A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus journeyed through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Now remember the the word the Greek word for good news is evangelion, evangel. So our Lord was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. He wasn't he wasn't handing out pamphlets or flyers or myriad Xerox copies of his few chosen remarks.
He was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The 12, the apostles, accompanied him and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and maladies. Mary called the Magdalene from whom seven devils had gone out. Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, Chutzah, Susanna, and there were many others who were assisting Christ and his apostles out of their means. They were supporting them.
And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. This reading this morning, among other things, points up a very critical situation which has to do to some extent with words, but you can't dismiss some very profound problems by saying it's a mere matter of semantics. That is not what I'm saying.
You see, the word gospel today in English, which is the English translation Evangelion, which is the Greek word, is almost totally identified with a book. With a book. Some readers, they hold this up and they say, the gospel of the lord or something like that. We identify the gospel with the written word. Well, you see, if you if people would just think a little bit, they would see how absurd that is.
Now I said absurd because we do not have anything written until the towards the end of the first century. Not a single thing is written. And it it as and when it was accepted as the word of god, that's something else to remember. When Saint Paul took his his, ballpoint pen or got down at at his word processor and dashed off his epistles, you know, to the Corinthians, to the Philippians, to the Thessalonians, he wasn't saying now I am speaking and God is directing me, and this is a hundred and fifty, two hundred years, people are gonna say this is the word of God. Nonsense.
That's not the way it was at all. He saw those dumb Corinthians over there acting like lunatics, so he sits down and writes a strong letter to them, behave yourself, straighten up. You're Christians, you've been baptized. You can't act like that. Now that comes at the second half of the century, at the earliest.
So if if Saint Paul and if the other apostles went around during their lifetimes, as they certainly did until they all became martyrs, with one exception, If they did that, they weren't handing out books. They weren't holding up the gospels. They weren't saying this is the word of the lord and holding up a book. They had nothing in writing. They didn't even have anything in print with footnotes and with a critical apparatus.
What did they have? They had the good news. Now I say the Greek word for good news is avangelion. And when and when we read, as we're reading today, that Christ went around preaching the good news, we're saying he went around preaching the gospel. What was that gospel he was preaching?
Because that's the gospel we want. We don't want the gospel according to doctor Rauner in '9 in 1986. We want the gospel, the good news that Christ preached. He preached it word-of-mouth. Now when the apostles came along, when they started to go about, what did they do?
They simply what what did Christ tell them? He said, you guys go out and you do what I have commanded you to do. Teach all nations, commanding them what I have commanded you to teach. That was all by word-of-mouth. All of it.
Now remember, Pete could write in those days. Christ could have written down, he could have had a dozen amanuensis, he could have left them a document. He did nothing of the sort. Nothing. Nothing of the sort.
He Christ went around preaching the good news. Those who heard him, those the apostles, they after Christ's resurrection, after his ascension, at the command of Christ, the apostles did the very same thing except and Saint Paul is is extremely clear on this. He said, I'm not preaching you Paul. When you listen to Peter, you're not listening to Peter. You are listening to the to the to Jesus Christ.
And Saint Paul is very careful to point out, look. What I'm teach what I'm preaching to you is not mine, and it's not. I didn't get it from those apostles either. I got it straight from Jesus Christ who appeared to me. Keep this in mind.
Paul got Paul got his good news directly from a revelation of Jesus Christ. Some people seem to forget that. And he's and Saint Paul is perfectly clear about this. He's just as explicit as I'm trying to be explicit now. So the whole idea of the the of the primitive church and those who preach the doctrine of the primitive church was to preach the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which had been handed down to them.
And the word to hand down in Latin is traduccio, which in English becomes tradition. Tradition. And the Catholic church has stood solidly on that basis. How can you say the church is built on a book when you don't have a book till about a 100 AD? That's a Calvin and Lutheran company.
Plus, a lot of our present day internationally known theologians. They hold up the book and they say that's the word of God as if that were their whole story. And what they're holding up is not the word of God, it's it's what father Hartman or or or one of the Carmelites or or father Ray Brown thinks that the Greek says. It's their word that you're holding up, really. They're it's their English.
Because there's one thing perfectly clear, Jesus Christ did not speak English, as far as we have any records, let me say. And so we come back to the good news. Where do you find that good news? Because if you can't find it, it might just as well not be, if it is. On the other hand, if there is a suspicion that the good news of Jesus Christ exists, then it should be our earnest endeavor to know where does it exist.
Where do I find it? I want it. I need it. You can read the the most astute, the most sincere, the most honest, the most intelligent intelligent men of enormous genius. Read them all in the Orient or in the Occident.
Can you name one that gives us a totally satisfactory answer to the problem of evil? The answer is no. Now you'll say he'll spouting words, I am not! You can verify this yourself if you want to take a couple years off and do it. And so, what we aim at isn't what doctor Rauner or Kern or any of these self appointed theologians what they say.
Who is interested in that? Just just just read their material and see how often the word I appears. I. I think. It is my opinion.
This is the way it is. How do they know this is the way it is? Unless they can give me a source. And what is the source? Your contemporary psychologists?
Your temporary poll contemporary pollsters? Counting heads? Taking census? What is the what is the public need? Let us be compassionate.
Let us go out and see. Let us be with it. Let us be contemporary. Oh, yes. Above all things, let us be contemporary.
Let us not be be, you know, in the cloud of the middle ages when the whole thrust of a Christian should be to be honest to God Christians. Which means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, which means to know what he taught. And how do you find it? Where is that living voice of Jesus Christ if it is out on the rock Of Peter? In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.