“So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:20)”
What do you desire most for the ones that you love? There is a host of intermediate things that crosses my mind when I think of answering this question, but at the top of the list I have to place eternal salvation. I want my family and friends to go to heaven, and I really, really, really want them to avoid hell – not least because I want that all for me too. As St. Paul urges the Corinthians, I want them to be reconciled to God because, let us face it, we all run out of time eventually.
Why am I not constantly saying that to everyone? This is a lame excuse, but I think it is because I just cannot find a nice way to say something that intense in a way that does not immediately come across as “mean and scary.” I doubt whether anyone would listen. Perhaps that is what hampers many Christians from preaching the Gospel more explicitly in their day-to-day.
So how would you do it – be reconciled to God, that is? For a baptized Catholic, it can be pretty straightforward and swift, externally speaking: find a guide – a handout even – that walks you through the various ways one can break the Ten Commandments, then find a priest, and go to confession. Finally, go to Mass and receive Holy Communion. If you are not a Catholic, or not even remotely interested in becoming one (yet!), perhaps you should start by trying to pinpoint when it was that you started lying to yourself about your relationship to truth and goodness, admit that you have been shying away from that truth, and start pursuing that goodness again.