Kerygma and Mystagogy

I am sure that most of us are aware of the popular tune "Accentuate the Positive," published in 1944 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Did you know that the message of the song was inspired by a sermon? Johnny Mercer heard a sermon by Father Divine and wrote the song after hearing the priest's message. It was recorded many times by the many crooners and artists of the 1940's including Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Artie Shaw, Kay Kyser and Dinah Washington.

You might be asking yourself at this point, "Where's he going with this?" Well, as it happens, I couldn't get the tune out of my head while I was reading paragraphs 163 through 168 of Evangelii Gaudium, the section devoted to kerygmatic and mystagogical preaching. Perhaps we should look at these two terms before proceeding any further.

The Greek word "kerygma" can be translated into English as "proclamation." It refers to a style of literature and speaking. Scripture scholars point to the fact that the Gospels are "kerygma," a style of literature that is completely new in the Scriptures. Jesus began his mission by going to the synagogue of Capernaum and proclaiming that the prophetic literature of Isaiah and the rest of the prophets was fulfilled in him. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), God was involved in self-revelation. Jesus proclaimed that God's self-revelation was complete in him. The Gospels record that proclamation.

"Mystagogia" is another Greek word which carries the sense of "going deeper" into the mysteries of our life with God. Once the kerygma is announced, we are led into a period of mystagogy by reflecting on that proclamation.

In this section, Pope Francis emphasizes that preaching is, first and foremost, a matter of proclaiming the central fact of our faith; namely, that God loves us so much that God sent Jesus to die for our sins, to win us back: 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. For this reason too, the priest like every other member of the Church ought to grow in awareness that he himself is continually in need of being evangelized. (Evangelii Gaudium, #164)

If we have been listening to the Holy Father preach over these last ten or eleven months, I think we will recognize that this is exactly what he has been doing. He has been proclaiming over and over again that God loves us, that God never tires of forgiving us, that God wants us to grow in our relationship to God and one another. He has been dogged in his proclamation of that message. Using many different occasions and different symbols, he has been leading us deeper into that mystery which we call the Incarnation. God's love for us was so great that God wanted to be one of us.

Much has been made in the secular media about the Pope's statements, especially those which have seemed to signal a change in the Church's positions on hot topic issues. Those of us who are paying attention will recognize that the Pope is not changing anything. He is simply proclaiming the central truth of our faith. God is Love. That love takes the form of Jesus Christ who loves the Father. The Love of the Son for the Father is personified in the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the model of what God wants of us, a relationship of Love.

The moral teachings of the Church all spring out of that central message, out of that proclamation. The Holy Father is asking us to remember that the kerygma is what we must constantly repeat, is that at which we constantly marvel. Once that message finds a home in our hearts, all the moral teachings will make ultimate sense. Indeed, the Holy Father is accentuating the positive message that God is Love.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator