The Gospel of You

Officially the Church recognizes only four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but in reality there are many, many gospels. One of my teachers in formation for the diaconate made a point that has stayed with me: each of us is writing a gospel, little by little, day by day. It is the gospel of you; the gospel of me — for each of our lives is a gospel. And by writing this gospel we are telling the world about Jesus of Nazareth; and in the process, we are slowly growing into the people that we will be for all eternity. In the end our gospel can be truly beautiful, but how it turns out depends on our understanding of what Jesus was really asking of us, and how we translate that understanding into the way we subsequently interact with others and live out our lives.

            It’s not so easy to understand what Jesus really asks of us; lots of things can get in the way: our fears, our prejudice, our tendency to label and to exclude people who are different from us; and the presence of anger in our hearts. These obstacles can keep Jesus a stranger.

            Even the disciples who lived day after day with Jesus didn’t get it right away. It took time and a series of incremental moments of enlightenment to slowly open their eyes. Through their encounters with the resurrected Jesus and the subsequent transformation that occurred within them on Pentecost, the disciples, little by little, came to understand Jesus.

Their enlightenment slowly unfolded in the choices that they made and the way they lived out the rest of their lives. Each one of those lives was in fact a gospel, because through those lives the world experienced the healing presence of God. And it has continued to happen down through the centuries. And it still happens today. Through the unconditional love and acceptance and inclusion of others that is demonstrated by modern day disciples, the world continues to experience Jesus in its midst. But this can’t happen until our eyes our open and we understand what Jesus wants of us.

It is hard for many of us to understand and accept what Jesus is asking. We hear the story where Jesus was asked by someone what the most important commandment is;  and his answer that it is to love God with our whole heart. But we can easily overlook the rest of his answer, the part where he says that the second commandment is just as important — to love each other the way we love ourselves. Love – not hate. Love – not bigotry. Love – not anger or revenge. What kind of a gospel are we writing with our lives?

            Jesus was about love. It is hard for me to imagine a Jesus who went year after year without speaking to a brother or a sister, a parent or a child, or a friend because of some hurt or some unacceptable behavior. How about a Jesus who voted for the death penalty, or one who got upset that tax dollars were being spent to provide healthcare or education to the poor. What kind of a gospel are we writing?

            It is hard for me to imagine a Jesus who would exclude anyone from his friendship because he or she was gay; or who separated his friends along racial, economic or gender boundaries.           

            When we look around, when we read the papers or watch the news, we can see how many people do not really know Jesus. The world is in great need of unconditional love, of unconditional acceptance — the kind of healing that Jesus was all about. The world is hungry for the story, just as it was 2,000 years ago. That story, that gospel, can reach out through you and through me. We are writing a gospel little by little, day by day.

            What kind of a gospel is it?