ONLY GENUINE GOSPEL SAVES


FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLES  

1 Cor 15:1-8; Ps 19:2-5; Jn 14:6-14

Salvation is Receiving the Genuine Gospel

The importance of receiving the genuine Gospel is a matter of life and death, for the Christian enterprise is heavenly only if we have the authentic Gospel which contains the will of God the Father for man's salvation. The necessary condition for God to save us is that we know his will which he revealed in Jesus Christ. We are ignorant of the divine will as long as we are deficient in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. God has not saved us as long as we do not have a correct belief in Jesus Christ. Saint Paul states this necessity as follows. “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you—believing anything else will not lead to anything.” We are not free to choose what to believe and what not to believe. We must believe the true Gospel to be saved. The Church understands this requirement for the salvation of souls and makes every effort to keep the Gospel intact for us. The Church presents these important revealed truths forming the pillars of our faith as articles of faith that every Christian must believe. Some are also rendered as dogmas of the Church. These constitute the contents of the Gospel we are not free to alter without losing our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Saint Paul mentions some of the core contents of the Gospel, namely, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No one can doubt or disbelieve these without losing his salvation. We have noted within the reflections this week that the apostles proclaimed the resurrection mainly because his suffering and death were public events and knowledge. Those who believed in him witnessed that he rose from death. We may not doubt these articles of faith outrightly, but our thoughts and way of life may indicate our lack of faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our way of life may be inimical to the cross of Jesus Christ while we still answer Christians. Such a situation usually arises due to a lack of meditation and reflection on the articles of faith to internalise and implement them in our lives. We must pray and meditate on the Gospel that the truths therein inform our thoughts, words, and behaviour. The psalmist prophesied this of the apostles. “No speech, no word, no voice is heard yet their span extends through all the earth, their words to the utmost bounds of the world.” The apostles became one with their message and spread the Gospel everywhere. Our vocation is to imitate their dedication to the message of the Gospel to be saved. As Paul explained, believing and living any other doctrine will lead to the loss of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Jesus made this requirement clear to his disciples in the Gospel. He explained how the knowledge of the Son of Man entails knowledge of the Father. He is the sacrament of our salvation, which requires knowledge of the Father. We must come to Jesus Christ to receive salvation. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen.” Jesus Christ calls us to constant meditation on the mystery of his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. By walking this way very often, we know the truth. We have eternal life by eating these truths of Jesus Christ daily. The celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist presents the truth in a liturgical sense and setting. The reality remains the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The two apostles we celebrate today devoted their lives to following Jesus Christ to gain salvation. Philip was a disciple of John the Baptist before meeting Jesus. After the meeting, he followed Jesus Christ steadfastly. James, son of Alphaeus, called James the less to distinguish him from the son of Zebedee, ruled the Church in Jerusalem, wrote an epistle, and lived an austere life before his martyrdom in 62 AD. Walking the way of salvation, which is Jesus Christ, requires constancy and vigilance. To receive Jesus is to live in him, and he, in us, just as he lives in the Father and the Father in him.

Let us pray: O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of the Apostle Philip and James, grant us, through their prayers, a share in the Passion and Resurrection of your Only Begotten Son, so that we may merit to behold you for eternity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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