What is so good about the Good News?
almadeimater/Cathopic.com
We have all heard about the Gospel. That is, we have all heard about the Good News. When is the last time, however, we have stopped to consider the goodness of the Good News? If we have never contemplated this matter, have we—God forbid—taken it for granted, allowing for a familiarity which leads to contempt? For the sake of our souls and for God’s glory, let us pause and ask ourselves: what is so good about the Good News?
Let us recall the Gospel of John which says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). When our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, said these words to Nicodemus, He did so amid revealing an overarching theme to His ministry: the coming of the Kingdom of God. He, the light of the world who dispels all darkness, came into this world “for us men and for our salvation” (Nicene Creed). Inseparable from this is how He came to make us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 460). To this end, Christ established His Church “by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Reign of God” (CCC 763). In other words, Christ “ushered in the Kingdom of heaven on earth” (CCC 763), making the Church inseparable from the Gospel and innate to the goodness of the Gospel, for the Church is “the Kingdom of Christ now present in mystery” (Lumen gentium 3).
Central to the message of this kingdom is freedom from sin (cf. CCC 549). As such, “[t]he coming of God’s kingdom means the defeat of Satan’s” (CCC 550). This victory over our enemy’s kingdom was established on the cross of Christ and confirmed in His Ascension which “signifies the inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of man” (CCC 664; cf. Daniel 7:14). Thereafter, Christ the King would continue to dwell “on earth in His Church” (CCC 669) wherein He “reigns through the Church” (CCC 680), equipping her to be the “bearer of divine life” (CCC 770). It is this divine life given to us through the Church which frees us from the slavery of sin, enabling us to fulfill our vocation as God’s adopted children in grace (cf. CCC 549).
The life of the Church, the Kingdom of Christ on Earth, is oriented toward its end: “the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God” (CCC 824). Therefore, the Church is instituted by Christ as His kingdom and His instrument in being the means of salvation for the world (cf. CCC 774-776) wherein we are made capable of receiving the life of heavenly glory, the beatific vision (cf. CCC 1028, 1045).
The reality of Christ’s kingdom, while already present in the Church, has not yet reached its fullness. This “already, not yet” reality will persist until our King returns in glory. As such, in the Our Father, we pray “thy kingdom come” in anticipation of the definitive reign of God (cf. CCC 2816), when the battle will be complete and the kingdom of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” will be fully realized (Romans 14:17; cf. CCC 2819).
Until then, it is our duty as God’s children and citizens of the City of God (see St. Augustine, City of God, Books XI-XXII) to live out the goodness of this Gospel and spread the message of Christ’s reign and his freedom around the world; for it is in our Blessed Lord, and in Him alone (cf. Acts 4:12) that our deliverance resides. Equipped with such good news, we should proceed with confidence and without fear, for our Lord has “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).