Jordan Paul
If the moderns really want a simple religion of love, they must look for it in the Athanasian Creed. The truth is that the trumpet of true Christianity, the challenge of the charities and simplicities of Bethlehem or Christmas Day never rang out more arrestingly and unmistakably than in the defiance of Athanasius to the cold compromise of the Arians. . . . His dogma, if the phrase be not misunderstood, turns even God into a Holy Family.
—G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
Friends,
In today’s epistle, St. Paul exhorts us to preach the gospel and to tailor your preaching to whoever it is you’re preaching to while never diluting the message itself. It’s a message that still applies to us today, even if it is not fashionable.
But preaching the gospel means preaching the whole gospel. We cannot preach serving the poor and forgiveness without preaching right worship and repentance. And lest you are tempted to write off this command as coming from St. Paul rather than our Lord himself, remember Christ’s own words in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
We live in a secular age. An age defined by a casual cultural antipathy toward traditional religion but no less hungry for capital-t Truth. An age where some think the answer to dwindling attendance is to water down the knowledge we have been given in the scriptures and confirmed by faith. An age of “spiritual but not religious,” an age of distraction and distrust, and an age of casual Pelagianism and Marcionism and a whole manner of other -isms besides.
It does not have to be this way. There’s a common misquotation of St. Francis that advises “preach the gospel. Use words if necessary.” Taken in isolation, that’s bad advice. To preach the gospel, we must use words. Words about who Jesus is, why we worship Him, and that the way to him is the Church. The gospel cannot be shared without words. But we cannot be satisfied with just living our lives in such a way that people will find themselves in a church. But we must be sure to follow our Lord’s commandments ourselves.
So, live a faithful life, preach with words, and pray always for God’s mercy.
In Christ,
—Jordan
