Starting June 13, 2021, Fr. Ron presented a four-part series on the Kerygma. Below are the videos and text of that series.

Kerygma part 1: Created

What is the Kerygma? It is a Greek word that means “proclamation.” It is the Apostolic proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Why this series? Sometimes we need to go back to the basics. Sometimes in our faith, we are taught a whole bunch of stuff, but we have trouble fitting it all together.  If someone asked you, “What is Christianity all about?” You might have some various complicated responses, but the answer is simple: Christianity – specifically the Gospel – is the announcement of what God has done in the person of Jesus Christ.

The goal here is to be once again over whelmed by the message of the Gospel.

The Kerygma is often described in terms of four essential elements: (1) the loving plan of God for human beings; (2) sin and its devastating consequences, especially separation from God; (3) God’s answer to our predicament in the sending of his Son for our salvation; and (4) the response this gift  is a call for every person: to repent of our sins, believe in Jesus and be baptized, so we can be filled with his Holy Spirit and live a new life in his family, the Church.

At our last convocation, we had a speaker named Father John Ricardo from Acts XXIX. He simplified the kerygma to four words: Created, Captured, Rescued, Response. Our goal isn’t simply to memorize these; the goal is to reflect on them and, more importantly, to pray with them, so we will be overwhelmed by what God has done in Jesus and respond by surrendering our lives to him in faith.

We recognize that the Gospel is life-changing news. When one of the ancient Roman emperors would come back from conquering a foreign power, he would send out a decree called an Evangelion. Perhaps, you recognize that word sounds similar to a word we used in the Church – Evangelion – Evangelize. The idea was that this is life changing news. Jesus adopts that same language when He is speaking about His coming. This is Good News, life changing news. Whereas the Roman emperors claimed such life changing–Good News, only Jesus fulfills that claim. Only Jesus really brings the Evangelion – Evangelio – Good News.

For each part of the kerygma, there is a question that can help us better dive into the meaning:

Created: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Captured: Why is everything so obviously messed up?

Rescued: What, if anything, has God done to fix the mess? (And if he’s fixed it, why are things still so messed up?)

Response: And how should we reasonably respond to what God has done for us in Jesus?

Each of these could take many pages and hours to fully answer, but let’s look very briefly right now at the first part, and the first question: Created: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is God’s original plan?

You see we each have an image of God in our minds, and whatever that image no matter how large, it falls short of the reality.

In our Gospel today, our Lord speaks a parable about the mustard seed. We ought to be in awe of the miracle of a seed. For all of our knowledge, we cannot create a living thing. We might be able to take mustard seed and chop it into pieces and figure out elements make it up, but we can’t create it; we can only plant it, and be in awe that it grows.

Maybe that doesn’t help you be in awe of God’s creation.

Let’s just reflect for a moment on the magnificence of creation. Our Earth is between twenty-four and twenty-five thousand miles in circumference. The earth circles the sun and its orbit is approximately 584,000,000 miles in circumference, so the earth is traveling approximately 66,616 miles mph as it circles the Sun.

The Sun is so large that approximately one million earths could fit into the sun.

Our sun is a star. And there are approximately 300 billion stars in our Galaxy.[1] Our Universe is made up of approximately (according to more recent estimates) 2 trillion galaxies.[2] A light-year, is the distance traveled by something moving at the speed of light over a year. That is about six trillion miles. That is the number six with twelve zeros after it.

Well our universe is ninety three billion light-years across. So to travel the length of our universe imagine the number 558 with 21 zeros after it, and that is how many miles across our universe is. That is a number so large that I don’t even have a name for it.

God made all of that with a word. He spoke … and all of that came to be out of nothing. No, any image that we have of God falls short of the reality of who God is.

So we think about all of that … how massive the universe is, and it was good.  Then we hear that God created the pinnacle of creation. He made is the human person, male and female, in his own image and likeness: “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. … God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Think about all that God created, and then he created you. You are the pinnacle of His creation…You…You.

