You are probably thinking that it seems insane for any of us to shout “Good news!” from our rooftop at this particular moment in history. A pandemic, widespread unemployment, moral decay, heated climate debates, racial tension on all sides, gender wars … it goes on and on. How, then, dare we say “good news”?!
When the early Christians made this proclamation, people listened. The Romans perked up because the only good news they ever expected to hear was the news of more conquered territory. Meanwhile, the Jews would wonder something like the following: “How could there possibly be good news? Look around. We are an occupied people. Oppressed and crushed by Roman taxation and unjust laws.”
Not much has changed. Today, the Romans take a different form. Yet we must persist in proclaiming that indeed there is good news.
It doesn’t matter that we can’t always perceive the good news with our senses. When we pray, we come to know intimately and without a shadow of a doubt that “the kingdom of God is at hand” and that “it is closer than when we first believed.”
We are now living in a time of sifting and of decisiveness. We read in the Scriptures that light came into the world and many people choose darkness over the light.
The society-wide moral vacuum and the ever-evolving pseudo-virtues that are being forced upon us will all pass away. Those of us who take the time to study ancient history know what happens to every single civilization that fattens its bellies on pleasure and massacres the innocent while celebrating its own virtue.
Yet, all things will be made subject to him. Our powerlessness and our weakness are our unique strength. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:9). Because of Jesus’ emptying himself on the cross, never again is our suffering worthless.
We have an immensely powerful tool at our disposal. A tool that has been out of style for so long that its name seems strange and awkward on our lips. That tool is repentance.
Living a life with a view of repentance is life-changing. Everything we live becomes extremely valuable to the point of complete renewal. First personal renewal, then the renewal of the family. This kind of renewal cannot be contained.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
This is what it is to be “woke.” We remain awake if we realize that the division and discord we feel in our families and in our world at large are not due to a virus or any other external affliction. These are the natural effect of sin. The wages of sin is death, and we can stand with Christ in the gap.
When I say that we need to repent, I do not mean in a detached, listless four-Rosaries-a-day kind of way. I mean repentance in a whole-life kind of way. Radical participation in the sacraments and a deeper commitment to daily prayer for the conversion of the world and making frequent acts of reparation for those who persist in grave sin. The world mocks us when we speak of sin. But to be a friend of Christ means to be an enemy of the world.
There are many people making fatal mistakes and taking down children with them. There are children being scandalized and indoctrinated with damaging theories and false teachings. Jesus’ words regarding those who lead the “little ones” astray are very serious: it would be better for a millstone to be tied around their necks and for them to be thrown into the sea.
Our Lord tells us over and over in Scripture, “if you love me, you will keep my commands.” There are many people who do not love, then. In fact, perhaps fewer every day. Many people are falling away from the words Jesus has spoken. Many water down his teaching in favour of a softer, more palatable Jesus. When his teachings on the Holy Eucharist sounded too difficult, his followers said, “who can accept this?” And instead of softening or chasing them down, he let them leave. He always lets us leave. Many have left him. But those who remain can love him in the way that he deserves.
As we embark on the Easter season, we must continually repent – which literally means “turn towards.” Let us turn towards Jesus who did nothing but love us until the last drop of his blood. He held nothing back out of love for us; we must pray unceasingly and seek to incarnate the Gospel with our lives.
