"Through the words of this Gospel,
may our sins be blotted out."
The priest says these words
immediately after
the Gospel is read.
St Paul says that
we are saved by the Gospel.
What does this mean?
[PAUSE]
We know
that Jesus is our salvation.
Only through Him
do we enter into Eternal life
with God,
free from sin,
free from pain,
free from despair,
free from death.
If we are saved by the Gospel,
then Jesus is the Gospel.
You know that
Gospel means
"Good News"
and this makes sense,
for knowing Our Lord
is indeed good news.
How many Gospels are there?
[PAUSE]
You might say that
there is only one
because
there is only one Jesus.
Of course,
we know that there are
four pieces of writing
which we call Gospels:
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John.
There are other writings
outside the Bible
that are called Gospels
but which are not actually
true Gospels,
such as
the Gospel of Phillip,
the Gospel of Mary Magdalene
the Gospel of Thomas.
These are usually texts which have been written over a century after
the true Gospels are written.
But St Paul also talks about
the Gospel he brings
and yet he speaks of
other gospels,
ones which mislead people,
gospels which he calls accursed.
So what is the true Gospel?
If that true Gospel is Our Lord,
what does this mean?
[PAUSE]
Our Lord is not
a piece of writing,
nor is He a news report.
Certainly we read about Jesus
in the words of
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John,
but He isn't the words of
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John.
We are not saved
by the words of
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John.
We are saved by
The Word of God.
It is the Gospel
that is written by Our Lord
through His act
of Incarnation.
By taking our flesh
and being made Man,
He writes the Gospel
in His own life.
If Jesus is the Life
then how His life
plays out in our lives,
in our experience,
In our understanding
is the Gospel which saves us
and to which
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John
bear witness.
The Four Gospels present
the One Gospel
telling the true story of Christ
and in which
we encounter Him truly.
If we listen to the Apostles
and Evangelists
not only do we hear the history
of the Incarnation
but we also hear our own history
as children of God
written in Eternity
by the Word of God Himself.
As we tell each other
the truth about Jesus Christ,
we tell the story of
how sinners are truly forgiven,
how the sick are truly healed,
how the dead are truly raised.
We tell not just a story,
but we tell what is real.
[PAUSE]
St John reminds us that,
just as he writes things down
so that we might believe
so also our lives
are written in the Book of Life
which is written
by the Word of God
in the Word of God
in the Gospel of God.
The words of our salvation
are written in reality
rather than on paper.
Only the Creator can do that.
Through the words of this Gospel
our sins are truly blotted out.
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