A REFLECTION ON ‘KERYGMA’ AND ITS IMPLICATION TO THE CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC BELIEVER

The Kerygma has come to mean the core of apostolic preaching, the good news of salvation through Jesus -  His birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection, His sending of the Spirit, His coming again – with the call to faith and repentance, leading to forgiveness, a personal relationship with Jesus and baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is proclaimed with a view to engendering faith in the hearers, which is the essential foundation for further teaching and catechizing. “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the preaching of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). This faith draws us into God’s great plan of salvation, which started with Abraham and the people of Israel and reached its fulfilment in Christ. The aim of this paper is to conscientize Catholics on the right knowledge towards their confessions. More pertinently, this paper is to reflect and address the claim of Fr. Peter Hocken who observed that: “Many churchgoing Catholics have been initiated into a religious system without being led to a personal encounter with the Lord”.