Jesus is a magical talisman.

Fourth is the apologetics Jesus.

The fifth Jesus is Mary’s son — and God the Son.

Read the full article for the author’s insights….  and conclusion below

The truth is, my misunderstandings about Jesus are not that different from my misunderstandings about other people in my life. I tend to vilify, romanticize or dismiss my wife at various points in our relationship, too, before remembering that she is flesh and blood. The best way to correct my understanding of my wife is to spend more time with her – talking to her and listening. So it is with Jesus.

The problem with all of these misunderstandings is that they make Jesus a means to an end, rather than an end in himself. We will never understand the real Jesus until we meet him where he can be found: in the Scriptures, in the tabernacle, in the confessional, in the community of believers, and in the teachings of the Church.