Thirteen years a priest, I have often heard Catholic faithful lament that their priests and deacons “don’t preach the hard truths,” but for many years I was reluctant to listen. This wasn’t because I was hostile to truth; rather, I didn’t want to just “preach to the choir” since those who asked for hard-truth homilies generally already know and follow that truth. At the same time, I was keenly aware that many who come to Sunday Mass lack a fundamental commitment to Christ that is the foundation for Christian living.1
But now I realize that “the choir” also needs preaching. Catholic faithful rightly beg their priests and deacons for help following the truths of faith. In twenty-first-century America, businesses, schools, and media ceaselessly proclaim an “anti-gospel” of sexual confusion and relativistic universalism, so the Christian faithful need support and encouragement to persevere against the currents of the culture (e.g., the Catholic couple practicing Natural Family Planning needs to know that their periodic abstinence and openness to life are good and “worth it”; the parents of a child with same-sex attraction need to know that chastity and abstinence are truly his path toward fulfillment).
Difficult dogmatic and moral truths need to be explained and defended, but Sunday Massgoers also need a deeper encounter with Christ and surrender to Him in faith. What’s the answer? Priests and deacons must strive to preach truths of faith kerygmatically.2 What do I mean? The word kerygma has become a buzzword recently, but its meaning is simple (Greek for “proclamation”). Pope John Paul II explained the kerygma in Catechesi tradendae as: “the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith.”3 Though different authors present it with various concepts and steps, the kerygma simply proclaims God’s saving work in Jesus and calls for a response of faith.4 Though it is not “magic,” the kerygma manifests “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16) because through it the Holy Spirit moves men’s hearts toward conversion and faith. Thus, Pope Francis urged catechists to constantly proclaim the kerygma:
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 which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment.5
If it’s necessary for catechists, it’s even more necessary in preaching. This means priests must do more than merely proclaim the hard truths; this is necessary but not sufficient. Rather, priests and deacons must also labor to preach in a way that wins souls for Christ. In other words: priests and deacons must preach homilies that communicate difficult moral and dogmatic truths in a way that allows men and women to encounter the God of love who made them for life with Him, who became man and died and rose for them, who calls to them, and who offers eternal life with Him through repentance, faith, and the sacramental life of the Church — all in and through those difficult truths of faith. This is not easy, and it requires prayerful theological preparation. But when one preaches and teaches the Christian faith kerygmatically, the results manifest the inherent power of the Gospel.6
What does a kerygmatic homily on dogma or morals look like?7 Far from “sugar-coating” difficult truths of the gospel, kerygmatic preaching shows how all the truths of faith flow from and manifest God’s saving work in Jesus. Specifically, I’d offer the following “keys” to kerygmatic preaching:8
- Priority of grace: God makes the first move. The difficult demands of Christian life flow from the good news of God’s loving plan in Jesus. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes (while quoting the Catechism of the Council of Trent):
The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love.9
Just as the Hebrew people received the Ten Commandments after their liberation from Egypt, so Christian moral life “springs” from the loving initiative of God’s grace. (Consider, for example, how Christians forgive generously because God has first forgiven them [cf. Matthew 18:21ff]). Any homiletic exhortation to moral uprightness must make clear that the motive for moral living comes from what God has first done (e.g., “Jesus died and rose for you, so He asks you now to live for Him!”). And what’s more, moral exhortations must make clear that the power for living moral life also comes from God (e.g., Jesus died and rose, so in Him and by His Spirit Christians can live “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” [Romans 6:11]).10
Christian faith is not “good advice” but “good news.” It’s not merely a list of “dos and don’ts” that are meant to elicit “right behavior”; rather, Christianity is “good news” that proclaims the life-changing effect of the “right behavior” of the Son of God (His passion, death, and resurrection), which is the source of all grace and gives a possibility for the changed lives of those joined to Him by faith and the Sacraments.
- “Personal” source of truth (a personal God, who loves us and has called us to life with Him). God desires sons and daughters, not robots. It sounds obvious, but recognizing the “personal” source of dogmas, like purgatory, heaven, and hell, shows the beauty and goodness of those truths. (E.g. Why is purgatory good news? Because Heaven is not just “golf with the Big-Guy-in-the-sky”; Heaven is relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit, with which sin is incompatible; in His mercy, God purifies those who die joined to Him but still affected by past sins.)
- Invitation to faith. As Popes have noted, Christ’s call to deeper conversion and faith is ongoing.11 Faith requires believing what God has said (the content of faith), but also, and more fundamentally, believing God Himself and entrusting oneself to Him, which trust and surrender must always deepen as the believer allows his relationship with God and trust in Him to shape his entire life.12
What would a homily like this look like concretely? Consider a homily treating pornography.13 A kerygmatic homily should never compromise the truth, but it should emphasize the personal origin of Christ’s condemnation of lust and the priority of grace in both the motive and the power for chastity. Thus, an outline could be:
- Why should one avoid lust and pornography (Why does Jesus condemn “lust”)?
