Kerygma - to accept or not to accept

"There is no entry fee to meet Jesus." - Pope Francis

The journey will cost me everything because it requires a complete handing over of my entire life to the God who gave me that life in the first place. But the invitation, the encounter with the living God who was once dead but no longer lies in the tomb, that is offered freely.

He calls each person by name. He meets you and me somewhere, some day. He is in the darkness and in the light, the highs and the lows. He meets us when we're crazy busy at work mending our nets or collecting tax revenues. He meets us in the dark recesses of an affair or a maddening addiction. He flashes the light of truth on us when we're in the middle of persecuting others through hate-filled political agitating or accusatory, uncharitable protesting - and we fall to the ground like Saul of Tarsus as Christ says, "Why are you persecuting me?"

The encounter comes to each human person in as many varieties as there are people. But He comes to everyone, one-on-one without exception, as if you were the only person who had ever lived. At some point you will be offered this "kerygma" as the Greeks called it - the proclamation of the Good News that God took flesh and paid full price for your freedom from sin. He came to give you a way out of the prison of selfishness, misery and death. And He did it by handing himself over to death itself so as to destroy it from the inside out.

Salvation is God's to give, not ours to take. We cannot dictate terms to Him. The question is this: will we each choose to accept the gift or reject it? He, the infinitely loving Father, will forever respect our decision.