Anything under the sun
Repent and spread the Good News (2)
The second portion of the Ash Wednesday anointing verbal formula (badlis in vernacular) is "Spread the Good News".
What is this Good News? It is the news of our salvation. Our first parents in the Paradise committed original sin by violating God's command not to eat the forbidden fruit. This sin was transmitted to every human being.
God in his infinite mercy, promised to send a Messiah to redeem us not only of this original sin but of all other sins. Who is the Messiah? It was Jesus - His only begotten Son who redeemed us thru His Passion and Death on the Cross in Calvary which we are meditating this Lenten Period or Cuaresma.
Thus, unlike the old verbal formula which dwelt on fearsome death, this new formula dwelt on bright hope - hope of our salvation which is the entire theme of the Sacred Scriptures.
This grand story of our salvation started at the very home of our first parents when God promised to them to send a Messiah. It continued in the predictions of the prophets which laced throughout the entire Old Testament and then the fulfilment of these prophesies in Jesus Christ told in the New Testament.
Lastly, why is the Catholic faithful mandated to spread this Good News of man's salvation? Because - Christ Himself mandated every man and woman, not only His apostles and disciples, to evangelize the whole world.
This mandate was echoed by Pope John Paul II when he said that the Third Mellinneum is the second springtime of evangelization and called all men to spread the Gospel throughout the whole world.
Indeed, every man can be a little apostle spreading the Good News in his own little way.
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