The greatest temptation that assails Christians is that ... for most of us ... the Gospel has ceased to be news. And if it is not news it is not Gospel: for the Gospel is the proclamation of something absolutely new, everlasting, new, not a message taht was once new but is now two thousand years old. And yet for many of us the Gospel is precisely the announcement of something that is not new ......
The Gospel when it was first preached was profoundly disturbing to those who wanted to cling to well-established religious patterns, the ancient and accepted ways, the ways that were not dangerous and which contained no surprises.
The Gospel is handed down from generation to generation but it must reach each one of us brand new, or not at all. If it is merely "tradition" and not news, it has not been preached or not heard - it is not Gospel. Any word that comes from God is news!
If there is no risk in revelation, if there is no fear in it, if there is no challenge in it, if it is not a word which creates who new worlds, and new beings, it is does not call into existence a new creature, our new self, then religion is dead and God is dead. Those for whom the Gospel is old, and old only, have killed it for the rest of men. The life of the Gospel is its newness.
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of A Guilty Bystander
The First Canon
The canon of acceptance by which one rejects and the other heeds the "Come!" is its relevence to his predicament.
The man who is dying of thirst will not heed news of diamonds. The man at home, the satisfied man, he who does not feel himself to be in a predicament, will not heed the good news. The objective-minded man, he who stands outside and over against the world as its knower, will not heed news of any kind, good or bad - in so far as he remains objective-minded.
The castaway will heed news relevant to his predicament. Yet the relevance of the news is not in itself sufficient warrant.
The Second Canon
A second canon of acceptance of news is the credentials of the newsbearer. Such credentials make themselves known through the reputation ... of the newsbearer. ... If the newbearer is my brother or friend and if I know that he knows my predicament and if he approaches me with every outward sign of sobriety and good faith, and if the news is of a momentous nature, then I have reason to heed the news. If the newsbearer is known to me as a knave or a fool, I have reason to ignore the news.
If the newsbearer is a stranger to me, he is not necessarily disqualified as a newbearer. In some cases indeed his disinterest may itself be a warrant, since he does not stand to profit from the usual considerations of friendship, family feelings, and so on.
If the newsbearer is a stranger and if he meets the requirements of good faith and sobriety and, extraordinary enough, knows my predicament, then the very fact of his being a stranger is reason enough to heed the news.
A piece of news requires that there be a newsbearer.
The Third Canon
A third canon of acceptance is the possibility of the news. If the news is strictly relevant to my predicament and if the bearer of the news is a person of the best character, I still cannot heed teh news if (1) I know for a fact that it cannot possibly be true or (2) the reporrt refers to an event of an unheralded, absurd, or otherwise inappropriate character.
Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle
The Second Canon
A second canon of acceptance of news is the credentials of the newsbearer. Such credentials make themselves known through the reputation ... of the newsbearer. ... If the newbearer is my brother or friend and if I know that he knows my predicament and if he approaches me with every outward sign of sobriety and good faith, and if the news is of a momentous nature, then I have reason to heed the news. If the newsbearer is known to me as a knave or a fool, I have reason to ignore the news.
If the newsbearer is a stranger to me, he is not necessarily disqualified as a newbearer. In some cases indeed his disinterest may itself be a warrant, since he does not stand to profit from the usual considerations of friendship, family feelings, and so on.
If the newsbearer is a stranger and if he meets the requirements of good faith and sobriety and, extraordinary enough, knows my predicament, then the very fact of his being a stranger is reason enough to heed the news.
A piece of news requires that there be a newsbearer.
The Third Canon
A third canon of acceptance is the possibility of the news. If the news is strictly relevant to my predicament and if the bearer of the news is a person of the best character, I still cannot heed teh news if (1) I know for a fact that it cannot possibly be true or (2) the reporrt refers to an event of an unheralded, absurd, or otherwise inappropriate character.
Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle
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