ALL SAINTS CHURCH

I think three things go into every communication. There is a basic trinitarian paradigm, the sender, the information and the receiver. The sender creates, composes or relays a particular packet of meaning. When the sender sends this “composition” or message and the receiver receives it, there is a new reality for both people. The sender feels understood. That is, there is somebody else standing-under and together in relationship and sharing meaning. The person who receives it has this new information form and inform his or her world. They may choose to dismiss it as irrelevant, they may categorize it so they can find it later, or they may apply the new information to the very core of their beings. When Mary received the Holy Spirit and became pregnant with Jesus, she received something that merged with her humanity and changed the shape of her internally and externally. According to the story, angels came and interpreted these events to her and Mary kept all these things in her mind (a mental gestation that corresponded to the physical). Mary was changed forever, God had delivered God’s message and heaven and earth were joined in a new way. The Church has been given this message, God has composed it, and delivered it and we, in our own way, are somewhere in the process of receiving it. We call the message the Gospel, i.e. good news or good message. It is a message that originates in response to the difficulties of our historical situation. In giving it, God is understood by us and we stand-under God’s reality. In standing-under and together we are transformed, if we choose the difficult work of appropriating it in our depths. The content of the message is Unconditional Love. As believers, we are not called to create a Gospel ex nihilo, but to accept the eternal communication and to experience Divine Love. Once we accept the communication that we are God’s beloveds, we enter the ongoing process of communicating that message with others.