In the biblical vision of reality, then, the human person is not created to be a slave but has extraordinary dignity. When we speak of God creating the heavens and earth, we want to keep all that in mind. And you, my brothers and sisters, are the pinnacle of God’s good creation. You are made in his image which means that in some way you resemble God. You have the capacity for reason, freedom and being made for friendship and love.

When we ask that question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” gives us further answers to some of life’s most critical questions: Why am I here? Where am I going? How do I get there?

The answer, biblically, to all three of these questions is one word: love. Why am I here? Because the Creator of this massive universe, who simply said, “Let there be light,” chose to create me. He willed me into being. I don’t just happen to be here; you don’t just happen to be here. You’re here because in God’s mind, it’s good that you exist!

Where am I going? What’s the end for which I was made? What’s the purpose of my life? Love. You and I were created to be divinized! To share forever in God’s own abundant life, joy, happiness and love forever.

And how do we get there? We get there by his love, which was poured out for us on the cross. In other words, we get there by God loving us. But we also get there by loving God and each other in return; this, after all, is the first and greatest commandment, as Jesus teaches us.

We conclude this first part of the kerygma — Created — and we realize with wonder and awe that the God who is infinitely good and powerful beyond all telling not only willed me into existence but is right now, at this very moment, holding me and you and everyone we love and care about firmly in his hands. He says to us right now, “You are my son, my daughter. Your life is firmly in my hands. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be anxious. I have a plan for your life. I have created you to be infinitely happy. And it is my good pleasure that you would know me and my love and all I have done for you, and to give joyful witness to this extraordinary news.”

[1] Current estimate according to: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/how-many-stars-are-there/

[2] Ibid.

Kerygma Part 2: Captured

Now we are looking at the second part (captured) and that second question: Why is everything so obviously messed up?

We heard in our Gospel the account of Jesus being asleep in the boat, perhaps we are asking in our hearts: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Captured: The questions that come to mind are: Why is everything so messed up? What happened?

In order to understand this, we need to go back to the beginning.

First let us recognize this fact: The devil exists.  He was one of God’s most beautiful angels, created by God. His name was Lucifer which means: “light bearer.”  In his arrogance, he declared that he would be like God, and he would not serve.  And there was a battle in heavens, and St. Michael the Archangel cast Lucifer from the heavens, and as the Book of Revelation tells us, this dragon swept a third of the stars from the sky with him.  1/3 of the angels fell with him.

The devil, being a fallen angel, has an intellect that far exceeds our intellects; we have to recognize that we are outmatched in every way.

I’m reminded of that 1979 song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” by the Charlie Daniels Band. In that uptempo bluegrass song, we hear the devil challenge Johnny to a fiddle playing contest for a golden fiddle. If Johnny wins, he gets the golden fiddle, if the devil wins, he gets Johnny’s soul. Johnny agrees. The song goes on to have the fiddle battle, and along the way of course, we the listeners get to hear some great fiddle playing. Then the devil apparently loses, and he lays the golden fiddle at Johnny’s feet, and Johnny says, “c’mon back if y’ever wanna try again. Cause I told you once, you son of a gun, I’m the best that’s ever been.”

It basically ends there with Johnny victorious … but I’ve always suspected that when the music stopped, as the devil turned away in apparent defeat he had a sly wicked smile on his face, because he had snagged Johnny through his pride and arrogance.

You see, we are outmatched in every way. The devil has been successfully deceiving us ever since deceived our first parents. But we do need to keep things in perspective. He is not infinite, he is a finite being like us, but exceeds us in every way.

It was he who appeared in the form of serpent to tempt our first parents, and we are told, that he did it out of envy.  How, you might ask, would this being of great power and intelligence be envious of us?  Because we are destined for the glory which he once enjoyed but has been lost to him, and so he hates us almost as much as he hates God.  So he prowls about the world seeking to devour any that he can.

If we look at our first parents, Adam and Eve, we notice how the devil decided to attack them.  He appealed to their pride and their arrogance.  “You shall be like gods.”

