GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) -- Have you ever wanted to become a new person, and live out a new, exciting and fulfilling life? Has the universal human experience of dissatisfaction and emptiness in earthly life given rise to a thirst for change within you? Do you sense, however subtlety or perhaps subconsciously, the existence of a new and wondrous "horizon" seemingly just beyond your reach? Do you desire to belong and to be "connected," not superficially but deeply, inseparably and permanently? Do you long to drink from the well of infinite love?

Is true healing, completeness and wholeness what you seek? Do you crave forgiveness? Do you want to be made new? Do you thirst to belong to God, partake of his burning love, share his own supernatural life, and one day live forever in blissful peace and perfect happiness? These are some of the irrepressible desires of the human heart. Yet we have no power within ourselves to attain them. Every single one is entirely beyond our reach.

Imagine, for a moment, you live in a frigid, harsh land in which an icy wind blows unceasingly out of the North. Your shelter is but a mud hut. Famine is a constant companion, since the ground often yields little but thorns and thistles during the meager growing season in the summer. Peace is unknown due to the unceasing threat of ruffians and nomadic tribes whose sole existence consists of searching for vulnerable people who can easily be conquered. While you occasionally find some bit of pleasure, it is shallow and fleeting. The cold cannot be driven from your bones. 

One day you learn of your people's history. Long ago, your ancestors lived with a great King of immense benevolence, compassion, wisdom and almighty power, and therefore enjoyed many privileges of the royal household: the choicest foods, comfortable protection, security and shelter were daily provided. Peace and joy were constant companions. The castle grounds were a place of warmth and beauty, filled with all the delights of a richly fertile garden. But one day something devastating happened.

Your ancestors committed a frightening offense of such grave magnitude against the King, they were cast out from the royal household. Peace and security, the delights of the garden, all these things were tragically lost. So willful, destructive and severe was their offense, the surrounding environment was affected: the ground itself was cursed. The harmony of past was broken. While the King lovingly clothed these former members of his household in order to afford them some protection from the now harsh elements, there was little else he could do, given their choice to reject his wise sovereignty. As they walked away, tears fell from the eyes of the King. An unrelenting, cold North wind began to blow.

The previous benefits your ancestors enjoyed within the royal household were lost -- not only for themselves, but for their posterity as well. For many generations, your people have lived under the frightening consequences of the rejection of the King, residing outside of the royal household, in a foreign and harsh and unforgiving land where survival is a daily struggle. Sadly, you realize it is entirely beyond the power of your people to restore their former privileges: they cannot walk in the castle's garden, nor is it possible for them to pass beyond the threshold of the household of the King. You nor anyone else has any right to these royal benefits.

There is only one Person who could work such a miracle of restoration, truly healing, elevating and perfecting your people and the land in which you live. Only the King possesses the almighty power to do such a thing.

One day you hear of a great promise of hope. You receive news of the King's plan to send his only Son into the harsh land in order to reconcile you and your people to himself. Joy fills your heart as you imagine living within the royal household. When the Son of the King arrives, however, he is not well received. While he gives nothing but love, he receives little but hate. One night, he tells you he must willingly suffer and die. It is the King's plan.

"Why?" you ask.

"The offenses you and your people have committed are infinitely grave, for you have rejected my Father, who is himself infinitely good," said the Son. "I have come as the Innocent One who will reconcile you and your people to the King."

"But must you die?"

"My plans are not your plans and my ways are not your ways. I have not come to simply restore your former privileges, but to elevate you and your people to the status of membership within my Father's royal family. I have come to give life in abundance, so that everyone who believes in me should not perish, but have eternal life."

"Is there not some other way?"

"This is the way of infinite love. It is my way," said the Son.

God desires to remake you into a new person. The reality of ...