- Marriage as a covenant: personal self-gift of man and woman
- Sex as a covenant act (an effective bodily sign of personal self-gift of marriage covenant)
- Sinfulness of pornography and lust: seeking the pleasure of the sexual act without the self-gift of the marriage covenant
- Jesus’ saving work: God’s answer to brokenness of human heart (Mt 18:8 ff.; Ezekiel 36)
- Marriage and the conjugal union as a relative good
- Earthly marriage: a sacrament pointing to the ultimate union—heavenly marriage, the wedding feast of the Lamb
- Jesus as the perfect spouse (He knows your sins and failures, and loves you still; He died for you)
- Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection: motive and power for chastity in marriage and single life
- Motive: Seeing His love, man loves Him in return (2 Cor. 5:14)
- Power: faith and the indwelling Holy Spirit as foretaste of the wedding feast of Lamb (Heb 11:1; Rev 19:1–14)
- Mass: A sacramental foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb
- Invitation: entrust oneself to Him; entrust to Him one’s broken heart; commit to receive His mercy in confession; offer one’s life to Him (LG 34).
- Marriage and the conjugal union as a relative good
In a time of moral confusion, may the Lord show us priests and deacons how to proclaim the truth in love, in the proclamation of God’s saving work in Jesus. May we, and the people of God, come to deeper faith in Him and greater conformity of our lives to the truth of the Gospel.
- While some might object to this point, consider the percentage of Catholics who support same-sex marriage as reported by Pew Research Center. To be sure, faith doesn’t require great knowledge, but rather greater trust in God and His Word. As Aquinas noted (cf. ST II.5.3), faith requires submitting one’s intellect and will to God’s Word, rather than making oneself the arbiter of truth. Cf. ITC, The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments, 55. ↩
- For a similar exhortation, see Fr. Brent Bowen’s recent article “Preaching the Heart of the Gospel.” Already in the 1950s, Fr. Johannes Hofinger suggested kerygmatic catechesis in his book The Art of Teaching Christian Doctrine. ↩
- John Paul II, Catechesi tradendae, 25. ↩
- For example, a recent Catholic presentation is The Rescue Project and Fr. John Riccardo’s similar book, Rescued. ↩
- Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 164. ↩
- Consider, for example, the homilies of Fr. Michael Schmitz. ↩
- It goes without saying that a homily must be shaped by the lectionary, the liturgy, and the needs of the congregation (cf. GIRM 65). But considering the severe need for preaching on dogmatic and moral truths, priests and deacons should scour the lectionary (asking the Holy Spirit for guidance!) and plan for their Sunday preaching on topics such as homosexuality, adultery, marriage, hell, abortion, etc. A helpful resource is the Lectionary Index compiled by Felix Just, SJ. ↩
- For other suggestions, see Fr. Brent Bowen’s above-mentioned article “Preaching the Heart of the Gospel.” ↩
- CCC 25, citing Roman Catechism, Preface, 10. ↩
- Pope Francis has noted: “The centrality of the kerygma calls for stressing those elements which are most needed today: it has to express God’s saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part; it should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom; it should be marked by joy, encouragement, liveliness and a harmonious balance.” Evangelii gaudium, 165. ↩
- Cf. Evangelii gaudium, 164. ↩
- Cf. The Reciprocity between Faith and the Sacraments, 47. ↩
- E.g., In year A, we hear Matthew 5:27–28 on the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. ↩
About Fr. Pieter van Rooyen
Pieter,
Kerygmatic homilies are desperately needed. Too often the homilies I hear are reflections of political ideology supported by the Gospel. When I read your description of a kerygmatic homily it suggested to me less about encountering Christ and a more moralistic view of life. There is no story in your suggested homily. Jesus taught with stories and parables. He invited people in the crowds to encounter him. He healed by touching people. He sat and listened to their story. Answered their questions and like the woman at the well did not avoid the difficult question of her marital status. In the end, she became a missionary disciple. This suggests something else that I thought about in reading your article. Too much is expected of the homily. I have heard the ‘the faithful choir members’ say, “Enough of this talk of love, get to the hardcore teaching.” I believe the Kerygma, the encounter with Jesus Christ, transforms human hearts. The formation of hearts leads to the formation of missionary disciples. Such formation requires a lot more than a short homily on Sunday. Humans who receive the gift of grace and experience the joy of life in Christ are the ones who will lead others to Christ. Please make some room for the deep formation of lay missionary disciples.