In other words, God is holding out on you. You will be able to determine your own fate.  You can make your own laws.  You can make your own choices without appealing to God’s laws. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that was forbidden them, they lost paradise. This loss of paradise was not only a loss for themselves but for all the human race. It was lost for all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.

What we need to get into our heads is that without the coming of Christ, there was no hope. You see, we were in the hands of the enemy. We belonged to him. We were captured.

To have the proper impact, we need to think of the most hopeless situation. Maybe you are a prisoner in a foreign country with no means of escape. You are chained. And there is no way, with your own ingenuity that you can escape. You have tried picking the locks, but they are unpickable. You have tried breaking the bars, breaking the locks, but there is no escape. Or perhaps imagine yourself bound and capture by sex-traffickers. It is, after all, the modern slavery. I would invite you some time today to think of what would be the most hopeless situation that you can think of, with no escape possible on your own efforts.

Here is an image that spoke to me.  A while back, I was watching a nature show on Youtube. I’m not sure how it showed up on my suggestions, but it caught my attention. It showed this water buffalo which was trying to cross a stream, I think it was set in Africa. It got halfway across and then it was grabbed by a crocodile. Soon it was surrounded by crocodiles. It had its head just sticking out above the water and it was crying out pitifully. But it couldn’t escape. You could see one the crocodiles would go under the water and grab on to the part of this buffalo. You could see it spinning in the water. It would rip off part of the buffalo. Then the crocodile would stick its jaws up above the water, and you could see swallow whatever it had grabbed. Then another crocodile would go under the water, grab some part of the animal, roll in the water, and it would come up and stick its jaws out of the water, so it could swallow whatever it tore off the animal. The animal was utterly helpless, and it could only sit there with its head above the water crying out. It could do nothing to save itself.

That is the sad state that humanity had found itself.

We have found ourselves in the midst of a terrible storm. The boat is being flooded and overwhelmed with waves. We are powerless to do anything to save our selves. All we can do is cry out to God for help. We cry out like the apostles did in the boat.

So, I leave you with these words from our Gospel today: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet!  Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm.

Which brings us to part three: Rescued, which we will speak about next week, which asks the question: “What has God done to fix the mess in which we have found ourselves?”

Kerygma Part 3: Rescued

 

As I said before, for each part of the kerygma, there is a question that can help us better dive into the meaning: This week we are looking at the third part: Rescued: which asks the question: What, if anything, has God done to fix the mess?

So let’s dive in. Well, we know that God has sent his only Son into the world to save the world. Last week we learned, or re-learned that we, the human race, have found ourselves in enemy territory and we are powerless to save ourselves.

We recognize that we are just as helpless as the synagogue official in our Gospel today, who comes begging Jesus to come and heal his daughter. You see there was no human power, no doctor, no medical procedure that could save his daughter; so he comes to Jesus. And, of course, as Jesus and this man approach, we will find out that she has already died. You see, we are just a helpless as that synagogue official, who can do nothing to bring his daughter back. And, in fact, we are just as helpless as the daughter who was dead, who is in the power of death; Death is the absolute. There is no human or worldy power that can bring her back. But Jesus comes. He speaks. He says, Talitha Koum – “Little girl, arise.” At his word, the little girl is cured. He has overcome death.

From John chapter twelve we read: “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die” (John 12:31-33).

On Christmas, when we celebrate the incarnation, we often see the peaceful manger scene. We see the baby Jesus in the manger. It is a tranquil scene, and we meditate upon that vulnerable, weak little baby, so sometimes we forget that Our Lord has come to do battle with the Devil, sin, and death.

Fr. John Ricardo proposes the image of Our Blessed Lord as an ambush predator. A predator who is waiting to ambush the devil and bring about victory.

 

 

With that in mind, perhaps an image that might speak to you is the image of the Trojan Horse.

