Let the Gospel Be Good News Again

We are living the Easter season—a time of joy. But it’s also a time to witness the Resurrection. That’s our calling as Church, as the People of God. One line from Evangelii Nuntiandi, later echoed in Redemptoris Missio, still rings true: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. He trusts experience more than teaching and life and action more than theories. The witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission…” (RM 42).

Not Just a Rulebook
The Gospel means Good News. We want it to be exactly that—something truly good for every man and woman. Christianity carries a freshness we must not lose. Too often the Gospel is treated as a tradition, a burden, a rulebook, or a set of prohibitions. But it was never meant to be that. It was the Good News that changed the lives of a small group of poor, disillusioned disciples—crushed after the death of Jesus—and turned them into apostles. They could say, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4,20). And Paul said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9,16). That change began with their encounter with the Lord. To discover the Gospel is to discover Jesus Christ at the heart of the Christian life. And that always happens through a personal relationship with Him.

At the Heart of Our Mission
And then, like the Apostle Paul, we too will feel that we have been conquered by Christ.  That’s when we begin to understand what the Gospel truly is and the power it holds.  It is not a set of doctrines; it is the Gospel of the Risen Jesus Christ, the heart of the first Christian message. We as Oblates are called to live this experience of Jesus Christ personally, but above all in our apostolic communities. It is a call, but above all it is a choice that we must make every day. And the Gospel becomes Good News.

“The community of the Apostles with Jesus is the model of this life. This presence of the Lord unites us in charity and obedience to make us relive the communion of the Twelve and our common mission in the Spirit (Const. 3). In this light, community practice is not limited to creating a well-functioning group; it tends to establish an interdependence, a deep communion with one another.” TCA 10 “We therefore choose community as a means of continually allowing ourselves to be evangelized and to be witnesses of the good news in today’s world.” TCA 14

By Jorge Albergati, OMI – General Councillor, Latin America

Published on the OMI World website