At the very heart of the Christian faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from sin and death, to restore us to right relationship with the Father, and to open the gates of eternal life to His faithful people.
Preachers use all those big theological words a lot, like “redemption, salvation, grace, sacrifice, or expiation.”
Often times, I wonder how much of it sails right over most people’s heads. Do I truly believe that I need salvation? Am I truly convicted that I am a sinner in need of redemption? Do I see the Church as a necessary means for me to encounter Christ fully and all He seeks to give me?
A need to hear the basic message
For the past 18 months, I have been offering a three-night mission in a different parish in our diocese, focusing on the kerygma — the basic message of the Gospel.
The four parts of this fundamental proclamation of the Good News are: God created everything good, with humanity as the crown of that creation; sin shattered God’s original plan and plunged us into death; Christ accomplished our salvation through His life, death, and resurrection; in response to this supernatural gift, we live our faith as missionary disciples, seeking to love the Lord and witness the Gospel to others.
I have found these parish missions energizing and life-giving for me personally and I hope for the people who so kindly participated.
This experience has increased my conviction that most Catholics, even those who are very faithful, need to hear the basic message of Christianity over and over again. I know I sure do!
We need to immerse ourselves in the fundamental narrative of the Gospel, if we seek to live it, and if we desire to proclaim it to others.
Too often, we may think of the Bible as one particular way to view the world or just one belief system among many others.
On the contrary, the Scriptures reveal God’s identity, plan, and purpose clearly, showing us the fundamental meaning of our existence and illuminating the interpretive key to understanding human history.
Recognizing sin
Those of us who are older (and I admit I am too young to have experienced them) may remember the old-fashioned parish missions, during which the preacher focused on the second part of the kerygma, offering up some fire and brimstone, seeking to convict people of their sinfulness, talking about the eternal pains of Hell, wanting to move the hearts of the parishioners towards repentance and conversion, encouraging the Sacrament of Confession.
Perhaps, in the old days, sin and hell fire received too much attention, but in today’s culture of self-affirmation, the pendulum has certainly dramatically swung the other way, such that any focus on sin is dismissed as unhealthy fear-mongering; any exploration of guilt is a sign of psychological imbalance.
Sin is all over the Bible, from the Original Sin in Genesis to the apocalyptic defeat of evil in Revelation.
To deny my personal sinfulness, to refuse to grapple with my guilt, to affirm that I am essentially alright without God is to close the door on my radical need for mercy and salvation.
If I cannot acknowledge my sinful state, then I will never know the joy of being loved, forgiven, and redeemed.
If I refuse to show my wounds or even admit that I have any, I cannot know the healing of Christ or His radical, gracious love, poured out in the Gospels and made manifest in the sacramental life of the Church.
To face the power of evil and sin, I need go no further than the evening news or a brief examination of my own conscience.
The power of death is all around us and even within us, yet the Good News of our faith is that Christ, crucified and risen, is infinitely more powerful.
When I know in my mind, heart, and soul, that the eternal Son of God traded His life for mine on the cross, that “Jesus loved me and gave Himself up for me,” as St. Paul describes it in Galatians 2:20, that without His redemptive death and rising, I would be forever lost, then I can come to know the Good News of Christianity in all of its force and conviction.
Then, I will feel sorrowful compunction and contrition for my sins and seek a life of holiness and grace in communion with Christ and His Church.
Then a daily examination of conscience, the Penitential Rite at Mass, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation become beautiful avenues for God’s grace and mercy to flood my soul.
As Jesus says in last Sunday’s Gospel, “Try to come in the narrow door. Many will try and not be strong enough.” Salvation is not automatic.
God proposes His love and mercy to us, but it is up to us to receive, accept, and live this gracious offer.
That is why we should never settle for being a mediocre Catholic, a luke-warm disciple, a half-hearted Christian.
Eternity is at stake.