Passing on the Good News

Over the years, I have had the honor of witnessing many baptisms, occasions when parent bring their new child to be welcomed into the community of Christians.  These are times of joy and of hope.  Though these parents, may not fully recognize this at the time, they are sharing their own faith, in joy and hope with their child.  Often this takes place in the context of the Sunday Eucharist, so that as the whole community gathers at the Table, they may know that they are part of welcoming this child.  They too will commit to sharing their faith with the newly baptized member.

The parents of this child and the community of faith will be committing to nurture the seed of faith planted in the newly baptized member as they journey together over the years to come.  Faith is a relationship.  All Christian parents and their communities are examples of how we live as God’s People and disciples of Jesus the Christ, sharing the Good News.  This is more than teachings and theology or church rituals and canon law.  It is real life faith that exhibits a constant relational bond and outreach to all.

The child who has been welcomed in baptism as well as all others are called to a life of compassion and love, healing and reconciliation, justice and peace.  This is practical faith that takes root in the heart every baptized Christian.

In the Old Testament God spoke to Israel in its story, its history.  He adopted them as his people.  He liberated the People of God from slavery.  God gave them a way of life that respected all.  He sent prophets and judges and leaders to help them stay together as a people.  God, would treat his beloved people as a parent would nurture a child. The prophet Isaiah proclaims: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13) 

Then God gradually broadened the vision.  God opened the dream to all humanity.  He sent his Son, Jesus to become one of us, to share our humanity in the Incarnation.  In Jesus the divine and human have come together in a way that is truly wonderous.

This has been the great expression of God’s love for us all, for all Creation.  In his words and actions, Jesus reflected the loving, compassionate and mercy-filled face of our God.  He communicated by what he said and what he did.  He called for peace.  He spoke of love, God’s and ours.  He cured and healed, reconciled and forgave.  He liberated and freed, opening humanity and our world to a new vision of who we are – the beloved of God.

Now, the challenge – God calls us to reflect and pass on this message to all peoples, women and men, children and adults of every culture and down through the ages.  God’s dream sounds like welcome good news, so how do we pass it on?

The Gospel writer, Luke tells the story of Jesus sending out his disciples to share the message (Lk.10:1-12, 17-2).  As we see in each of the gospel accounts, Luke includes in the story the way in which the message is shared.  Jesus calls on the disciples to cure, to reconcile, to heal and to bring peace, as Jesus has done.

It is in person, in our relationships with family, friends, community and world that we share the good news.  We share our faith relationship not so much by what we say, as by who we are and what we do.  The message that God love us, all and every human being on the face of the earth, is caught by others, rather than taught to others.  We become the face of Jesus for others in our caring and compassion, our openness and willingness to serve the needs of others, and in our efforts to bring peace, justice and love to the world we touch.

The child that has been baptized has this seed planted in them.  Over the years, she/he will be nurtured by loving parents and through the love and compassion of the love-filled community of faith that surrounds them.  Christian faith is relational and requires life in a community that nurtures the seed.

God has reached out to us in a person – Jesus the Christ.  This is how we communicate the message - in person.  The best communication of good news is personal, relational, face to face.   Around the year 200, the Christian writer Tertullian captured this when he said of the early Christians: “See how they love one another.”  Now that’s a message of good news to pass on to others.