The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
The Audience
With all the noise and distractions that characterize life today, it is a challenge to capture people’s attention. This is true even when the intent is to introduce them to Jesus Christ and proclaim the life-changing message of the Gospel.
A question of trust seems often to lurk at the edges of our discourse, calling into question every statement and requiring that each speaker demonstrate why he or she should be believed. In the face of such cynicism, nothing cuts through this culture of doubt more effectively than encounters with authentic firsthand witnesses.
The Witness
As the apostles began their proclamation of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world—in Greek, the kerygma—their witness revolved around a simple and direct message that focused on the person of Jesus, his powerful witness and message, the miraculous deeds he worked, and the transformation of lives as people believed in him and became his witnesses to the world. Saints Peter and Paul provide a number of examples of kerygmatic preaching in the Acts of the Apostles.1
They were deemed credible witnesses because they had met and knew the person of Jesus Christ and had formed a personal relationship with him. They were able to speak from their experience of their encounters with Jesus. In the words of St. John the Evangelist:
“What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon, and touched with our own hands… What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you!” (1 John 1:1–3)
They were also able to help their listeners understand the reasonableness of believing in Jesus by referring to the Old Testament passages announcing the coming of the Messiah.
Their experience of salvation in Jesus Christ urged them to proclaim and share God’s Good News with all whom they met. They took to heart St. Peter’s admonition that “we should always be ready to render an account for the hope that is within us” (1 Peter 3:15).
As history demonstrates, their preaching bore tremendous fruit in the hearts of those who came to believe because of them. Today’s evangelizers likewise need to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that will shine through and inform their witness to him before others.
The Heart of the Message: The Kerygma
It may be instructive to examine the kerygmatic template2 provided by Peter in Acts 2:1–36.
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Setting: The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–13).
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Kerygmatic message: Peter addresses the Jews gathered in Jerusalem, reminding them that the events they have just experienced were foretold by the prophet Joel (Acts 2:14–21), and proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:22–36) using the following formula:
- The ecstatic prayer described in Acts 2:16–21 is due to the influence of the Spirit, which the prophet Joel foretold would be especially active in messianic times (Acts 2:16–21).
- The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, a man publicly known in Jerusalem because of his miracle-working, was an integral part of God’s saving plan, as God has indicated by raising him from the dead (Acts 2:22–23).
- The prophetic understanding of the Old Testament reveals that the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah was God’s actual saving plan (Acts 2:25–35).
- The true meaning of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is that he is the divinely enthroned messianic King of Israel (Acts 2:36), bestowing the gift of the Spirit upon all who accept him as Savior (Acts 2:38).3
- Jesus’ proclamation requires a response from his listeners: repent of your sins, accept baptism, and live in the new life Christ is offering (Acts 2:37–41).
Takeaways for Witnessing Today
There is no replacement for authentic firsthand witnesses.
As Christ’s witnesses, you are encouraged to:
- Cultivate an intimate communion with Jesus through regular Confession and worthy reception of the Eucharist at Mass.
- Invest time in study, Scripture reading, and prayer to come to know Jesus Christ and form a personal relationship with him.
- Stay united to the Church, and pray for the Church and for all those to whom Jesus may send you as his witness.
- Make sure that your life is a worthy witness to Christ so that you can repeat St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “I beg you, be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16), as I am of Christ.
When the opportunity arises to give witness to your hope in Christ:
- Be respectful, patient, and understanding with all.
- Take your cue from others about the pace of each conversation and their readiness to explore a relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Make sure that your kerygmatic witness is rooted in a deep experience of Christ and his Church.
- Become familiar with and use the kerygmatic template to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
- Do not be afraid to help your listeners understand the reasonableness of believing in Jesus by referring to natural law and the Old and New Testament passages announcing his future coming and role as Messiah.
- Take courage from Jesus’ words to the apostles before sending them out, even in times of persecution: “Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say” (Matthew 10:19).
Continue exploring the kerygma
Learn what the kerygma means, why it must be proclaimed rather than assumed, and how leaders can help others receive and respond to the Gospel.
Michael Steier, D.Min., is the former Associate Director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Notes
- See Acts 2:14–36; 3:12–26; 4:8–12; 5:29–32; 10:34–43; 13:16–41; 14:15–17; and 17:22–31. The first five were proclaimed by Peter and the last three by Paul. ↩
- For other kerygmatic templates, see Msgr. Charles Pope, “What Do the ‘Kerygmatic’ Sermons of Acts Have to Teach Us About the New Evangelization?” and Sherry Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), chapter 10. ↩
- New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011, note on Acts 2:14–36. ↩
Copyright © 2018, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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- Written by: Katherine Reay
I have to be honest, I've been struggling with prayer lately. Well, if I'm REALLY honest, I've been struggling for the last 4 + 1/2 years. I don’t hear Him like I used to. I don’t feel as close to His heart. My Holy Spirit flags are not flying as high. I'm mourning my spiritual life, as it was, before I became a mother.
I've spent the greater part of my adult life trying to deepen my faith. Trying to grow closer to the heart of God. The more time passed, the closer I grew. My faith even literally became my job. I became the Youth Minister at our parish, in those last years before I met My husband and became a mother. Living out, sharing, and teaching my Catholic faith was my JOB.
I worked in the same building as Jesus, who I could go and visit whenever I wanted. 1 on 1 prayer time in the chapel. I had countless opportunities to attend daily Mass. Attending retreats, hearing speakers, seeing God at work. I had never felt so close. Of course, it's much easier to focus on deepening a relationship when you only have you to worry about; and then came this thing called motherhood.
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- Written by: Mike Nelson
Alongside our front porch is a patch of ground that, for much of the year, we struggle to keep the weeds out of. They grow, we pull them out, they come back, and on and on it goes. But within that patch are plants that lie dormant for much of the year, yet somehow spring back to life.
They are our calla lilies, plants whose green shoots spring determinedly from the ground and soon produce lovely white blooms that last, well, a few weeks or so. Then the flowers begin to shrivel and fade. The stems falter and the calla lilies, it would seem, die— until the following year. They reappear, to again share their God-given beauty with the world.
That bears consideration during this Easter season, a season that, we are told year after year, is one of hope, of promise, of new life. Given the challenges and obstacles and even hardships that life presents in varying sizes and degrees, that message can be difficult to hear, much less accept.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
What can monastery life can teach us about how to thrive during "social distancing"?
We reached out to some retreat masters, monks, and monasteries of the Catholic tradition for their wisdom on how to handle isolation and social distancing.
These folks - who have intentionally chosen varying levels of isolation and distancing for a variety of reasons - had some incredibly helpful insights for those of us who are struggling with (and didn't choose) this life we're finding ourselves living today.
