The Invitation

Introductory Dialogues to the Essay

(Scene;   Adam and Eve have just run away from home in Eden)

God the Son:      What shall we do, Father?

God the Father:     I want you to go to them
and become them and save them.
As them, in terms that they understand,
I want you to convey our love for them.
They are the works of our hand; made in our own image.
How can we not love them?
You who art more than Man shall submit to them
who art less than God.
When they insult you, and torture you, and kill you,
we shall forgive them, giving them, thereby,
irrefutable proof of our love for them.
I want you to invite prodigal mankind
to return home to a life of happiness with us.
And Whomever of them accepts our invitation,
I want you to lead home.

God the Son:      Thy will be done, Father; but, what about the rest?  those who reject or ignore our invitation?

God the Father:      Their will is free - for good or ill. We shall not force them to accept our invitation. Their choice is between God and godlessness. Theirs shall be whichever they choose.

(Scene:   The children of Adam and Eve learn the good news of great joy and discuss it)

Child #1:  Pssst. Spread the word. Dad wants us to come home.
Child #2:  That’s great news. Dad wants us to come home. Spread the word.
Child #3:  But how do we get there from here?
Child #1:  Dad sent His Son to show us the road home.
Child #3:  But that was before my time!
Child #1:  He marked the road home with landmarks so those who follow Him wouldn’t get lost.
Child #3:  How do I find the landmarks?
Child #1:  He gave a map of the landmarks to His Church.
Child #3:  Will His Church share the map of the landmarks with me?
Child #1:  Yes.
Child #3: What should I do after I get the map?
Child #1:  Find the landmarks and pass through them. By passing through them, you will know that you are heading in the right direction.

The essay itself

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.(Luke 2:10-11)

Have you heard the “good tidings of great joy”? Do you understand it? The phrase has been applied to the entire gospel. Such a broad usage, however, obscures the message and dilutes its meaning.  The “good tidings of great joy” are that God our Father has invited each of us to come home to a life of happiness with Him despite our sins; God our Father has sent His Son to deliver the invitation to us; And, the Son will lead home anyone who accepts.

God our Father is the gift-giver. He gave Adam and Eve the gift of life, the gift of a companion with whom to share it and the gift of a home in Eden in which to enjoy it. Yet, despite God’s generosity, like children, Adam and Eve ran away from home. When they ran away from home, they took us with them. Thus, it was in Eden that the serpent started the self-destructive stampede away from God into godlessness  Although the children flee, the Father pursues. Our ingratitude did not draw the words “Good riddance” from the lips of God our Father.  He so loves us that He wants us to come home to a life of happiness with Him.

After Eden, God our Father first entrusted the good news of great joy to the Jews. The Jews have paid a steep price for serving as its guardians. They faithfully opposed the enemies of God and Man who wished to suppress it. In the fullness of time, God decided that the scope of the invitation would be expanded beyond the Jews to include the rest of mankind. Moreover, to ensure the invitation made it through, God our Father sent His Son to personally deliver it to us and to lead those who accepted it home to a life of happiness. Thus, the Jews passed the good news of great joy to Jesus. Jesus then passed the good news of great joy to His Church. His Church has devoted itself to helping people get into heaven for more than two thousands years.  Venerable is a word that does not come close to doing justice to it or its mission.  It is the Church that has passed the good news of great joy to us.

Like the baton used by runners during a relay race, the invitation has been delivered to us. We have it in hand. The question for each of us is, ‘What will our answer be?’.  It is now up to us to decide whether to accept it, ignore it or reject it.  If the invitation had never come into our possession, we would have escaped the burden of answering and the consequences of our answer. But now that we possess the invitation, we have no choice but to answer it. There is no escape. Our conduct - that is our thoughts, words and deeds - after we have received the invitation tells God our Father our answer. Moreover, our answer is not trivial. It has consequences that will follow us into eternity!  So, beware! The clock is ticking. Because we are mortal, the time to accept the invitation is running out.

If we reject the good news of great joy, we continue to run with the herd stampeding away from God into godlessness. If we throw the invitation away, or bury it in the ground or stick it in a closet or otherwise ignore it, we continue to run with the herd stampeding away from God into godlessness.  But if we accept the invitation, Jesus will extended His hand (Matthew 3:2). When we reach up and grasp it, our Savior will pull us out of the stampede, lift us up (Matthew 14:30-31), and place us on the road that leads home to a life of happiness with Him (Isaiah 35: 8-10).

For those who accept the invitation, the question that arises is how do we get there from here?  The road home to a life of happiness with God our Father is defined by landmarks. Passing through the landmarks tells us we are heading in the right direction. The Mass is one of the landmarks on the road home. In the liturgy of the Eucharist, God, our Father, offers us the gift of his Son, Jesus, in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, as fuel for our souls. No traveler on any journey can go fast or get far without food and drink including a traveler on the road home to a life of happiness with God.  Other landmarks include confession, the other sacraments, works of charity, the company of saints, humility, poverty in spirit, the saying of the rosary, other prayer, etc. Only joy and gladness await those who travel the road home to a life of happiness with God our Father (Isaiah 35: 8-10).  If we but take the first steps towards home, it is promised that God our Father Himself will run to welcome us. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20).

We live in a world where it is 'politically incorrect' to talk about God. The proponents of the status quo tell us to mind our own business. We are warned to stay out of the way.  We are ridiculed when we ask ourselves, our children, our families and others to contemplate the direction in which we are headed - even though it is life's most important question!  Still, the stampede from God into godlessness that began in Eden continues unabated today. It is easy to be swept away. It is hard to hold one's ground and harder still to reverse direction and go against the overwhelming flow of godlessness. The difficulty increases exponentially if we try to go it alone.  Yet, despite an awkwardness in doing so, let me remind you that some of us have welcomed the good news of great joy and have accepted the invitation to head home to a life of happiness with God our Father.  To those who are thinking about making their own escape from godlessness, the message is “you are not alone!”  Others have already done so and you would be most welcome to join with us on the journey home.