THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL CHAPTER 3 – THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL (3)

FAITH AND CULTURE AND THE PRIMACY OF GRACE
1. My task this evening is to reflect with you on the contents of Chapter 3 of Pope Francis’ 84-page exhortation under the title “The Joy of the Gospel”. Thus far in our series we have discussed in Chapter 1 – The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Faith. In Chapter 2, under the title of “The Crisis of Communal Commitment”, the Pope talked about challenges to evangelization coming from today’s social environment and also about some of the temptations that pastoral workers face today in the work of evangelization. This is the gist of what was contained in Fr. Hehir’s magnificent presentation last week. Chapter 3, our present concern, bears the title “The Proclamation of the Gospel”. We will look at this question in three distinct steps. The first step deals with the topic obviously dear to the heart of Pope Francis, that is, when we come to the work of evangelization in the Church at this time, and when we ask the important question: Who are to be the evangelizers? , the answer is the entire people of God are the ones who must proclaim the Gospel. The second sub-section deals with the question of the homily and how the homily in the liturgical life of every parish must play a significant role in the work of evangelization. Finally we will turn to the third issue – the crucial question of the role catechetics must play in the proclamation of the Gospel. This third section will be of major concern in what I have to suggest this evening. Evangelization demands an ever-deeper understanding of what Francis calls the “kerygma”. It’s good for us to remember that for the first three centuries of the Church’s existence the official language of the Church was Greek. Kerygma is just an ordinary Greek word meaning “the message”, “the teaching” that must be proclaimed in evangelizing. As I mentioned in our opening talk, proclamation is the language of evangelization. Although the evangelizer does not have to say something every time he or she is evangelizing, after all witness of a gospel life is far more important than talking about the gospel life, but when the evangelizer must use language, the language is the kerygma.

2. My reading of Chapter 3 suggests another possible title, especially for our first topic this evening – “Faith and Culture and the Primacy of Grace”. We see the primacy of grace very clearly in paragraph 112. It reads as follows: “The salvation which God offers us is the work of his mercy. No human efforts, however good they may be, can enable us to merit so great a gift. God, by his sheer grace, draws us to himself and makes us one with him. He sends his Spirit into our hearts to make us his children, transforming us and enabling us to respond to his love by our lives. The Church is sent by Jesus Christ as the sacrament, the outward, visible, tangible sign of the salvation offered by God to everyone. Through her evangelizing activity, she cooperates as an instrument of that divine grace which works unceasingly and inscrutably.” The Pope quotes his predecessor Benedict XVI who wrote – “It is important always to know that the first word, the true initiative, the true activity comes from God and only by inserting ourselves into the divine initiative, only begging for this divine initiative, shall we too be able to become – with him and in him – evangelizers”. This principle of the primacy of grace must become a beacon which constantly illuminates our reflections on evangelization. This primacy of grace means also, of course, the primacy of the Lord Jesus himself. Pope Francis reminds us that “there can be no true evangelization without the explicit proclamation of Jesus as Lord”, and without “the primacy of the proclamation of Jesus Christ in all evangelizing work”. As Pope John Paul II, when addressing the concerns of some Asian bishops, reminded them that “if the Church is to fulfill its providential destiny, evangelization as the joyful, patient and progressing preaching of the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ must be your absolute priority”. All primacy, all that pertains to the Gospel must acknowledge the primacy of Christ.

3. Who then must do the work of evangelization whether by preaching, by personal witness in the home, in the cloister, in the pulpit, in the classroom, in the workplace? Francis answers – All of the above, that is, the entire people of God must be in some way proclaimers of the Gospel. Evangelization is the task of the Church. The Church in this context is much more than an organic and hierarchical institution. The Church is first and foremost a people advancing on pilgrimage to God. The Church thus, as we will see later on, is a mystery rooted in the Trinity, yet existing concretely in human history as a people of pilgrims and evangelizers, transcending every institutional expression, however necessary. Thus we must always bear in mind “that the salvation God offers us and which the Church joyfully proclaims is for everyone”. God has found a way to unite himself to every human being in every age. He has chosen to call them together as a people and not as isolated individuals. No one is saved by himself or herself individually or by his or her own efforts. God attracts us by taking into account the complex interweaving of personal relationships entailed in the life of a human community. This people, which God has chosen and called, is the Church. Jesus did not tell the Apostles to form an exclusive and elite group. St. Paul reminds us that in the people of God, in the Church, there is neither Jew nor Gentile; all are one in Christ Jesus and to those who feel far from the Church, as many in the world do today, and to all those who are fearful or indifferent, Francis would like to say – the Lord Jesus, “with great respect and love, is calling you to be a part of his people”.

