Kerygma

Advent and Christmas always provide a full and eventful kick-off to the liturgical year. This year we celebrate a Jubilee. Specifically, we celebrate the 2,025th anniversary of the Incarnation of our Lord. It seems like the perfect time for a fresh start. What better time, then, to once again reactivate this humble blog?

If you are new to Theological terms, then the title of this post might seem strange to you. “Kerygma” is a Greek word meaning proclamation. Specifically, it is the Greek word used in the New Testament to describe the apostolic proclamation of the good news of Christ and our salvation. Jesus directed the Apostles to go into the world and preach the good news to every creature (Mark 16:15, Luke 14:23). As the Apostles are called, so we are called. But what exactly is this good news, and what does it mean for us in our modern daily lives? There are many online resources that dive deeply into the Kerygma, the Kerygmatic Message, and the kerygmatic approach to teaching religion at all levels. I invite you to search the term in your favorite search tool to fully explore this topic. Acts chapter 2 is also a good place to gain a firm scriptural understanding of the subject.

I’d like to focus on the four core points of the Kerygma, because I find that they provide a solid anchor for my personal prayer life and they weave through and link together most of the concepts I cover in my catechetical efforts with both youth and adults. They are

–God Loves you and has a plan for your life.
–Sin interferes with this plan.
–God sent Christ to conquer sin.
–Reconnecting your life with Christ opens the path to Salvation.

Each of these points raises interesting and difficult questions. Who or what is God? How can I see or feel that he loves me? What about emotional distress or financial hardship; is that God’s plan for me? If sin blocks the plan, does that mean that God doesn’t love me when I’ve sinned? If Christ conquered sin, why is it so prevalent in my life? Why do I continue to fall into sin? Why does the sin of others hurt me and those that I love? That doesn’t seem like good news at all! Finally, if the remedy is a reconnection with and through Christ, what can I do to find and maintain this reconnection? I can’t answer all those questions in a single blog post. In fact, right now I’m at the beginning of a 10 week class that I’m offering at my home parish. 10 weeks isn’t enough to fully answer these questions either. My goal is to put people on a path to their own spiritual journeys to uncover a way forward; a way to embrace to the fullest extent possible the good news of the proclamation and be prepared for the glory of the ultimate realization of these truths when we are one day face-to-face with God our creator. St. Augustine teaches us that God gives us faith in this temporal world as a solace to life’s strife, hardship, and misery. In the next life and in the world to come, we won’t need faith, because we will be with God. We will see truth and ultimate peace. We will exist in truth and ultimate peace (City of God, book xix).

We sin, because God gave us free will. He gave us free will, because without it we would worship him out of meaningless robotic obedience, not love. God wants our love. Why? Because he loves us. The plan He has for each us is designed to lead us back to Him. Sin, though, throws up a wall between us and God. Sin separates us from Him in all three persons of the Trinity. The road back to God leads to the foot of the cross. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16). This only son, God Himself in human form, God’s very word made flesh to dwell amongst us, loves us, teaches us, died for us. Christ’s love for us “surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19). How then do we reconnect? God did not leave us alone in the wilderness with regard to that struggle either. During his ministry on earth, Christ instituted for us the Sacraments through which we can abide in hope, faith, and love. When he returned to God, Christ sent us the Holy Spirit to continue to guide us (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit bolsters us and gives us peace in this world. We must, though, manage our free will such that we stay connected to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always there, and He too, always loves us. We can walk away from God, but God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–never walks away from us. This pure love from God we call Grace. We can reject it, but we did not, and cannot earn it. Neither can we achieve it. We are not capable of loving God the same way he loves us. The closest we can come is to answer the call contained in God’s plan for us. We can turn our will and our lives over to God, love him to the fullest extent of our being, love our fellow creatures as we love ourselves, and……

Proclaim the Good News!

That, dear bothers and sisters, is the Kerygma.