Harvey Bermudez, CRM

PTHO 6109AA – Introduction to Preaching

Rev. Krzysztof K. Maslowski, S.T.D.
February 26, 2019

EVANGELII GAUDIUM
(A Reflection on the Proclamation of the Gospel)

God as the Origin and Source of Everything

There is a famous saying that goes: “Everything is Grace.” Pope Francis started out Chapter
Three of his Apostolic Exhortation, entitled the Proclamation of the Gospel, by reminding the
reader that everything comes from God and that salvation comes not from our own merits or by
our virtues, but redemption and eternal life comes from him, the author of everything:

“The salvation which God offers us is the work of his mercy. No human efforts,
however good they may be, can enable us to merit so great a gift. God, by his sheer grace,
draws us to himself and makes us one with him. He sends his Spirit into our hearts and
makes us his children, transforming and enabling us to respond to his love by our lives.
The Church is sent by Jesus Christ as the sacrament of the salvation offered by God.”1

I like it how Pope Francis began this chapter because I have realized that every work that
we do, especially in the work of Evangelization and Sanctification, God is the principal author of
everything, thus everything and every inspiration have himself as its source and origin. I remember
our former bishop back in the Philippines used to say in our language: “Hindi ko kayo oordinahan
kung hindi ninyo kilala si Kristo (I will never ordain you if you do not know Christ).” He always
mentions this infamous line in order to emphasize the point that our point of origin, the vantage
point is no other than Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy and compassion has brought forth
salvation to the world. In the proclamation, it is not us or our autobiographies that matter, but the
great story of Jesus should be announced again and again through the words of our preaching and
evangelizing. As seminarians, that Bishop reminds us and instill in our hearts that we first and

1
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, #112.
foremost we must have that personal relationship to Jesus Christ so that we may never boast
anything except the cross of Jesus Christ.

God as The Source Encompasses Everything

God encompasses time and space. As he is the source and fountain of everything which
exists and every grace belongs to him as its origin, we can say that God encompasses everything.
I remember during our college years, we go around in a cycle of house chores and daily activities
and one of these activities includes the cleaning of the pig pen. Whenever I am assigned to clean
it, I tried entering the pen itself, because if I just dwell outside, I will not be able to clean it
thoroughly. Because God is everything, he chose to enter our world and made his dwelling among
us, taking the form of our own existence as human beings. In the fullness of time, he has entered
the realm of sin and death, being like one of us, for him to conquer once and for all the pains of
sin and death in our lives. He has entered our cultures and values, not because he does not
understand us, but because more importantly, for us, to understand him, if not in his fullness, but
just in his great love that he has for each of us.

Our Evangelization through the Proclamation of the Word

Realizing that God is the source of everything and that all comes from him as their origin,
so do our evangelization must begin with him and must always be centered on him. And as God
made his dwelling among us for us to know him more in his infinite love and mercy, our
evangelization should descend from a high doctrinal and reach the lives of every person, especially
those we encounter as we live our everyday lives. One saying goes that Jesus is not somewhere up
in the clouds, Jesus is down here with us building a kingdom. The way of proclaiming the good
news of Jesus Christ, should not be hard to grasp but its content should touch the deepest recesses
of the heart through encompassing and touching the culture of a person. As God encompasses
everything and is everything, so too our evangelization should be intimate thus leading those we
have encountered into a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Pope Francis tells us that
Evangelization is spontaneous and being a disciple means “being constantly ready to bring the
love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city
square, during work, on a journey,” 2 and he goes on to say that evangelization is “personal

2
Ibid., #127
dialogue, when the other person speaks and shares his or her joys, hopes and concerns for loved
ones, or so many other heartfelt needs.”3 Pope Francis will also mention how important it is for
the present times to bear witness in our lives the gift of faith from God because it is only through
a witness that nowadays, a modern man listens.

The Effectiveness of our Preaching

How can the world know God if there will be no one among the world to proclaim and tell
about it? It is through our efforts (not to set aside God’s effort par excellence) that God’s words
are able to reach out to the ends of the earth. The effectiveness of our preaching first lies into the
focusing of the essentials, that is, the proclamation of the Kerygma message of the Gospel. God
has made salvation from sin possible for all people by overcoming death in the person of Jesus,
who inaugurates the Kingdom of God. As the preacher prepares and gets ready for the
proclamation of God’s words, one should teach in proper proportion, that is, teaching more about
Jesus Christ less than the Church. We must realize that Gospel is timeless, but our expression of it
must be adapted to the context and to the culture of the individuals we are preaching to. Last but
certainly not least is that the preacher should speak the Gospel to people’s concrete situations and
experiences. Our evangelization through the proclamation of the word should lead and challenged
everyone that they too have the mission to proclaim the Gospel to others.

At the End of the Day

At the end of the day, our proclamation of the Gospel must always go back to that
realization that firstly, this is not our own doing. It is the work of God and we are just mere
instruments of this great task he has commissioned us. In evangelization, it is most important to
bear witness so that we may proclaim that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

3
Ibid., #128