IV. Evangelization and the deeper, understanding of the kerygma
THE Lord’s missionary mandate includes a call to growth in faith: “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Hence, it is clear that the first proclamation also calls for ongoing formation and maturation. Evangelization aims at a process of growth, which entails taking seriously each person and God’s plan for his or her life. All of us need to grow in Christ. Evangelization should stimulate a desire for this growth, so that each of us can say wholeheartedly: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ, who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
It would not be right to see this call to growth exclusively or primarily in terms of doctrinal formation. It has to do with “observing” all that the Lord has shown us as the way of responding to His love. Along with the virtues, this means, above all, the new commandment, the first and the greatest of the commandments, and the one that best identifies us as Christ’s disciples: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Clearly, whenever the New Testament authors want to present the heart of the Christian moral message, they present the essential requirement of love for one’s neighbor: “The one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the whole law…therefore, love of neighbor is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8, 10). These are the words of Saint Paul, for whom the commandment of love not only sums up the law, but also constitutes its very heart and purpose: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).
To his communities, Paul presents the Christian life as a journey of growth in love: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). Saint James, likewise, exhorts Christians to fulfill “the royal law according to the Scripture: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (2:8), in order not to fall short of any commandment.
On the other hand, this process of response and growth is always preceded by God’s gift, since the Lord first says: “Baptize them in the name…” (Matthew 28:19). The Father’s free gift, which makes us His sons and daughters, and the priority of the gift of His grace (cf. Ephesians 2:8–9; 1 Corinthians 4:7), enables that constant sanctification that pleases God and gives Him glory. In this way, we allow ourselves to be transformed in Christ through a life lived “according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).
Kerygmatic and mystagogical catechesis
EDUCATION and catechesis are at the service of this growth. We already possess a number of magisterial documents and aids on catechesis issued by the Holy See and by various episcopates. I think, in particular, of the Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (1979), the General Catechetical Directory (1997) and other documents whose contents need not be repeated here. I would like to offer a few brief considerations that I believe to be of particular significance.
In catechesis, too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. The kerygma is trinitarian. The fire of the Spirit is given in the form of tongues and leads us to believe in Jesus Christ, who, by His death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy. On the lips of the catechist, the first proclamation must ring out over and over: Jesus Christ loves you; He gave His life to save you; and now He is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you. This first proclamation is called “first,” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one that we must hear again and again in different ways, the one that we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment. For this reason, too, the priest—like every other member of the Church—ought to grow in awareness that he himself is continually in need of being evangelized.
To be continued
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