What is the purpose of Christianity?

Fr. Lemieux answers the question beautifully:

The purpose of Christianity is the healing of the human person. Christianity offers radical healing to humanity in its deepest wounding. The deepest of all woundings is our estrangement from God; Jesus heals that alienation by his death and resurrection and gift of the Spirit—the Paschal Mystery by which God’s life become ours.

But the other deep wound of humanity is our estrangement from one another. In losing our communion with God, we lose communion with each other. We are at odds, at war, at each others’ throats. We withdraw, isolate, separate. We are apart from one another.

God’s master plan to heal that is the Church. In all its wounds, all its failures, all its human weaknesses and misery, God has chosen that we should receive His Gospel—the Good News of our reunion with Him and the gift of His life—from one another.

This is the healing of our alienation and division, even if it is a healing we will not experience in fullness until heaven. We cannot float in some individualistic bubble, just me and Jesus, me and God. We must come together, come to one another, to receive the life of God and the truth of God. The Church is a vital and necessary part of God’s saving plan for humanity. It is from one another that the buried memory of God, the truth of our inmost being, is relearnt, and in that both estrangements, both wounds are healed.

And so He chose twelve men and called them apostles. He sent them as the Father had sent Him. Two of those men and two other men would write accounts of His life. And so it has gone for 2000 years. And of course, this has a direct and immediate relevance for you and me today, doesn’t it? Jesus chooses us, calls us, and sends us as the Father sent Him. And if this poor bedraggled divided, violence-torn world of ours is to hear about the Gospel, it will be from our lips and our lives or it will not be at all.

So… let’s do that today, eh?

I want to see a show of hands of those who need not healing.  I want to see a second show of hands of those who would not be uplifted if they became part of someone else's healing.

The wounded Church needs wounded warriors to carry out its healing mission.

Why wouldn't you want to become part of that purpose?

Comments

[Ilíon]

"But the other deep wound of humanity is our estrangement from one another. In losing our communion with God, we ..."

And the other other deep wound of humanity is our estrangement from our own selves. In losing our communion with God, we have become alienated from, and at war with, our own selves. We are no longer integral, but perverse and self-destructive.

[Tanignak]

It's OK every now and then to tell those you know what's really important in life. This is much more important than any other topic I can think of. But only if it's true, and I believe with mind and heart that it is.