REPENT --- THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND * Christ s Basic Message Jesus Christ is both God and man, both divine and human. He is God from all eternity, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and He is man because He chose to take on human nature. The fundamental reason why Christ took on human nature was in order to atone for the original sin of the first parents of the human race, that is to gain our redemption so that all of us might spend eternity in a state of happiness with Him While He was here on earth He also told us what we must do in order to gain the salvation He won for us, bringing us the message in a number of ways in the Sermon on the Mount, in numerous parables, and in other sayings. But what was His basic message, the one that He repeated over and over as He went about in Galilee? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, (Matt 4:17) It s essentially the same message that His forerunner, John the Baptist, proclaimed (Matt 3:2). And it s the same one that He had His apostles and disciples proclaim when He sent them out two by two (Luke 9:2,6; Mark 6:12). The Meaning of the Message That kingdom of heaven is eternal life wi th Him. Many people think there is no life after death, that we humans have only this current life on earth, just like the animals. But human beings are essentially different from animals because we have an intellect and also a will that enables us to make decisions, even decisions that benefit other people while causing difficulty for ourselves, which means we have the ability to love. Humans can write books, compose symphonies, things that the animals never do. All this is
possible because we have a spiritual soul, one that is not material, and whose existence does not end at earthly death. But, although our soul will exist beyond the present life, it s important that we spend that future life with God and not separated from Him, which is what Christ won for us by His death on Calvary that accomplished our redemption. It s up to each of us to gain our individual salvation by living the way He had in mind when He created us. Many times we have offended Him and He wants us to return to Him. That s the significance of the call for repentance in the message, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ tried to spread this message as widely as possible. He went about through all the villages and towns of Galilee proclaiming it. He chose companions, His twelve apostles and other disciples, to work with Him and to spend their lives proclaiming this message after He left, and to carry the message beyond Palestine to the entire world. Miracles as Credentials Then and Now Of course, He had to establish His credentials, gain faith in His authority to proclaim this message, faith that could later expend into faith in Him as Son of God. This He did by working miracles, visible events that are exceptions to the laws of nature, events that could be performed only by the Author of those laws of nature, that is, by God. They were not just magic tricks, but mostly healing miracles, even bringing back to life three persons who were dead. And He Himself rose from the dead after His most cruel death on Calvary. Many people feel that there is no possibility of miracles, that the ones reported in the four gospels are untrue. But they are true, as is evidenced by the fact that miracles still occur today. At Lourdes, in France, dozens of healing miracles have been documented, documented not by the Church but by competent physicians who
attest there is no known medical reason for the cure that has occurred. And there are hundreds more such miracles that have not been documented because doing so would overwhelm the resources available for examining them. A more dramatic miracle is the one that was witnessed by seventy thousand people at Fatima, Portugal, on October 13, 1917. Three children, aged seven to ten, had reported having seen apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that she had predicted a miraculous event for October th 13. That day the people were all soaked by an overnight drenching rain before the children reported seeing Our Lady, and then the sun seemed to spin in the sky, throwing off visible rays in all directions, and then seemed to come crashing to earth, making people fear the end of the world. After several moments the sun withdrew to its usual place in the sky and both people and the earth were perfectly dry. Redemption, Acceptance, Forgiveness At the end of His three-year public ministry, Christ suffered a torturous death on Calvary, a death that He voluntarily endured as the means of gaining the redemption of the human race. At the Last Supper, the night before He died He gave the Apostles the chalice of wine that He had changed into His own blood, telling them to drink of it, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matt 26:28) The fact that He willingly suffered torture and death for us is proof of His loving care for us and the fact that He wants us to be with Him in heaven. Returning to His basic message, the eternal life that He wants to share with us is conditioned on our accepting it. God has given each of us a free will, so we have the freedom to decide whether or not we wish to be with Him. His message calls on us to repent. We need to express sorrow for offending God, and this sorrow is meaningful only if we firmly resolve not to offend Him in the future.
Commandments, Love of Neighbor, and Faith What does He require us to do? Keep the Command-ments, the Ten Commandments that God had given to the Jewish people through Moses thirteen hundred years before show reverence of God and His name, honor father and mother, do not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie, cheat, or want to do any of these. Repentance is not only for violating the commandments but also for offending against the important requirement Christ mentioned elsewhere to care for that neighbor when he is in need of food, clothing, shelter, medical attention and visits when in prison. The call to repentance implies a promise of forgiveness, that Christ as God will forgive our past offenses if we are truly sorry for what we have done and truly resolved to keep His commandments in the future. It also implies that, when we pass from this life to the nest, He will pass judgment on our conformity with what He asks. The first commandment is, I am the Lord, your God.... You shall have no other gods before me. (Exod 20:2-3) The very first of these strange gods that we human beings tend to have is ourselves; we place our judgment and make our decisions based on our own wants rather than on the will of God. There are also three principal ways in which we human beings tend to place ourselves in this first place; they are pride, greed and sensuality, sometimes expressed as power/prestige, money and sex. Some of us seek power over others or praise for what we accomplish, without acknowledging that our accomplishments are made possible by the talents given us by God. Others seek money or the objects that money can buy. And still others are given over to bodily pleasures, to sex, food and drink. All of these are distractions from the purpose given us by God. Observing the commandments and answering the
call for love of neighbor must be grounded on faith in Christ Himself as Messiah and Son of God. A Life to Follow Christ In order to follow Christ we need to frame our lives according to fundamental norms: voluntary poverty, not trying to live below the poverty line, but being satisfied with a reasonable level of food, clothing and shelter; voluntary chastity, with no sex of any kind outside of marriage and no contraception within marriage; and obedience, by humbly accepting the life God has laid out for us and by seeking to carry out His will for us on a day-to-day basis. All of this is possible for us. Christ has provided special supernatural helps for us in the form of the sacraments He instituted. One of these is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which He gave the bishops and priests of His Church the power and authority to forgive offenses against Him and in which sinners who repent can be assured that their sins are in fact forgiven; Another is Holy Eucharist, in which He comes personally to each of us to show how much He cares for us and to bring us the strength to carry out our role in life; Matrimony brings to married couples the helps they need for fidelity to Him and to each other and for help in raising the children God sends them. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, within reach of every one of us. Christ wants every one of us to attain it; He voluntarily suffered death on the cross to help bring this about. We must, of course, repent for whatever wrong we have done in the past and be truly resolved to live out His principles in the future. We must live in constant awareness of God and our relationship with Him, keep His commandments, have our objectives in the next world rather than this one, and make use of the supernatural helps in the sacraments.
We have an opportunity to gain eternal happiness. Don t miss out on it. REPENT --- THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND * Christ s Basic Message CATHOLIC EVIDENCE GUILD NEW YORK CHAPTER OFFICE OF ADULT FAITH FORMATION ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK 1011 FIRST AVENUE, SUITE 1327 NEW YORK, NY 10022 Phone or fax: 1-877-635-8205 E-Mail: ceg@ ureach.com Web Site: www.catholicevidence.org Permission granted to reproduce and distribute e713a