Page 18 - The Priest, Summer 2015

The Kingdom of Heaven is a spiritual reality. It is accessed through faith. Jesus in one place described himself as the gate of the sheepfold – another image. (Jn 10:7) Faith in Christ is the door (or gate) through which we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We could add that the greater our faith, the further we participate in the Kingdom of Heaven. What then happens is that we have oriented our lives around spiritual realities. This idea is developed by St Teresa of Avila in her Interior Castle.
In this way we enable the power, the protection and the very life of God to ow through us – like having leaven kneaded through the our so that it causes it to rise. It is like allowing a seed to be planted in our hearts – a seed which will germi- nate and produce much fruitfulness.
Returning to the initial proclamation of Jesus, we might notice that Jesus pro- poses the way to respond to his message: repent and believe. In other words, turn from a life oriented away from God and embrace a new life in God through faith. As we saw, faith is the key to entry into the Kingdom of God.
This, then, is the message that lies at the heart of the preaching of Jesus. I would like now to consider the message of the Church.
The proclamation of the Church
Once again we can ask the same ques- tion: “In ten words or less what is the proc- lamation of the Church?”
To answer this question let us turn to the preaching of St Peter at Pentecost. What was the essence of his proclamation?
If we were to go the heart of his mes- sage we could summarise it as: “People of Jerusalem this man Jesus whom you cru- ci ed has risen from the dead, and he is both Lord and Christ.” (See Acts 2:22-24; 36)
We immediately become aware of a signi cant change in focus. This preach- ing is not about the Kingdom but about Christ himself. As we commented earlier, Christ is the one who has brought about the coming of the Kingdom – ultimately by his death and resurrection – and now entry into the new life of the Kingdom is
through personal faith in him.
Thus, St Peter preaches about Christ
and the signi cance of his coming. St Pe- ter is unequivocal in his declaration:
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you cruci ed. (Acts 2:36)
Jesus, through his death and resurrec- tion, is now the de nitive source of salva- tion.
St Luke tells us that Peter’s hearers were cut to the heart and asked what they should do. Peter responded with absolute clarity:
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)
Here we come back to John the Bap- tist, though the baptism he proposed has taken on a new and revolutionary mean- ing. He himself had previously stated that while he baptised with water the One com- ing after him would baptise with the Holy Spirit. (Mt 3:11)
The message of St Paul
As an interesting point of comparison we could ask: what was the essential mes- sage of the great evangelist, St Paul?
In the beginning of his rst Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul speaks very personally about the way he went about his preaching ministry to the people of Corinth.
When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you ex- cept Jesus Christ and him cruci ed. (1 Cor 2:1-2)
The heart of the preaching of St Paul is the proclamation of the saving death of Christ and the meaning of his resurrec- tion. Later he declared his message in a simple formula: “We preach Jesus Christ as Lord.” (2 Cor 4:5) The preaching of the Church expressed through Saints Peter and Paul is to proclaim the cruci ed and risen Christ to the world.
In his Letter to the Philippians, St
Paul expresses his personal faith in these words:
[I have suffered the loss of all things] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his suf- ferings, becoming like him in his death. (Phil 3:10)
This, we could say, is all he wanted oth- ers to discover and participate in.
The entire focus of the preaching of St Paul is on Christ and more speci cally on the meaning of his death and resurrec- tion. He was convinced that when he did this the power of God would be manifest in such a way that people would be con- verted. He was conscious that it was not his own oratorical skills or his ability to argue the case philosophically that counted. He relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of his hearers. As he tells the Corinthians:
[I did this] that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:5)
A Spirituality of the Kerygma
Brothers, at this point I would like to pause and consider the question of a priestly spirituality of the Kerygma. All that I have said is common knowledge for us. However, we know that we are being called as priests to allow ourselves to be renewed by the Kerygma every day. Responding to the Kerygma is not a once only event.
For the Kerygma to be truly at the heart of our priestly life and ministry we need to be converted daily. We priests need to be the rst hearers of the Kerygma. We allow ourselves to hear the word being spoken to us. We come before the Lord that he may call us afresh to embrace the Chris- tian life.
Thus, we need to hear daily the call to repent and believe. Our personal prayer can give expression to this each day. Per- sonal repentance needs to become foun- dational. The Kyrie Eleison needs to ow from deeply contrite hearts. We nd our- selves saying, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner,” again and again, with great sincer- ity of heart.
And each day we believe. We say with
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