4. The people of God has many faces. Think for a moment of the United Nations. The people of the world live in many different countries of the world; they represent many different nationalities; they speak many different languages; they represent many different cultures. The faith that is ours in its objective phase and which we are to preach to the end of the world and which transcends all cultures but belongs to all cultures was first a spoken faith which became literarily objectified in the language of the New Testament. The first task the Church confronted was the preaching of the “good news” of the Old Testament fulfillment in the mystery of Christ to the Jews. This mission to the Jews was the easier task but was not very successful. The second task was the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Father of the Lord Jesus. This was the more difficult task but by the providence of God gigantically successful. The Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians and Thessalonians responded eagerly to Paul and his companions and were incorporated into the body of Christ. The issue at stake was this – How does the Church preach one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all to the many people with their many languages and cultures, and how does the Church do so in such a way that the faith becomes inculturated within the many cultures of the world, yet remains the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, first preached by the Apostles?

5. Human beings are social beings who live in various kinds of societies all over the globe. When social beings reflect on their socialness, when they reflect on their life together, that is, when they think about their social setting and how they relate to one another and what are their common values, common interests, common concerns, their art, their technology, their religion, this is what gives rise to a culture. I’ve often thought if the Apostles had journeyed eastward and not westward from Palestine, Christianity’s land of birth, we would be talking about the Peking-Nanking Creed rather than the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. How do faith and culture relate? Sometimes the Church confronts the culture and must be counter-cultural; sometimes the Church can accommodate itself to the demands of the culture, and we see this practice in many missionary situations in past Church history. Most importantly of all, the Church must always be the evangelizer of the culture so as to transform the culture in the light of the Gospel. No easy task in our world today.

THE HOMILY
1. The second section of Chapter 3 is entitled “The Homily”. Some who have not yet read the Exhortation may be surprised at the topic; after all, we have to listen to the homily on Sunday, why do we have to talk about homilies on Monday? Francis writes – “Let us now look at preaching within the liturgy, which calls for serious consideration by pastors”. As I read this section of the document, I sense that the Holy Father senses a sort of response on the part of the reader and hearer, as he says to the reader or hearer: “I will dwell, in particular and even somewhat meticulously on the homily and its preparation, since so many concerns have been expressed about this important ministry, and we cannot simply ignore them. The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness to his people and his ability to communicate with them. We know,” says the Pope, and I wonder if you all agree with him, “that God’s faith-filled people attach great importance to the homily and both they and the ordained members in the priesthood suffer greatly because of homilies – our lay folks for having to listen to them and our bishop, priests and deacons for having to preach them! It’s sad this is the case. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience in the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s word, a constant source of renewal and growth in the Lord.” Thus Francis says to us – “Pastors and people, let us renew our confidence in preaching.” We can do so based on the conviction that it is God who seeks to reach out to others through the preacher and that he displays his power through human words. St. Paul speaks forcibly about the need to preach, since the Lord desires to reach other people by means of the word (Rom 10:14-17). By his words, Our Lord won over the hearts of the people; “They came to hear him from all parts; they were amazed at his teachings and they sensed that he spoke to them as one with authority.” By their words, the Apostles, whom Christ established “to be with him and to be sent out to preach”, brought all nations to the bosom of the Church.

