The Good News of Jesus!

14 Now after John was arrested and put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The [appointed period of] time is fulfilled (completed), and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent (have a change of mind which issues in regret for past sins and in change of conduct for the better) and believe (trust in, rely on, and adhere to) the good news (the Gospel). 16 And passing along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon [Peter] and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net [to and fro] in the sea, for they were fishermen17 And Jesus said to them, Come after Me and be My disciples, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 18 And at once they left their nets and [yielding up all claim to them] followed [with] Him [joining Him as disciples and siding with His party]. 19 He went on a little farther and saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were in [their] boat putting their nets in order. 20 And immediately He called out to them, and [abandoning all mutual claims] they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went off after Him [to be His disciples, side with His party, and follow Him].

Food for thought!

The Good News of Jesus!

Today, we end Christmas Season and begin officially Time of the Year Season, the time Jesus started his public life. As you know, "When Jesus entered public life he was about thirty years old" (Luke 3:23). According to Mark's gospel, after John was arrested and put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God. Good News and Gospel are synonymous; it is the equivalent of the Greek euaggelion (eu well, aggello, I bear a message), and the Latin Evangelium.

Jesus is two things. He is THE Good News; and he brings the GOOD NEWS! It means that when we say THE GOOD NEWS (GOSPEL) OF JESUS CHRIST, we mean either of two things: (1) in and by himself, Jesus is the good news; whatever he is, whatever he does is good news for us, be it crying, sitting down, sleeping, eating, touching, etc., anything he does, each and every detail of Jesus' life is food for thought; (2) the words of Jesus are also good news; they carry a message to us from our heavenly Father.

This is why Jesus started by saying, "The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!"

When at Mass we say, "The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew or Mark or Luke or John" we mean the good news of Jesus Christ (in the two senses described above) as presented by these four men. Each one of these men has a peculiar way of presenting the Good News of Jesus. This is why there are differences and similarities in their gospels.

You may ask, "What is really good in the Good News of Jesus?"  Well, here is the answer.

It is good news of truth (Gal.2:5; Col.1:5). Until Jesus came, men could only guess and grope after God. "O that I knew where I might find him," cried Job (Jb.23:3). But with the coming of Jesus men see clearly what God is like. No longer do they need to guess and grope; they know and see God in Jesus.

It is good news of hope (Col.1:23). The coming of Jesus brings hope to the hopeless heart.

It is good news of peace (Eph.6:15). The penalty of being a man is to have a split personality. In human nature the beast and the angel are strangely intermingled. Man's trouble has always been that he is haunted both by sin and by goodness. The coming of Jesus unifies that disintegrated personality into one. He finds victory over his warring self by being conquered by Jesus Christ.

 It is good news of God's promise (Eph.3:6). It is true to say that men had always thought rather of a God of threats than a God of promises. All non-Christian religions think of a demanding God; only Christianity tells of a God who is more ready to give than we are to ask, to forgive than to punish.

It is good news of immortality (2Tim.1:10). Before Jesus, life was the road to death; man was characteristically a dying man; but Jesus came with the good news that we are on the way to life rather than death. Isn't that all Good News?