What Exactly Is ‘The Gospel’?

Recently during a religious radio broadcast, a listener called in and asked, “What exactly do you mean by ‘The Gospel’?” That’s a good question, and I bet many people, including regular church-goers, would answer by saying, “The word ‘gospel’ means those four books in the Bible, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

Well, yes, those biblical books are called “gospels,” and the word “gospel” means “good news.” But the radio caller was asking about the meaning of the word ‘gospel’ when used as a description of the overall theme of Christianity. For example, Jesus said this: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and He obviously was not referring to the books describing His life, which hadn’t been written yet.

If you had to summarize the Gospel message in a few basic bullet points, could you? If not, here’s a simple outline from a book titled, “The Life in the Spirit Seminars – Catholic Edition.” The seminar presents the “basic message of Jesus” in a four-point summary called “The Four Basic Truths” of the Gospel.

Truth number 1: “God loves you and wants you to live a full, happy life.”

It was out of love that God created you. He wants to share His love with you. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

God wants you to know Him and experience His love, and live together in a community of love with all people. But most people don’t experience this love because …

Truth number 2: “Mankind is sinful and separated from God.”

As a result, you cannot know God’s love and share in God’s life with others. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Mankind’s separation from God results in mankind’s separation from one another. People cannot live together in love and peace unless there is first a spiritual change in them that only God can produce. How does this spiritual change take place?

Truth number 3: “Jesus Christ is the only one who can give you the power to live this abundant life.”

Through Jesus you can know God’s love and share in God’s life with others. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”

In Jesus, God became man and entered into the world to overcome the separation between God and mankind. He was able to bridge that huge gulf. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ made it possible for you to experience this abundant life. But more is needed than just knowing these facts about Jesus. Which brings us to …

Truth number 4: “You must accept Jesus Christ into your own life as Lord and Savior.”

When you do this, you can experience the power to live a new life. John 1:12 says, “To those who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God.” Accepting Christ means entering into a personal relationship with Him in which you receive His love and give your life to Him.

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter in…” So, you need to invite Jesus into your heart and make Him the center of your life.

That’s the basic outline of the Gospel message. It’s not very complicated. It’s short, it’s sweet, and best of all, it’s TRUE. Through the Church, the sacraments, and personal prayer, you truly can enter into a relationship with Christ.

If you’ve never contemplated “The Four Basic Truths” of the Gospel, now would be a great time. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Certainly A Lot Of Uncertainty These Days

When things are uncertain, I have a tough time relaxing. I realize this is not good, since the only certainty in life is the never-ending stream of uncertainty. People always say the only certain things are death and taxes. Those two items would be somewhat tolerable if they both didn’t have so much uncertainty about them. Death? Yes, I know, but when? Taxes? Yes, I live in Connecticut, so how much more this year? What bothers me most about these two classic “certainties” is the certainty that they always will be fraught with uncertainty. (Um, that last sentence confused me — and I wrote it. I’m not quite certain what point I was trying to make.)

Anyway, as I sit here on a Saturday morning, I am thinking about uncertainty because I am facing a boatload of it. I’m supposed to fly to Chicago this afternoon for a three-day business convention, but it’s snowing like crazy right now. It’s the heaviest snowfall we’ve had so far this winter. So here are the questions rattling through my head, all of which I cannot answer with any certainty:

• Will my flight get delayed or cancelled?
  
  
• If it’s not cancelled, will my car make it to Bradley Airport in time with all this snow?
  
  
• If my car can’t make it, will I spend the night in a ditch off the side of some desolate road in Granby, fending off raccoons who are trying to chew my fingertips off?
  
  
• If I make it to the airport but then my flight gets cancelled at the last minute, will I be able to find a hotel room near the airport, or will I have to sleep on the floor in the terminal?
  
  
• If I find a hotel room near the airport, will the courtesy shuttle bus slide into a ditch and cause the driver and me to spend the night fending off raccoons who are trying to chew our fingertips off?
  