2. As we begin to reflect on the homily, it is essential we locate it in its proper, sacramental, liturgical context. The Liturgy of the Word is not a time for meditation or catechesis in the proper meaning of these words. It is a time for a dialogue between God and his people. The homily has special importance because of its Eucharistic context. The risen Christ makes himself present, both in word and sacrament. The homily is not the time for detailed instruction on the faith nor is the homily the time for a theological treatise. The homily is a distinct literary form since it is preaching which is situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture. It is meant to be an offering made at the Eucharist and to be a meditation on the grace which Christ pours out during the Eucharistic celebration. This special context demands that the preacher should guide the assembly and the preacher as well to a life-changing communion with the risen Christ. This means that the words of the preacher must be measured so that the Lord Jesus, risen in glory and present in sacramental mystery, will be the center of attention. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians – “We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants for the sake of Jesus.” The preacher’s motto must always be that of John the Baptist – “I must decrease so that Christ may increase”.

3. As we reflect on the homily in its liturgical-sacramental context, I suppose we could raise some questions which Pope Francis has not asked in this document, but others have raised them: Who should preach at the liturgy? Who should be the presider at the liturgy? The holiest among us? – No. Should the choice be the most learned among us? – Once again, the answer is “No”. The Lord Jesus chose some fishermen to be his first preachers and the Holy Spirit filled them with wisdom and courage to respond. Preachers today can certainly count on the grace of the Holy Spirit but only if they labor diligently in prayer and in scriptural understanding. Who then should be preaching in the Church? Special occasions, of course, have their own customs and regulations, but ordinarily those who preach are those whom the bishop has ordained for the liturgical-sacramental work of the Church through which the risen Christ encounters his people and his peoples encounter him. Preachers are never the owners of God’s word but rather the guardians, the heralders, the servants of God’s word. Above all preachers ought to listen to the oft-quoted words of Pope Gregory the Great who asks the questions – Why did the Lord Jesus send out his disciples two-by-two? He did so to symbolize the two-fold love of God and neighbor which obviously must be at the heart of all preaching. Then Gregory adds – “One who does not know love ought not to preach”. As Francis writes – “Jesus was angered by those supposed teachers who demanded much of others, teaching God’s word without their first being enlightened by it themselves. In this context the Apostle James tells his community of faith – Not many of you should become teachers, my brethren, for you know we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Whoever wants to preach must be the first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily life.

4. I would like to add a postscript of my own. When it comes to preaching, it takes three to be successful – the preacher, the congregants and the Holy Spirit. If these three do not conspire, that is, prepare well for the liturgical celebration, the words spoken in any homily will not be effective. If a preacher is to prepare well for his homily, it follows that parishioner-worshipers coming to the Eucharist must make preparations of their own. In any theology on preaching, the dominant power is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts first in the person of the preacher but, if the preaching is to be successful, we must add that the Holy Spirit is at work in the parishioners listening to the homily. The parishioners should know ahead of time something about the prayers and scriptural readings of the day. Some parishes put a notice in the parish bulletin the week prior to the Sunday Mass. Some few families read the assigned scripture readings the night before the Sunday Liturgy. This brings up a sort of sticky point – to hear the Sunday readings, getting to church on time is of great importance. This is not a chastisement. I appreciate many of the difficulties many families have here in the parish, as in every parish, families of one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God the Father of all and perhaps two bathrooms. I am very much aware of the difficulties mommy and daddy and three to five children face every Sunday morning in getting the family to church on time.

P.S.: I have had the interesting situation with regard to homilies. One lady thanked me profusely for one of my homilies. She said that it struck her most forcefully. I thanked the woman and didn’t have the courage to say – “Madam, I didn’t preach the homily; that was Father Imbelli”, and I certainly didn’t have the courage to suggest that she call her ophthalmologist. On another occasion, a lady thanked me profusely for my words of wisdom. She said – “Your homily ought to be published, Father”. I thanked her and said perhaps it could be published posthumously. “Oh good”, she replied. “Will that be soon?”