I assume that you all know the story of the Trojan Horse, the ancient Greek, story, but I’ll give you little summary as a reminder. The Greeks were in a battle with Troy. The city of Troy was an impregnable city. So the Greeks made a huge hollow wooden horse. They left the horse outside the gates of the city, supposedly as an offering showing that Troy had won. They took the wooden horse inside the city to celebrate their victory. In the evening, a door opened up from inside the Horse and soldiers came out to open the city gates to let in the Greek army. And that which was thought a victory for Troy was turned into an utter defeat. Instead, the Greeks come out victorious.

Our Lord has won victory for us, destroying the power of the devil and the power death and sin from within.

Have you seen those images of a boat anchor that has been made into a Cross? In the ancient Church it was used as Christian symbol, hidden symbol during the times of the persecution. It seems to me that that anchor might be thought of as fishing hook. Now admittedly I am taking this passage out of context, but in Psalm 22 verse 7, we hear the psalmist say, “I am a worm, and no man, and despised by people.” Our Lord quotes psalm 22 when he is on the cross.

You see our Lord took on our human flesh, and having clothed himself in our humanity, and part of the reason he did so is because he is going fishing. He is the bait. And the Cross is the hook. He lures the devil, the ruler of the world, to take the bait. And when the devil swallows up our Lord, hook, line, and sinker. It seems and apparent victory for the Devil, Jesus is dead. But suddenly, after three days, Our Lord rises from the dead, he destroys the power of the devil and  sin and death from within.

Perhaps we can think of Jonah and the whale as an image. Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, foreshadowing Our Lord’s three days in the belly of Earth.  When we pray in the Creed, “He descended into hell,” we are referring to Christ’s descent to the realm of the dead. There was something important going on there. He was destroying death, he was breaking open the gates of death from within, so that those imprisoned there would have access to heaven, so that we would have access to heaven.

Our Lord came to fight for us! And, it is important to recognize that it isn’t a fair fight. The Devil is outmatched in every way. I mentioned how we were outmatched in every way by the Devil … well the Devil is fighting against an omnipotent, all knowing, perfect God, who created him. There is no way that the Devil can out think God.

You see, God has won the victory. Death has been destroyed. Sin no longer has the last word. The devil has been defeated.

Unfortunately, although the war has been won, there are still battles going on.

There is the story of a Japanese soldier name Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda who was placed on the Nubang Island near Luzon in the Philippines during World War II.[1] He was ordered by his superiors not to surrender and to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die. Well, he was cut off from the rest of his troops when the US troops came north. He had no communication with Japan. The war ended, but no one told him, or at least no one could convince him.

So, he continued to survey the military facilities and engaged in guerrilla warfare and sporadic clashes with local residents. Japan tried dropping leaflets to inform him that war was over, but he said that the leaflets were filled with mistakes, so he didn’t believe them, thinking that the enemy was trying to trick him. He ignored search parties. He continued his battle even though the war was over. He continued his fight for about 30 years after the war ended. It might sound laughable and even silly, but he killed some 30 people during his campaign. He was a very real threat to the safety of the people on the island.

It wasn’t until 1974 when his aging former commanding officer travelled to the Philippines in person to rescind the original orders that Hiroo Onoda would stop his fighting.

Hiroo Onoda offers his military sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on the day of his surrender, 11 March 1974.

So again, our Lord has won the victory, the war has been won, the devil has been defeated by the blood of the Lamb shed on the cross, but there are still battles going on. The devil continuing to fight, even though his battling on is about as pathetic as that Japanese soldier still fighting the war when it has been over for 30 years. So we do need to be vigilant; our souls are still in danger, because the Devil is still prowling about the world like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. But our victory is assured in Christ … we must be in Christ. We put our faith and trust in Christ.

Which brings us to part four for next week: Response: How should we reasonably respond to what God has done for us in Jesus?

What, then, is the reasonable response to someone who saves you from Death? What is the reasonable response to someone who saves you from Hell? What is the reasonable response to someone who has bound the strong man so you can go free? Isn’t it reasonable to trust him? Isn’t it reasonable to surrender to him? And isn’t it reasonable to tell others?

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25772192, taken on June 24, 2021.

