The Gospel of Jesus Christ

This morning we held Eucharistic Adoration at St. Elizabeth's Church in Edgartown. A good number of people attended. During my meditation I was captivated by the love and forgiveness of Joseph to his brothers.

I gave a reflection after Mass on our response to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Here are the notes for the reflection, may they aid you on your path to Jesus Christ.

By: Ronnie P. Floyd

The word Gospel means good news, but often we approach it as anything but good news

Jesus instructs us in Matthew’s Gospel: Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.

This seems like a lot of work and
To this litany we might add:
Feed and cloth the poor and destitute,
Visit the sick and dying
Love your neighbor
Attend Sunday Mass
Go to confession
Observe Holy Days of Obligation
Support the work of the Church

People will often tell you that being a Catholic is HARD

In fact, a couple once related to me how a protestant minister told them, as they were preparing for marriage, “the Catholics have a room full of rules, we only have three or four.”

AND IT IS TRUE, BEING A CATHOLIC IS HARD

Because being truly in Love is Hard


IN FACT: if it wasn’t for the Grace of God and the gifts of His Spirit
We couldn’t do it.

Jesus recognizes in today’s Gospel that people often don’t want to hear
the proclamation of the Gospel, because it is too difficult, because it appears a burden to them

What they fail to realize though is that it is truly GOOD NEWS.

Like a vaccination, an instant of pain, leads to years of health—or in the case of our Faith
an Eternity of Happiness.

Jesus instructs his Disciples in today’s Gospel to go out into all the world and proclaim the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

What is this good news?

The good news is that doing what Jesus asks of us, following the “rules” of Christian life, as some call them, proclaiming and imitating Christ’s way of life is the WAY to true happiness

Moreover: Jesus has given us the ability, the power, to do all the things he asks of us.

At the beginning of the tenth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel
Jesus gives his twelve Apostles the power to Cast out demons and cure the sick, before sending them out,

As St. Paul insists, God never tests us beyond our means because when he tests us his grace is always sufficient

God gives us, in the Sacraments and most especially through this Eucharist
the power, the ability to live our vocations to holiness.

JESUS HAS GIVEN US HIS PEACE AND LOVE which come, always, from the Altar
From the sacrifice, from his Body and Blood, broken and Shed for us, which bears in it
The seed of everlasting life.

This is the peace that we are asked to solemnly share during the Mass at the Kiss of Peace: not our own peace, but the Peace of Christ.

In the first reading from the book of Exodus, Joseph is so overcome by this Peace and Love, that he wept aloud in joy, forgiving his brothers the horrible sin that they had committed against him in selling him into slavery.

He is able to do this, because he knows that God used their evil act to achieve a greater good.

Jesus desires us all to have this gift of peace, so that we can truly love.

You see it is only when we realize that God achieves good even in spite of evil when we realize that he always triumphs and when we trust in His Providence that we are truly able to love to open ourselves up to others.

Love always involves work and personal risk, it always involves becoming weak before our neighbor who is always able to reject us, to reject our love.

BUT, God shows us in the Cross and in the mystery of the Eucharist, which we have Just celebrated that even in spite of great evil and great loss in spite of the risk of rejection
LOVE WILL PREVAIL

The mystery of the Cross is the source of the Grace of peace and love that he has given us

And when we truly allow this Grace to transform our lives, we cannot help but cry out in Joy.

The Peace of Jesus Christ that comes into our heart is our happiness, and consumed by this happiness we must share it with others.

All the DUTIES of being a Catholic melt away in this joy and our DUTIES become our natural DESIRE to serve God.

“Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give,” Matthew instructs us.

EACH OF US IN HIS OR HER OWN VOCATION and state in life must remember the great gift that has been given to them

We must not let the joy of that gift grow cold!
Because it is the source of our happiness, and the source of hope for the whole world.

Jesus’ Evangelical Mission belongs to all of us who are filled with his Peace and Love at the Sacrifice of the Mass

Each of us have receive and now each of us is called to give freely, to share with others the source of our hope.

All of us are called to preach the Gospel, but as Francis of Assisi insisted: We must preach the gospel always, and use words only when necessary.