EVANGELIZATION AND THE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE KERYGMA

1. We come now to the third sub-section of Chapter 3: The Lord’s missionary mandate – Go and preach and bear witness to the Gospel which also contains the mandate to all of us that we hear very clearly the call to grow and mature in the faith. All of us in the Church starting with the Pope need ongoing formation. Ongoing formation should not be seen exclusively or primarily in terms of doctrinal formation – even though doctrinal formation is so very important. Ongoing formation involves observing all that the Lord has shown us – growth in the virtues, growth in the first and greatest commandment, growth in the one commandment that best identifies a disciple of the Lord – that we learn to love others as the Lord has loved us. The one who loves his or her neighbor has fulfilled the law – and who is our neighbor? Anyone for whom the Lord offered his life on the cross.

2. The third sub-section bears the title – “Evangelization and the Deeper Understanding of the Kerygma”. What is needed, says the Holy Father, is the catechizing that is both kerygmatic and mystagogical. These two words, kerygmatic and mystagogical, are quite sufficient perhaps to tempt a good number of you to bolt for the doors! To catechize means to instruct and ongoing instruction is necessary for our young people, our adults, our priests, our bishops. Who is it among us who is unaware that he or she stands in need to be evangelized? Catechesis must be kerygmatic and mystagogical. These are ancient and venerable terms which arose in the Church at the time when the Church spoke Greek. Kerygmatic means that it comes from the heart of the Gospel. Kerygmatic means the first announcement of the “good news”. The kerygma, the message from the heart of the Gospel, stands at the heart of the Gospel. Francis writes – “It is the fire of the Spirit given at Pentecost in the form of tongues and leads to belief in Jesus Christ who, by his death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy.” On the lips of every catechist, the first proclamation must ring out over and over again – Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; he is now living at your side every day to guide you; you see him at work with the eyes of faith as he enlightens you, strengthens you and sets you free from our two great enemies – sin and death. Francis calls this message “the first message”, not because it exists at the beginning and then can be forgotten or replaced by more important things. It is first because it is the principal proclamation, one we must hear about again and again at every level and every moment of the life in the Church.

3. What about the word “mystagogical” or “mystagogy”? Mystagogy sounds as though there should be a “mrstagogy, but that’s not the way it works. Mystagogy means “leading into the mystery”. “To lead into the mystery” stands for a type of catechesis which is called liturgical catechesis which aims to initiate candidates for full membership in the Church into the full mystery of Christ. More specifically, it designates the catechetical period which follows the reception of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, the sacraments that make us Christian, and are received usually at the Easter Vigil at the completion of Holy Week. Thus mystagogical catechesis takes place during the weeks following Easter Sunday and leading to the great feast of Pentecost. Thus we are talking about a type of catechetical instruction which is very much interlinked with evangelization. The newly-made Christian, born again through the sacraments of initiation, has a golden opportunity to reflect on what has happened to him or to her at the Easter Vigil. In this way the new Christian enters more deeply into the mystery of Christ.

4. It might be helpful if we focus on a few basics. The Greeks called the sacraments “mysteries”. The Latin word for the Greek word “mysteriom” is sacramentum. And what do we say about a sacrament? A sacrament is an effective sign, that is, an outward, visible, tangible sign that through the power of the Holy Spirit effects, that is, makes present what it signifies. Water is the sign of Baptism which truly, under the Holy Spirit, effects within us our inner cleansing from original sin. Bread and wine which nourishes us is the sacrament of Christ himself, our bread of life who by the words of consecration and the power of the Holy Spirit become really, truly, sacramentally the body and blood of our Savior. Sacraments are all part and parcel of the mystery of the Incarnation. We say of the Word of God, the second Person of the Trinity, that he became truly and really one of us without ceasing to be his divine self, like unto God in his divinity, like unto us in our humanity.

