THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL

If we are really Christians, then Christ is the center of our lives.  He is not just that figure who lived in Palestine some 2000 years ago, who went about doing good and who eventually died on a cross for us.  So too, he is not simply God, reigning with the Father and Spirit in Heaven.  Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord, one like ourselves who, by his resurrection, has given us spiritual life while saving us from our sins.  We recognize him and worship him as God-made-man.

In the Mass, in our other prayers, we usually end by saying "through Christ our Lord."  That is how we are to approach the Father.  All true spirituality is based on Christ's mediation with the Father, and can be nourished and deepened only by effective contact with Christ's redeeming acts.  The best way of doing that is in the Mass.

"Trough Christ to the Father."  This saying is as old as Christianity itself, and so we can unite with the Church of past years and of the future by acknowledging Christ as the Lord God, through whom we go to the Father.

This is the good news we are asked to preach daily, at home, at work, at play, at rest.  The Risen Christ is our head, the head of the Mystical Body which is the Church.  The Church proclaims that the Resurrection is the most important event in all history - everything else is centered on it, whether some like it or not.

Christ is the very center of all life, because he is Life Himself.  So let's make sure that every day we have the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ uppermost in our minds.  Christ is glorified indeed, as God-man, and he continues to intercede for you and me.