BREAKING: GOOD NEWS

BREAKING: GOOD NEWS
[Read, ponder, and smile]

Too many people today are lost, sunk in the darkness of sin or some kind of addiction. Many seem to be just fine, happy, contented, but live a depthless life, simply living for the moment, or looking to a limited future short of eternity; just not good enough. They have dreams but no vision of eternal happiness in Heaven. At some point this leads to frustration, or even despair. Some do look towards eternity but still are missing a deeper joy in the here and now. They don't know what they're missing.

In light of this there is an urgency to proclaim the Good News that will not only give depth and meaning to life, but even a present ever growing joy which extends to that endless future of eternal happiness in Heaven, where "no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him" (1Cor. 2:9). That Good News is the Person of Jesus Christ– the One Answer to all our quests, the giver of meaning and purpose to our existence, and the source of joy amidst anything and everything this earthly life can offer in opposition.

But first is the bad news that on our own we are all candidates for Hell because of our sins, which deserve eternal punishment. Such is our bare human situation. Now the good news is that Jesus already made perfect and infinite atonement for all our sins, even our future sins. We need only to repent and make that firm resolve not to sin again. We are now candidates for Heaven, if we will. But that's only half the good news.

Jesus did not only come into this world to die for our sins (perfect atonement). He came also to merit for us (by that same atoning Sacrifice) the grace (of the Holy Spirit) to become Saints, adopted children of God, by sending us His Holy Spirit. He came to unite us to Himself through His Holy Spirit dwelling in us and so enter into the very life of the Trinity (as sons and daughters in the SON through His Spirit in us). In other words he came to DIVINIZE us now, not later, although the fullness of our divinization and Glorification is yet to come in the life hereafter. ( cf.1Jn 3:2 "dearly beloved, we are God's children now, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he really is".)

Even now Jesus is here with us and IN us (ought to be, habitually) through His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, continuing to transform us from within (from glory to glory) [cf. 2Cor. 3:18]. Even now God "gives us the "pledge" or first fruits (first installment) of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as God has loved us." (CCC #735) (cf. Rom 5:5).

In a way, therefore, the Good News gets better and better. For even if our mortal bodies will in time lose its present physical beauty, and are destined for corruption, our soul is meant to grow more and more beautiful in its participation in God's life and nature, and the body soon to be reunited to the soul in full Divinization and Glorification in the Resurrection on the Last Day. (cf. 2Cor 4:16-18)

This is the GOOD NEWS, the very plan of God for us, which St Paul calls in Ephesians and Colossians the 'Mystery of Christ'. In other words we are called and destined to be united with Jesus through His Holy Spirit in us, even now. Our life is meant to be a LIFE IN CHRIST, the end all and be all of our existence. This divine life in us is meant to grow (and bear fruit) little by little manifesting in our thoughts, speech, and actions. We will then walk through life with a holy smile amidst sufferings and trials because we are living a supernatural life that cannot but be made manifest in our attitudes and the way we react to every situation. We will also have that deep joy because of a sure hope of glory. As St Paul put it: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col.1:27). Our only sadness will be seeing our loved ones unaware of this Good News or simply rejecting it for the ephemeral things of this world; lost, and missing the joy we have.

We may, however, for a time have to suffer various afflictions here on earth. But so did Jesus. By these sufferings, (offered in union with the Cross of Jesus), we are to enter into the very Mystery of His Passion, so as to rise with Him, EVEN NOW. This is dying with Christ and rising with him in newness of life, on a daily basis. Of course it is not easy to persevere in a life of grace. We fall once in a while due to human weakness. But we have help in the Sacraments. We have 'Confession' which gives us the grace to be reconciled with God, fortifies us against sin, and gives us the peace of soul that we are right with God. We have the Eucharist in which our whole being, body and soul, is intimately united (fused, like two candles melted together) to the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, making us so close to Jesus as to grow in becoming Jesuses. We also have the strongest wireless connection with God through prayer. We just need to make time for a regular heart to heart talk with Jesus, who leads us to the Father. Even now we enter into the very life of the Trinity as adopted children of the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit. We also have our Blessed Mother and the Saints to help us, as we also help and intercede for one another.

This is the Good News the Apostles preached in the early church– the 'Kerygma' which all too often can be overshadowed by so many fragmentary teachings, which are of course important and part of the whole truth, but often given us and received by us without that coherent core which is the good News of Jesus Christ– the very plan of God to make us His adopted Children in Christ (divine Filial Adoption). (cf. Eph 1:5-6)

The greatest tragedy (for us) will be to live life unaware of this Good News or simply rejecting it. May we realize that we are not meant to be simply human, but to be divinized in Christ--SUPERNATURAL MEN and WOMEN. Indeed we are meant for higher things.
May we live the Good News and share it, with words if necessary.