GENUINE FAITH COMMITMENT--THE TAKEN FOR GRANTED ESSENTIAL RESPONSE TO THE GOOD NEWS

GENUINE FAITH-COMMITMENT--THE TAKEN FOR GRANTED ESSENTIAL RESPONSE TO THE GOOD NEWS
a re-evangelization

1.Why is it that many Catholic Christians seem to have no 'fire' in their Christian life? Why is it that many of us professing Catholics do not seem to experience the power of our Risen Lord in our lives? Is there something that we're missing? The Good News Who is Jesus has already been and still is being proclaimed to us in and through His Church today. It is well to consider the Good News seriously, rejoice in it, and respond to it accordingly.

2. We know that because of the Original Sin committed by our first parents at the beginning of Creation we now suffer its consequences, which are our own inclination to sin, leading to our personal sins, disunity, suffering and death, the threat of Hell, and the snares of the Devil. In other words we are all going to die, and because we are all sinners we are also candidates for Hell.

3. But the Good News is: there is God who revealed to us not only Himself but also His overall plan to save us (free us from sin) through His Son, Jesus. Jesus already accomplished our salvation by dying on the Cross, making infinite atonement for all our sins, thereby making possible and available for us the forgiveness of all our sins. (Now, we are candidates for Heaven). On the third day he rose again in glory, and after forty days ascended back to Heaven, now to be our Mediator with the Father. Ten days after His Ascension into Heaven Jesus poured down His Holy Spirit on the Church He founded so that He can now and always be with us (his followers) and transform us from within (Sanctification). In other words Jesus not only saved us from the Eternal punishment of Hell but also merited for us the grace to be truly sons and daughters of the Father through union with Him, precisely through His Holy Spirit in us [Divinization].

Through his Holy Spirit, present and active in us, Jesus continues to save us, gradually transforming us from within, strengthening us in our struggle against sin, accompanying us in the ups and downs of our history, and empowering us to love as He loves, until we are totally and finally divinized and glorified at our own resurrection on the last day. This is the Heart of the Good News, which St. Paul calls in Colossians and Ephesians THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST (presence plus plan). This consists in the invisible presence of Christ in his Church today, continuing to fulfill God's plan for our Salvation and Glorification (Joseph Grassi, Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians, par.15, The Jerome Biblical Commentary).

4. Now the Good News calls for a response. For although objectively speaking Jesus already accomplished our salvation (objective redemption), and continues to free us from sin and sanctify us, subjectively we have to accept/receive this offer of salvation by responding with a FAITH-COMMITMENT to Jesus. We do this first by repenting of our sins and rejecting sin in our lives. Then we believe in Jesus and trust in His goodness, love and power to save us. Finally we commit ourselves to living in union with Jesus and living like Him.

Why to Jesus? Because He is the Savior sent to us by the Father. He is the Way to the Father (Jn. 14:6,"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"). "God's will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature". (CCC #51) This Faith response therefore is not just belief, but also trust, and most of all a commitment to Jesus. To live with Jesus means to live in constant union with (and recourse to) Jesus through His Holy Spirit in us (grace), by the reception of the Sacraments. And to live like Jesus is to live a life of love for the Father shown through love of neighbor as Jesus loved us, even to the point of sacrifice, and extending even to one's enemies. This is Christian Life.

5. It is to be feared, however, that many Catholic Christians today practice the faith 'culturally' but have not yet made a clear, explicit, informed, deliberate and manifest commitment to Jesus. In the language of the Protestants, we may not yet have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, that is, clearly, informedly, deliberately, and manifestly. Without this deliberate faith-commitment to Jesus, He, in a sense, cannot work fully in our lives, because He respects our free will. This is why many Catholic Christians seem to not experience the power of our Risen Lord in their lives. This accounts also for the lack of fire and joy in their Christian life.

6. Whereas if we make a deliberate faith-commitment to Jesus He can now start working in our lives, gradually transforming us from within (through His Holy Spirit in us), in ways we never have imagined, until we are fully divinized and glorified at our own resurrection on the last day. But even now through union with Jesus (through His Holy Spirit in us) we are already made truly sons and daughters of the Father and heirs of Heaven (Filial Adoption). And the first thing He does is to lead us to the Father. In Jesus we dare to call God 'Abba' Father. We enter into the very life of the Blessed Trinity. This does not mean, however, that we will no longer have problems, trials, and sufferings. Rather our sufferings will now have value and meaning because we are joined to and united with Christ as co-redeemers of the world.

7. Moreover, this commitment ought to be renewed, reaffirmed and deepened constantly, perhaps on a daily basis. O how beautiful and awesome true Christian life is (life in union with Jesus and living like Him)! Truly Jesus offers us an exit from a miserable, meaningless and futile way of living. May we not delay in making this deliberate commitment. It is never too late, nor too early. The choice is ours to make: fullness of life and joy in Christ, or total failure and misery outside of Christ.