Introductory Story
An evangelization team from Boise, Idaho, was sharing the faith with pedestrians on a crowded public walkway. A young man approached them, but the evangelists were already talking with others. So the man looked at their table to see what they had to offer. A pamphlet on “The Good News” caught his eye. He took the pamphlet, and promptly walked a few yards, sat down on the curb, and read the whole thing. The pamphlet explained the message of the gospel: That God the Father created us for Himself out of love, that sin intervenes to keep us from God, that the Son of God died to free us from sin, that the Son sends the Holy Spirit of God to live in us, and that we are called to respond by repenting, believing, and becoming baptized!
The young man recited a prayer of response to God provided at the end of the pamphlet. It reads like this:
God our Father, I believe that out of your infinite love you have created me. In a thousand ways I have shunned your love/ I repent of each and every one of my sins. Please forgive me.
Thank you for sending your Son to die for me, to save me from eternal death. I choose this day to enter into (renew my) covenant with you and to place Jesus at the center of my heart. I surrender to him as Lord over my whole life.
I ask you now to flood my soul with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that my life may be transformed. Give me the grace and courage to live as a disciple on your Church for the rest of my days. Amen.
When the young man completed the pamphlet, he got up and went back to the table, asking the evangelists where he might find the nearest Catholic church so he could go pray there right away.
Introduction
Despite all of our differences, what is one thing that everyone has in common? What is the one thing we all desire, without exception? Everyone, no matter who they are, longs for complete happiness; and there is no happiness for anyone except in God. As the Sacred Scriptures say, “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas 1:17), and “I say to the Lord, ‘Thou art my Lord; I have no good apart from thee’” (Ps 16:2). Therefore, every human heart longs for God, even if they do not know it.
The most important fact about us is that we are made to praise God, to have intimate union with Him, to do His loving will, and with thanksgiving to accept all good things as coming from His hands. In the words of the Baltimore Catechism, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” Only in this way can we find our true happiness. “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” wrote St. Augustine, “and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.”
But how do we find God? How do we know who He is? How do we learn His will and attain union with Him? … This is where the gospel comes in.
In the last lesson, we explained that the gospel is the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. We said that the gospel is the message of the victory of God over all forms of bondage, especially bondage to sin, death, and hell. Sin prevents us from enjoying union with God, and hence it prevents us from having total happiness, and the fulfillment of all desire. Jesus alone saves from sin, and makes it possible for us to have the most intimate union with God. Jesus Christ is the only one given to the world through which human beings might find their complete liberation from evil, and their complete happiness: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Even for this reason alone, the proclamation of the gospel is of the highest importance. In this lesson, we will introduce a new word, a biblical word: “kerygma.” While it’s not actually necessary for an evangelist to know the word “kerygma,” it will be helpful to know it, because the kerygma should be at the center of their work of evangelization. After we consider the meaning and significance of the word “kerygma,” we will consider the power of the gospel.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news” (Is 52:7; Rm 10:15)!
Topic Outline
- What is the kerygma?
- What does the word “kerygma” mean?
- What is the content of the kerygma?
- Why do we evangelize?
- Life instead of death
- What is meant by “power for salvation” (Rm 1:16)? Why does the kerygma have power?
- We are instruments of salvation in God’s hands
- The kerygma brings the grace of God
- What does “power for salvation” look like?
- Cut to the heart