Our Lord Jesus Christ, before going back to the heavenly Father, gave a mission to the apostles and, therefore, the Church to announce the Gospel, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19-20). Since then, the Church has been preaching the Gospel overcoming all the difficulties she has had through history.
We are fruits of this preaching. Our mother, father, friend, teacher, classmate, husband, wife, deacon, or priest talked to us first about Jesus and His wonderful message of love. We are Christians… we are Catholics… we are followers of Jesus because of the preaching of the Church; however, do we really know why we are Catholics? Do we follow Jesus by a tradition given to us by our family members or someone else, or are we Catholics because we have a strong conviction that Jesus is my Lord and my God? Do we really believe that Jesus can do anything for us? If our answer is that we are Catholics by tradition, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts and minds in order to fully realize that Jesus is more than a man who lived many centuries ago, and to start a personal encounter with Him. If our answer is, we are Catholics by conviction, we should be happy because we understand well that Jesus is the only one who can save our lives and the lives of all human beings.
After feeling that we really believe in Jesus Christ and all His power as our Lord and God, we need to demonstrate our belief in Jesus through our actions in our daily life. To pray, practice the sacraments (especially Reconciliation and Eucharist), help, and love our brothers and sisters through each one of the works of mercy are some of the ways we can express all our love and faith for Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us go out and proclaim the Good News, the Gospel, to all people with our words and works (actions) so that everyone can realize that Jesus is more than a name of a man who lived many years ago. He is our Lord and Savior. We need to be Catholics by conviction, not only by tradition.
God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!
Fr. Jorge Ramirez
