We, Christians, believe that, somehow or other, God the Creator has made
himself known to us in a personal way. That is what the Gospel, Good News, is
all about. God stands before us, face to face, in Jesus. God speaks to us with
words that we, human beings, can understand. We believe that this is the
meaning of Incarnation, of God's Word becoming flesh, of God, in some
indescribable manner, living among us as one of us.
This book has been designed to help you study this mystery from one particular angle, the human one. It is one thing to embrace a doctrine in global terms, quite another to explore its vast implications for our Christian life. I hope that the information I will provide and the reflections I offer, will stimulate your own further search, either by yourself or in a group.
I hope especially that this book will make you discover the Gospel anew. The Gospel is no dead letter that can be learnt by heart, - and then forgotten. The Gospel presents images of life that require constant re-interpretation in the light of the trials and challenges we meet on our way. True Gospel re-creates life.
It is important that you read the Gospel texts for yourself. The translations in this book are my own. If you do not as yet own your personal copy of the Bible, or if you possess one in an outdated turn of phrase, I recommend one of these two versions which combine accuracy of scholarship with readable style:
THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, Darton, Longman & Todd, London 1989.
THE GOOD NEWS BIBLE, The British Bible Society, London 1988.
The Second Vatican Council was a plenary meeting in Rome of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the world. It lasted from 1962 to 1965 and was attended by observers from all major Christian Churches. Its documents provide a statement of Christian faith within the reality of the twentieth-century world. I refer to its documents a number of times because they help us focus on what the Gospel must mean now. Standard publications of the text are:
W.M.ABBOTT, The Documents of Vatican II, Guild Press Paperback, New York 1966.
A.FLANNERY, Vatican Council II, Dominican Publications, Dublin 1975.
Housetop has produced a companion video to this book, of the same title: My Galilee, My People. It contains three half-hour instructional programmes (stories and illustrations) that supplement the material for this study.
I wish you a fruitful study. May the ever living words and images of the Gospel make you uncover 'things old and new'.