5. Mystagogy is at the heart of the RCIA Program, that is, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. The RCIA is a process with various succeeding stages in the journey one takes from unbelief to belief, darkness into enlightenment, sin to grace. This journey leads to full membership in the mystical, just another name for sacramental, body of Christ. The risen Christ has, as you know, three bodies – his physical body in heaven at the right hand of the Father, his ecclesial body on earth which is the Church, and his sacramental body which we are privileged to receive as food and drink in the Eucharist. How do we describe the process which is the RCIA? A person is attracted to Christ and his Church for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps he or she has heard the kerygma that God loves them and wants them to be with him in the mystery of his Church. Perhaps they’ve heard of the Eucharist as that Blessed Sacrament whereby Christ has promised to be with us until the end of time. Then comes suitable instruction as the candidate knows more about Jesus and wants to accept what he offers them in the Easter sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. After a brief Easter holiday, the new fully members of the Church enter into the Easter season which is the time for mystagogy. This is a time when, under the grace of the Spirit, the new Christian is led deeply into the mysteries celebrated at the Easter Vigil. Prior to Baptism, the candidate had to undergo pre-baptismal catechesis. During the Easter period, the already baptized person needs post-baptismal catechesis, that is, the person is led more deeply into the sacraments and into the life they bring, and this is called mystagogy.

6. But what do we mean by mystery? It’s not like an Agatha Christie mystery, and we are not talking about something we do not understand right now; for example, where is the Malaysian airplane at this moment? It’s not really a mystery and someday probably will be resolved. Mystery in the Christian sense of the word suggests something hidden which has been spoken about in divine revelation. Mystery is something unapproachable which invites entry; mystery is something which is unknowable but offers true understanding. See “mystagogy” in NDT (New Dictionary of Theology). The Second Vatican Council has told us how human reason, if it is enlightened by faith, does indeed, when it seeks persistently and prayerfully, achieves by God’s gift some understanding and something most profitable about the mystery. This is at the heart of the mystery of God. This shares in the mystery of the Trinity. This helps us to grasp something of the mystery of the Incarnation. This tells us something about our sharing in the mystery of God’s own life which he already pledges to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us – “Christ’s whole earthly life – his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, his manner of being and speaking – is revelation of God the Father. Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of the cross but this mystery is at work throughout his entire life.” And because mysteries of Christ are now our mysteries in the liturgies, this mystery is more at work within us throughout our entire life. Do we not often say – “Lord Jesus, you came in history to gather us into the Father’s kingdom. You come now in sacrament to share in Christ’s mystery. You will come again, Lord Jesus, at time’s end with salvation for your faithful people.”

7. Two weeks ago at our first session, a parishioner, out of great love and concern for his children, wanted to know how his children could get hold of the fire of the Holy Spirit, and enter into Christ’s mysteries and settle into their new life of grace which we all have in Christ as we journey to heaven. The questioner had been intrigued by my twice quoting Pope Benedict when he said “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but an encounter with an event, with a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”. How will our children come to catch the fire of the Holy Spirit and become knowers and lovers of the Lord Jesus? Perhaps I could offer an ideal picture of how our young people can enter into the mystery of life, how Christ encounters them and they encounter Christ – not until the Sacrament of Confirmation but until death they do part. Please bear with me as I present this idyllic scenario. Harry and Harriet, baptized, confirmed and regular worshipers at the Sunday liturgy, become dear friends who fall in love and become husband and wife in marriage. They become father and mother as their family begins to grow. Because they are followers of Christ, they are really and truly evangelizers, one for the other and now become evangelizers for their children. Their home becomes a little church. It is called “ecclesiola” where the children learn to pray and love and give and forgive and be forgiven and share and serve the needs of all in the household, as everybody in the family must contribute to its peace and well-being. Then the children are ready to enter the bigger church on Glen Road where they see so many others praying and paying and some eating little Cheerios and some of the big people going forward to receive food and drink at the altar and the priest does not give the little children anything, but that’s okay because soon they will be eating donuts and stuff after Mass. When the children begin to come to the big church and prepare for the sacraments, they need two hands and two wings – liturgy and catechesis; liturgy without catechesis and catechesis without liturgy will not work. The liturgy will teach them how to celebrate their faith and the catechesis will help them to understand what they are celebrating. In the Liturgy of the Word they will talk to God and God will talk to them. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, they will give to God and God will give to them. All of this ideally will work most successfully – not by what we do but by what the Holy Spirit will do. In this way our young people will catch the fire of the Holy Spirit and will fall in love with their saving Lord and they will begin to live lives that bring God’s Gospel into the public square. They will need constantly the nourishment provided by both the Liturgy and the Catechism, both of which is kerygmatic and mystagogical and that is what the Pope is suggesting.