Keyrgma Part 4: Response

Last week we completed part three of the four part series on the Kerygma – that proclamation of the Gospel message proclaiming what God has done for us through His Son Jesus Christ. Last week, we spoke about how God has rescued the human race in Christ Jesus. Which answered that question: What, if anything, has God done to fix the mess?

Again, much of what I am presenting is based upon Fr. John Riccardo’s presentation of the Kerygma, but I’m adapting it according my own style.

Today, we reflect on how God has won victory for us, destroying the power of the devil and the power death and sin. And that Jesus came to die for us, but he also came to fight for us.

This moves us into the fourth part: our Response.

What, then, is the reasonable response to someone who saves you from Death? What is the reasonable response to someone who saves you from Hell? What is the reasonable response to someone who has bound the strong man so you can go free? Isn’t it reasonable to trust him? Isn’t it reasonable to surrender to him? And isn’t it reasonable to tell others? … to help others enter into that freedom?

Responding to love

The four movements of the kerygma include God the Father creating us and all of creation out the abundance of his love; God freely makes everything from nothing and says that it all is good, with man and woman as the crown of the divine plan. Original Sin and every sin thereafter wounds and destroys that original perfection, introducing suffering and death into the world.

God comes to our rescue by sending us Jesus Christ, who by His life, ministry, death, and Resurrection saves us from eternal separation from God and the power of death.

History abounds with stirring examples of individuals who gave their lives to rescue another.

A father drowns in an effort to save his son in the water; a soldier is killed as he helps a wounded comrade; a firefighter dies of smoke inhalation saving children in a burning home.

Over these last couple of weeks, I’ve used examples from World War II to illustrate some of these important concepts. So we’ll use another one: Think of Saint Maximilian Kolbe trading places with a stranger condemned to die in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Here is the account.

In 1939, the Nazi panzers overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow (Neo-pok-A-lan-ouvf) was severely bombed. Kolbe and his friars were arrested, then released in less than three months, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

But in 1941 he was arrested again.

While imprisoned in the terrible concentration camp of Auschwitz, he stood with the other prisoners as the commander announced that 10 men would die because a prisoner had escaped. The commander went around randomly choosing prisoners to die.  As they were being marched away to the starvation bunkers, Number 16670 dared to step from the line. “I would like to take that man’s place. He has a wife and children.”

“Who are you?”

“A priest.” The commandant obliged and kicked Francis Gajowniczek (Ga-y-ov-nichek) out of line and ordered Father Kolbe to go with the nine. When the 10 arrived at what was called the “block of death,” they were ordered to strip naked, and put into a small bunker, and their slow starvation began in darkness. But with Fr. Kolbe there, there was no screaming—instead, the prisoners sang. By the eve of the Assumption four were left alive. The jailer came to finish Kolbe off as he sat in a corner praying. Kolbe was injected with carbolic acid. Then his body was burned with all the others. Thus, he was martyred in 1941 on the eve of the Assumption of our Lady.  He was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982. We see a beautiful reflection of the Love of God.

 

 

Love compels us to offer our lives for the sake of another, whether a loved one or even a stranger. Love compelled our Lord to fight for and give his life for us.

 

 

If you had been Francis Gajowniczek (Ga-y-ov-nichek) who watched as Fr. Kolbe literally traded his life for you, how would you feel about that person?

How would you honor his memory and his sacrifice? How would you live differently because you were rescued from death?

We have accounts in the scriptures of our Lord raising people from the dead; but Jesus offers each of us a gift far more astonishing, not a rescue from physical death in this life, but rescuing us from eternal perdition … the possibility of eternal life forever in the Kingdom of God, in perpetual union with the Lord.

When we grasp the enormity of this grace, we feel compelled to respond with a dedicated life of faith, love, service, and discipleship. If God loves me that much, I will give myself to Him in a total and absolute way.

This stunning realization, that Jesus Christ died for me and fought for me, shatters complacency, ingratitude, and indifference. This is why the saints could not contemplate a crucifix without weeping. Conversion is this radical and total uprooting of the heart.

