Apologist Releases Book to Help Discouraged Catholics
The following is a reflection from St. John Paul the Great. He reigned as Holy Father from October 22nd, 1978, to his death on April 2nd, 2005. His reign was one of the longest in the history of the Catholic Church.
True liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ. In him, and only in him, are we set free from all alienation and doubt, from slavery to the power of sin and death. Christ is truly our peace (Eph 2:14); the love of Christ impels us (2 Cor 5:14), giving meaning and joy to our life….
The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-science of well-being. In our heavily secularized world, a “gradual secularization of salvation” has taken place, so that people strive for the good of man, but man, who is truncated, reduced to his merely horizontal dimension. We know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation, one
which embraces the whole person and all mankind, and opens up the wondrous prospect of divine filiation…. To us, as to Saint Paul, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph 3:8).
Newness of life in him is the “Good News” for men and women of every age: all are called to it and destined for it…. The Church, and every individual Christian within her, may not keep hidden or monopolize this newness and richness which has been received from God’s bounty in order to be communicated to all mankind.
This is why the Church’s mission derives not only from the Lord’s mandate but also from the profound demands of God’s life within us. Those who are incorporated in the Catholic Church ought to sense their privilege and, for that very reason, their greater obligation of bearing witness to the faith and to the Christian life as a service to their brothers and sisters and as a fitting response to God.