If you've ever lived in the Southern United States as I do, you've undoubtedly run across somebody on the corner of the town square passing out cards, going up to people and talking to them, and asking questions along the lines of "if you were to die today would you go to Heaven and how do you know that?" These kind people are looking to give what is called a Gospel Presentation, which is essentially an elevator pitch for why you should become an evangelical protestant Christian. Personally, my favorite long-form Gospel Presentation is this one by Acts17Apologetics.
I do not want to disparage these good people at all. I do have harsh critiques for people who stand on street corners preaching damnation to anyone and everyone, including fellow Christians who don't adhere to their particular tradition, but I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about earnest Protestant Christians who are doing their best to follow the command of Christ to "preach the Gospel to all nations" (Mt. 28:19).
One thing that can be difficult for Catholics is making a Gospel Presentation. It's not something that Catholics nowadays are accustomed to doing, and this type of evangelism is not part of the American Catholic culture as it is in the Evangelical Protestant culture. This is unfortunate for two reasons: one, it shows that Catholics are not as accustomed to the concept of going out and evangelizing as their separated brethren, and; two, Catholics often hear a Gospel Presentation during the holiest and most efficacious of prayers, the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.
The portion of the Mass that you find this Gospel Presentation is in Eucharistic Prayer IV. The Eucharistic Prayer is the prayer in which the bread and wine at Mass are consecrated and become the real Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This prayer, along with the Roman Canon and Eucharistic Prayers II and III, is the most important prayer in the entirety of the Mass. It reads as follows:
We give you praise, Father most holy, for you are great, and you have fashioned all your works in wisdom and in love. You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.
And when through disobedience he had lost your friendship, you did not abandon him to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you. Time and again you offered them covenants and through the prophets taught them to look forward to salvation.
And you so loved the world, Father most holy, that in the fullness of time you sent your Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to the sorrowful of heart, joy.
To accomplish your plan, he gave himself up to death, and, rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life. And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full.
Very quickly, let's break this down line by line and show how it functions as a Gospel Presentation:
... You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures.
We come here to the beginning of Salvation History. In the beginning, God created the World and formed Man in His own image as a rational being, and made him in a state of perfection. God created us so that we would dwell in His Presence forever, enjoying an eternal communion with Him. More than this, He created the entire world for us, that we might enjoy it and have stewardship over it. However, this perfection would unfortunately not last.
... Through disobedience he had lost your friendship...
After being given all of these good things through the grace of God, the woman was tempted by the serpent, and mankind lost his perfection in God. Through the sin of our First Parents, we all became subject to sin and death, being born into a state of separation and enmity with God and having the inclination to commit all types of egregious sin. We lost the friendship of God and became enemies of God. Fortunately, this is not the end of the story.
... You did not abandon him to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you. Time and again you offered them covenants and through the prophets taught them to look forward to salvation.
Despite humanity's fall, God did not destroy us, nor did He withdraw Himself from humanity. Rather, He immediately began the work of reconciliation through covenantal relationships with God. It is important to realize that covenants are not mere contracts, but are instead more akin to familial bonds, most clearly in a marriage covenant. After Adam broke his covenant with God, God made a covenant with Noah after the Great Flood, then later continued this relationship with man by making a covenant with Abraham, and finally made a covenant with Israel through Moses in the giving of the Old Testament Law.
God also sent prophets, appointed messengers to bring Israel back when they had begun to stray from the Law of the Almighty. Along with these warnings to abandon sin and death came prophecies of an Anointed One, a mighty King who would reign in the House of David forever and save His people from their sins. Isaiah identifies this Anointed One as "Emmanuel," or "God with us," and speaks of Him as a servant of God who will suffer for the sins of His people.
And you so loved the world... that in the fullness of time you sent your Only Begotten Son to be our Savior. Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to the sorrowful of heart, joy.
In the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to come into the world as the ultimate revelation of God to Man. This revelation and proclamation is the Gospel, the Good News that God became man and dwelt among us in order to redeem us from our sins once and for all. The Incarnation is not the height of this Good News, though.
To accomplish your plan, he gave himself up to death, and, rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life.
Our debt was too much for us to pay. Sin had taken such a hold of us that we could not ever do anything to save ourselves. We needed someone to save us. Thus, God Incarnate picked up His heavy Cross and, by His death on the Cross, paid the debt to God that He did not owe and that we could never repay. After this, He rose triumphantly from the grave to prove that He had authority over all things, and to promise eternal life to all who are in Him.
And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose again for us, He sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as the first fruits for those who believe, so that, bringing to perfection his work in the world, he might sanctify creation to the full.
After all of this, Christ gives us the Holy Spirit from the Father, so that God would dwell in us. By participation in the Mystical Body of Christ, we partake in His death through the mystery of baptism so that, at the end of time, we may partake in His bodily resurrection from the dead. Christ not only destroys sin, but He destroys and transforms our human nature through the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost within us, sanctifying and restoring Creation not to the same perfection of the initial creation, but to a higher state than original Creation: a uniting to the Divine Nature in the Beatific Vision of Heaven.
It is important that we, as Catholics, know how to present the Gospel. We must be able to tell people about our faith and bring people to the Good News of Christ Jesus our Savior. This should be very easy for us because we hear this proclamation of God's love for us in the Mass every time the priest says Eucharistic Prayer IV. The Mass, as the highest form of Christian worship, tells us what the Gospel is.
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