  
• What if my flight departs on time but halfway to Chicago the plane disappears over the Indian Ocean? (I admit we’re not going to be all that close to the Indian Ocean, since we’re not connecting through Baltimore, but if it does happen, will the uncertainty of the situation cause CNN to cover the story non-stop for months?)
  
  
• If I make it to Chicago as planned, will it really be easy to take the “L” train from the airport to downtown, as the Transit Authority website said?
  
  
• Or will I be wandering around Midway Airport for three days trying to find the train station?
  
  
• What if I get on the wrong “L” train and wind up in the Indian Ocean?
  
  
• What if I get on the right train, but it derails into a ditch on the outskirts of the city and the other passengers and I spend the night fending off raccoons who are trying to chew our fingertips off?
  
  
• What if instead of raccoons, they’re fierce Midwestern badgers?
  
  
• What if I make it to my downtown hotel OK, but because of a computer glitch they lost my reservation?
  

Another question I cannot answer, which is causing even more anxiety, is this: what if everything goes right regarding cars, planes, trains, and hotel rooms, but when my three days of seminars and meetings begin, I’m so exhausted from stress and uncertainty, I am unable to learn anything or contribute to the discussions? And if that happens, will I lose my job? And if I lose my job, will my company credit card get cancelled, forcing me to walk home? And if I have to walk home, are there raccoons in Indiana?

I’m starting to think I worry too much.

“A Matter of Laugh or Death” appears each week in the Republican-American newspaper, Waterbury, Conn.

Dr. Jesus Offers Instant Cure

In the gospel reading at Mass this weekend, a leper came to Jesus, kneeled down, and begged Him, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

 

Jesus was moved with pity, and stretched out His hand to touch the leper. He said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” 

Scripture says, “The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.”

Nowadays we take our health problems to medical doctors, who, all in all, do a pretty good job of curing our afflictions and illnesses. The vast majority of us would never think of bringing our physical problems to Jesus, figuring that a doctor would be much more effective. On the one hand, this is understandable. I mean, if I accidentally cut my hand with a table saw, I would head straight for the emergency room rather than my parish rectory. (Besides, my pastor would have a fit if I gushed blood all over the carpeting.) In this case, I’m sure it would be God’s will that I seek out a trained doctor rather than have a clergyman pray over my bleeding hand. 

I don’t remember the exact details, but a number of years ago a family in Massachusetts refused to bring their sick child to a doctor, convinced that prayer alone could cure him. A bowel obstruction, which could have been fixed easily by surgery, ended up killing the youngster. There’s no way this course of action was God’s will. Those folks were very foolish.

On the other hand, many people today assume that physical healings via spiritual means are impossible. We think God is either not capable or not interested, even to the point of thinking that the miracles described in Scripture are merely fables.

This, too, is a foolish point of view. God is the master physician. He created us. He is capable of curing us. The spiritual gift of healing did not die out with the first century believers. There is far too much evidence and far too many eye-witness accounts, simply to dismiss the power of prayer. People have been miraculously cured through prayer.

Although medical science has made remarkable advances, there are a couple of diseases doctors have been unable to cure. Medical science is powerless to address the diseases of sin and death. 

Oh sure, we try to deal with these aliments. We pretend there is no such thing as sin, and we completely ignore death. But refusing to face these problems does not make them go away. 

Sin is like spiritual cancer. If left unchecked, it eats away at our soul until we are no longer recognizable. And death, of course, is always lurking out there, waiting to snatch each and every last one of us away from this life. 

The only physician who can heal us of these deadly diseases is Dr. Jesus. Only He has the power truly to forgive our sins and make us clean, and get us into Heaven for all eternity.

In the gospel reading, it says the leper was cleansed “immediately.” Jesus has the power to transform our lives instantly. He can forgive our sins and make us new creations, filled with joy and peace, and destined for Heaven. 

Unlike what many people believe these days, prayers for physical healing are powerful and often result in miraculous cures. Dr. Jesus has the power to cure us, just as He did with the leper. And with this particular physician, there’s no crowded waiting room, no mountain of paperwork and insurance forms, and no cash co-pay before He looks at you.

Give it a try sometime. Make an appointment with Dr. Jesus. Pray for healing, both physical and spiritual. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.