Proclaim the Gospel

[dcdurel]

This is more of an informative post.
This is all from the Catechism and the General Directory for Catechesis, (authorized by Pope John Paul II)
To proclaim the Gospel, we first must know the content of the Gospel. The Church says that the Father revealed all to Jesus, and Jesus revealed all to His apostles. The apostles were commanded to teach and preach all this revelation as the Gospel. Thus the Church calls the Gospel that the apostles preached as the “source of all saving truth and moral discipline.” Thus, if we want to know the whole truth of what God has revealed, we don’t go to the old testament, or the Jewish religion, or the New Testament scriptures, or theologians, or scholars. For only in Jesus has everything been revealed and He handed down all of this to His apostles in the Gospel and commanded them to teach and preach this Gospel. The bible does not claim to have a summary of this Gospel the apostles taught and preached. There is no book of the bible, no chapter of the bible, etc. that claimes to be a summary of this Gospel the apostles taught and preached. Of course, we know exactly what the apostles taught and preached, even though it is not written down. We just learn what the early Christians said they learned from the apostles. And these all practiced the Catholic faith. They all worshipped at mass, were saved and justified at baptism, believed in mortal sin, went to confession, prayed for those in purgatory, prayed to the saints in heaven, believed in the Eucharist, etc. Since they all learned these teachings from the apostles, then we know exactly the Gospel the apostles proclaimed. It was the Catholic faith.
And of course, from the Catholic faith we know exactly the Gospel the apostles wrote. They were the narratives of the life of Jesus, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Thus, the Gospel handed down in Tradition, by teaching, preaching, example, that is the teachings, practice and beliefs of the Catholic faith, and the Gospel handed down in scripture, that is, salvation history, together make up one complete whole Gospel, which is the whole Catholic faith.
The Catechisms are simply a written form of the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. Thus, they present the living Tradition. The scriptures are the written form of the Gospel, in the form of salvation history. To proclaim the Gospel, the Catechism is a “sure norm” for teaching the faith, since it presents the teachings the apostles handed down in
Tradition. These teachings came from Jesus. They are the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. Thus, we present a teaching, as found in the Catechism, then we use scripture as a witness to the teaching and to illuminate the teaching. We rarely use scripture to “prove” the teaching, because the teachings of the Church don’t originate from scripture, but they come directly from the apostles, who learned from Jesus.
Hope this helps clear up much confusion.

 

[dcdurel]

Let me add that when most people hear, “proclaim the Gospel” they think of the intial proclamation of the Gospel, or the initial part of evangelization.

It is not clear to me exactly how this is done, but the Popes seem to teach the same thing as the center of the Gospel, thus, this should come first, or at least be the most important point.

WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
456 With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven…”
Catechism of the Catholic Church.

" As the kernel and center of His Good News, Christ proclaims salvation, this great gift of God which is liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above all liberation from sin and the Evil One, in the joy of knowing God and being known by Him, of seeing Him, and of being given over to Him."
Evangelium nuntiandi
Pope Paul VI

Notice how the Catechism teaches the same thing, in different words, when it gives the short defintion of the Gospel.

GOSPEL: (short definition)
422. ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ This is ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’
Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Definition of REDEEMER/REDEMPTION:
Jesus Christ, redeemer of mankind. Christ paid the price of his own sacrificial death on the cross to ransom us, to set us free from the slavery of sin, thus achieving our redemption.
Glossary of the** Catechism of the Catholic Church.**

So we can combine the two definitions into one by saying,
“‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to pay
the price of his own sacrificial death on the cross to ransom us, to set us free from the slavery of sin, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ This is ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’

The other Popes teach the same thing.
The subject of proclamation is Christ who was crucified, died and is risen: through him is accomplished our full and authentic liberation from evil, sin and death; through him God bestows “new life” that is divine and eternal. This is the “Good News” which changes man and his history, and which all peoples have a right to hear.
Mission of the Redeemer
Pope John Paul II

To the question, “why mission?” we reply with the Church’s faith and experience that true liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ. In him, and only in him, are we set free from all alienation and doubt, from slavery to the power of sin and death. Christ is truly “our peace” (Eph 2:14); “the love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14), giving meaning and joy to our life. Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and his love for us.
Mission of the Redeemer
Pope John Paul II

No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.
Mission of the Redeemer
Pope John Paul II

The subject of proclamation is Christ who was crucified, died and is risen: through him is accomplished our full and authentic liberation from evil, sin and death; through him God bestows “new life” that is divine and eternal. This is the “Good News” which changes man and his history, and which all peoples have a right to hear.
Mission of the Redeemer
Pope John Paul II

 

[dcdurel]

continued, the teaching of the Popes on salvation, the central point of the Gospel

