Two passages in the New Testament – one at the beginning and the other at the end of Jesus’ public ministry – illustrate a foundational tenet in Catholic philanthropy. The first is Jesus’ proclamation soon after his baptism by John: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mk.1:15). The second occurs in the crucifixion dialogue. The two thieves and Jesus are being executed. When one thief mocks Jesus, the other rebukes him: “Do you not fear God? We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong”. Then he says: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. (Lk. 23:39)
‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’. Christianity – and by extension Catholic philanthropy – is more than repentance, more than turning away from sin and selfishness. Indeed, it is more than loving our neighbors as ourselves. For Christians, observance of the second Great Commandment which Christ identifies – loving our neighbors as ourselves – is incomplete without observance of the First – loving God with our whole being.
The ‘good news’ of the Gospel, however, is much more than a summons to moral conversion, or an appeal for universal charity, or even more than a call for agape, that covenant of love between God and mankind. John’s Gospel encapsulates it: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). To believe the Gospel is to recognize and to accept the salvific power of Christ’s passion, his death and resurrection, and to acknowledge redeeming grace and our dependence on divine Providence.
One needn’t probe too deeply into today’s ‘Christian culture’ to realize that in much of society ‘belief in the Gospel’ has mutated into a creedless Kumbaya, a modern-day eudemonia. For many, to be Christian is merely to be ‘good’ with no intellectual assent or willful commitment to the implications and challenging demands of ‘Thy will be done”. For those of us in this category, repentance has more to do with turning away from our harmful habits and pursuing the self-help DYI mentality so popularized in bookstores and cable television than it does with the profession of faith.
Dismas is the name given by tradition to the ‘good thief’ mentioned above. He is presumed to have had a sinful life for which he was being justly punished. He repents and acknowledges that the chastisement being meted out to him is deserved. Dismas is among the first disciples to ‘believe the Gospel’. Think of his final words and all they signify: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. He understood that the execution of the innocent Jesus was leading to something extraordinary. He sensed that it had to do with an eternal kingdom and that it was Jesus’ kingdom. He appreciated that his own entrance into this kingdom was not inevitable, but only possible given Jesus’ ‘remembering’ him (grace). He believed in the ‘good news’. Our Lord’s reply was equally significant: “This day you will be with me in Paradise”.
Because it is rooted in Christ’s mandate of repenting and believing the Gospel, Catholic philanthropy is more than eleemosynary. It is also evangelical. In addition to providing succor, it announces and shares hope.
A joyous Easter to everyone!