Good News Proclaimed by the Apostles: We Are Saved and Are "Being Saved" in Christ

Today's Feast Day in honor of the apostles Philip and James gives us pause to consider the "apostolic ministry" of proclaiming the Word, or, Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ. The psalm response from today's Mass declares, "Their message (the Apostles) goes out through all the Earth." What, precisely, is this "message"? The message, of course, is the Gospel, or, "Good News" of God's saving action in Jesus Christ. This is straightforward and simple enough. What isn't so simple is "parsing" out from the New Testament witness what, exactly, the Good News is all about.

Is the message simply that God saves us from sin in Jesus? Is the message that Jesus is "our personal Lord and Savior"? While both of these testimonies are true, they certainly are not the whole truth, nor even the most important part of the depth of the truth which lies at the heart of the Gospel. To get to the heart and soul of what the Good News is more richly about, we can take our lead from today's Mass readings. To begin with, in Paul's Letter to the Corinthians, he declares that the members of the Corinthian Church are "being saved" through the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:2). This is a present progressive verb formulation, suggesting that salvation is very definitely not a "once and for all" deal in Christ but an ongoing reality. What Paul's writings consistently bear witness to, just like the lives of the Apostles and the message they declared, is that salvation is not merely from sin, but, more importantly, salvation is for God. In other words, we are saved from sin so as to live in God! This comes across in today's Gospel from John when Jesus declares to Thomas that, in having fellowship with Jesus, he knows God (John, 14:7). This knowledge of God isn't a "head" knowledge, but speaks to a deep, intimate knowing and experiencing of God's heart. This is a knowledge more on the order of two lovers who's bodies, hearts, spirits, and souls are intertwined in a communion of total self offering and gifting of one to the other. Such is the power of the Gospel: it frees us from sin and guilt so that we might more freely and totally receive and be received into the very heart, spirit, and soul of the living and loving God. Pat, TOR