Good News for our world
Summary of main ideas
Since Vatican II the church has re-emphasised the theme of "evangelisation": bringing the Gospel (Good News) of Christian faith to our world.
But what is this Good News? It is not surprising that frail humanity has experienced great uncertainty before God, the all-powerful Creator and the all-perfect Lord of all. Even good Christians have often lived in fear and uncertainty before God. The Good News brought by Christian faith should banish these fears.
It was God's love and astounding generosity that brought us into existence - a love finally "poured out in the world in Jesus Christ in the form of human powerlessness". God wants to share with each of us God's life, God's joy, and God's eternity. God will show the divine rectitude (justice) by a love and mercy which - if it finds humanity gone astray - will bend down to heal and restore, so that creation may be truly worthy of God.
God's love, told of in the Gospel is not an indulgent love, however. We must become worthy of what God call us to. But (just as the prodigal's life was changed when he came to recognise and be inspired by the love that was in his father's heart from the beginning) God will lead us, not by fear, but by teaching us to share in his generous ways.
The Churches of the Reformation have always emphasised the Gospel. Martin Luther's inspiration was his discovery – in the age of uncertainty and pessimism -of the Gospel message in the Scriptures. Today however, what has for long time a divisive issue can provide grounds for reconciliation – as Catholics recognise the importance of the Gospel in their life of faith, and Protestants recognise that they have often concentrated too narrowly upon one of the many mediums through which we meet the saving truth of the Gospel brought by Jesus Christ.