It is in the saving Cross of Jesus, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the Sacraments which flow forth from the pierced side of the Redeemer (cf. Jn 19:34), that believers find the grace and the strength always to keep God’s holy law, even amid the gravest of hardships. As Saint Andrew of Crete observes, the law itself “was enlivened by grace and made to serve it in a harmonious and fruitful combination. Each element preserved its characteristics without change or confusion. In a divine manner, he turned what could be burdensome and tyrannical into what is easy to bear and a source of freedom”.163
Only in the mystery of Christ’s Redemption do we discover the “concrete” possibilities of man. “It would be a very serious error to conclude… that the Church’s teaching is essentially only an “ideal” which must then be adapted, proportioned, graduated to the so-called concrete possibilities of man, according to a “balancing of the goods in question”. But what are the “concrete possibilities of man” ? And of which man are we speaking? Of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed by Christ? This is what is at stake: the reality of Christ’s redemption. Christ has redeemed us! This means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being; he has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence. And if redeemed man still sins, this is not due to an imperfection of Christ’s redemptive act, but to man’s will not to avail himself of the grace which flows from that act. God’s command is of course proportioned to man’s capabilities; but to the capabilities of the man to whom the Holy Spirit has been given; of the man who, though he has fallen into sin, can always obtain pardon and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit”.164
Veritatis splendor
Pope John Paul II

It would be a pernicious illusion to claim that one is acting in accordance with the Gospel without receiving strength from Christ himself in the Eucharist, the sacrament he instituted for this purpose. Such a claim would be a radically anti-Gospel attitude of self-sufficiency. The Eucharist gives Christians greater strength to live according to the demands of the Gospel; it makes them more fully members of the ecclesial community to which they belong; it renews and enriches in them the joy of communion in the Church.
Priests Are Ordained to Celebrate Mass
General Audience — May 12, 1993
Pope John Paul II

My brothers and sisters in Christ, the redemption of the world was accomplished by the Passion, death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before the Redemption, mankind was enslaved by sin, inclined to dominate rather than serve, living for self and not for others. But by the mystery of his Cross and Resurrection, we have been given the freedom and grace to live no longer for ourselves but for him. What a wonderful gift from Christ, our Saviour!
It was precisely for this reason that Christ died for all of us, to liberate us from the bond of selfishness from which by ourselves we could never escape, to make us free, and to enable us to live for him. This is the gift which Christ won for all of us: clergy, religious, laity.
ADDRESS OF POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO CLERGY, RELIGIOUS PEOPLE AND LAITY
Cathedral of Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
Tuesday, 8 May 1984

1. The Church’s essential mission, following that of Christ, is a mission of evangelization and salvation.(91) She draws her zeal from the divine love. Evangelization is the proclamation of salvation, which is a gift of God. Through the Word of God and the sacraments, man is freed in the first place from the power of sin and the power of the Evil One which oppress him; and he is brought into a communion of love with God. Following her Lord who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tm. 1:15), the Church desires the salvation of all people.
   Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation
   Authorized by Pope John Paul II

 

[dcdurel]

I think Pope John Paul II says summarizes it so well here.
In the past, all this was not make clear, by the scholars in this country. In this country, it seems the main thrust of the message was that Christ became a man to reconcile ust back to God, to open the gates of heaven, so that when we died we could be in heaven with Him.

While this part is true, the Popes make it clear the the primary reason Jesus died for us was to make available the grace to free us from the strong tendancy toward sin, or conscupisence right here and now. Thus being freed from “the power of sin” we are able to live holy lives, and not live in almost constant mortal sin. That fits in with the primary reason Jesus comes to us in holy communion, to give us the grace to overcome our mortal sins.

I think we missed the central point of salvation because of the influence of Prostestantism, for in Prostestantism, sin cannot keep us out of heaven, for we are “saved by faith alone”.
Since sin cannot keep us out of heaven, then Jesus did not come to free us from our sins, or save us from our sins, but He came to cover up our sins with His righteousness etc. Thus, in this country I think we have missed the central point of the Gospel, and even the central point of the mass. For in the mass, Jesus carries on the work of salvation and makes available the grace to “save us”, that is to free us from concupisence, the tendancy toward sin.

Thus, we see why the Eucharist is so important, and why the Churcy highly encourages daily mass.

So it seems to me, that when to evangalize, the first part is to tell how the creator of this world, God, loves us so much, that He sent His Son, to free is from everthing that oppresses us, especially sin. And that He founded a Church to carry on this proclamation and to make available the grace, through the Eucharist, and other sacramennts, that frees us from the slavery of sin.

Of course we would have to explain about the Trinity, etc. and present the basics.

If anyone has more specific ideas on the beginning of evangelization, I would be happy to hear more, as long as they are in conformity with what the Church teaches.

Thanks.