God wants to invade our lives with His saving mercy and will not rest until we have let Jesus into our inner chamber and surrendered to this amazing grace.

It is important for us, or better … important that you … each of you … to understand that Jesus has reached into your life … he has reached into your heart, and he sees that something has been broken, something has been enslaved. That victory has been done for you. If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that there is something in us that has been claimed by the devil. There is something in us that wants to sin. There is something in us that wants to be a slave, like the Israelites in the desert who said to Moses, “We are disgusted with this wretched food. We want to go back to the fleshpots in Egypt.” But Jesus has purchased our freedom.

In our Gospel today, Our Lord has returned to his native place and performs miracles in the midst of the people. He teaches them divine wisdom, and it says because they knew his family, because they were familiar with him, they took offense at him.

They don’t recognize that they need to be saved.

You see, we have heard all of these bible stories and about the life of Jesus all of our lives. Perhaps, we are too familiar with them … we have perhaps become desensitized to the impact of them This why we try to rediscovering being amazed … overwhelmed by the Gospel message. Recognizing that God did all of that for you, as if you were the only one that needed saving.

So how do we respond?

So our first response is gratitude and praise

The practice of our Catholic faith becomes our response in gratitude and praise for all that the Lord has done and will do. You see, we don’t primarily go to Mass and do what the Church asks us because it makes us feel good, or because we get something out of it; we do it as an act of worship, and act of gratitude and praise.

Our religion ceases to be some mere fulfillment of an obligation, but it becomes our embrace of the divine romance, God’s invitation for us to be in relationship, and union with him.

Sunday Mass, regular Confession, daily prayer, study of the Scriptures, the practice of mortification, service of the poor and needy, the embrace of virtue all become part of our response to the overwhelming truth that, in Jesus Christ, we have become adopted children of the Father, purchased with the Precious Blood of the Son and anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Through these practices we slowly, pehaps at time incrementally, make more and more room in our hearts to have the Lord complete invade our very being.

It is my hope and my prayer that all of our parishioners would experience the overwhelming love of Christ in such a life-changing and definitive way that we become true disciples, who are on fire to evangelize ourselves and are eager to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet … that we are witnesses of the saving power of God.

Part of response is to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit.

He requires our surrendering to him, to give him permission. It takes an honest assessment of where we are in relationship with Our Lord. We need to recognize how we have believed some of the lies of the evil. We need to recognize them and renounce them. Perhaps at the top of the list of lies is that we are so broken that the Father won’t want us back.

So we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those lies that we might renounce them:

• Where is devil accusing me right now?
• What lie is crippling me right now?
• Where is he causing division in my life right now?
• Where is devil flattering my ego right now?
• Where is temptation strongest in my life right now?
• Where am I most discouraged right now?

The devil masks himself to make us think that these thought are merely from ourselves. Devil doesn’t want us to know he is real. These kinds of lies keep us in captivity, but God has come to rescue us from captivity.

The more we are healed, the more we recognize our dignity, and the more and more we can help others toward rescue and redemption. We can be part of the rescue mission.

Conclude with prayer to help us to open up Inward and outward.

Father, I believe that out of your infinite love You created me. I come before You, just as I am, with all my brokenness, wounds, and hurts. I am sorry for all the times I have believed the enemy’s lies: that You are not a good Father and don’t love me. I repent and ask you to forgive me for all of my sins. Thank you for sending Jesus, the ambush predator (the One who came to fight for me), to rescue me from Sin, Death, Hell and Satan. And so, today, here and now, I surrender to You, Jesus, and desire Your lordship over every area of my life. I ask You now to flood my soul with the gift of the Holy Spirit to know my true identity as Your child. Help me to know that in Your eyes, I’m worth the trouble, I matter and I’m worth dying for.

Holy Spirit recreate me to be the person you destined me to be and to accomplish the plan you have for my life. Please use me as an instrument in Your hands to rescue others and to help recreate this world that You so love. Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, pray for me. Amen.

More info: https://saintjohnjackson.org/homilies/first-sunday-of-advent/