TMA 1997

JESUS, EVANGELIZER (PROCLAIMER)

1.       Jesus' Mission: To proclaim the Good News of Salvation.

2.       The Catechesis of Jesus

·        Jesus was a great evangelizer. He proclaimed the good news that God's kingdom was coming in his person. He spoke with enthusiasm, conviction, and authority (Mt 9:25)

·        Jesus' Evangelization was integral:

·        He integrates words and deeds.

·        He integrates the physical and spiritual.

·        He integrates prayer and action.

·        Note: These he did in fearless proclamation

3.       Jesus' Form of Communication

·        Comprehensive communication - He taught using local lan­guage, literary genres: short discourses, parables, aphor­isms, similes, and words illustrated by deeds.

·        Way of acting - attitude toward the poor, marginalized, sick, needy, enemies, foreigners, women, children, attitudes that did not conform to the religious and social culture of the time.

·        His miracles - which became signs of his divine power and God's presence in history. The miracles aroused amazement but also jealousy.

·        His actions, his silences, his gaze, his entry into Jerusa­lem.

·        His call to his disciples to follow him - the sharing of his life and apostolic ideals.

·        His death and resurrection - the utmost communication. This communication is continued in history in the preaching of the disciples, also in the Eucharist, the interpersonal encounter of every believer with Jesus.

4.       The Pedagogy of Jesus:

·        He welcomes the poor and the marginalized. He was closed to them. His attitude toward them was one of acceptance, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness.

·        He forgives and converts sinners. He did not abstain from speaking to the social outcasts. He wanted to instruct and convert them.

·        He heals the sick. He performs numberless miracles of healing for them. He also liberates men possessed by the devil.

·        He honors women. He receives them with esteem, respect, and fully appreciates their potential. He acts toward them with freedom and courage. He approaches women and heals them. He does not discriminate against foreign women. He overcomes the taboo concerning their impurity. He holds them as an example, cultivates their friendship,  shows mercy toward those women who were despised as sinners. In return, it was the women who accompanied Jesus to the cross without betraying him. For their fidelity, Jesus gave them the joy of being the first to tell the news of his resurrection (Jn 20:18).

·        He welcomes the needy and defends the lowly and the weak. He was available to others. He taught that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the least, the first is the last, the master is the servant of all. To the children belong the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:14). The child becomes the image of Jesus (Mt 18:5). To receive a child is to receive the Father. They are to be received and protected, not humiliated, scandalized, or killed (Mt 18, 6). Jesus too knew how to be a child - to be without words, to be weak, to be obedient, to be a fragment of time. He experienced the maternal tenderness of Mary and the protection of Joseph. He knows that to be a child is to abandon oneself completely to others, to depend on others, and to learn from others. For these reasons, Jesus invites adults to conversion (Mt 18:3-4).

·        He teaches forgiveness and love of enemies. He teaches us to pardon those who offend and persecute us. He educates us to mercy and forgiveness by word and example (Mt 6:14). Pardon is a gesture of love and courage. Pardon restores to the sinner his dignity as a person and as a son of God. Parson is the virtue of the strong. Jesus also taught us to love our enemies. He opposes revenge and surpasses human justice with the attitude of pardon and love for one’s enemies. To forgive and love one’s enemies is a divine work (Lk 6:36). Jesus left the power to forgive sins to the Church through the sacraments.

·        He reveals the Father rich in mercy. He reveals and communicates the Father as a kind, merciful, and provident Father. He is a Father who loves and protects the little ones (Mt 18:14). He is a Father who even leaves his children free to depart from him. He is a Father who can wait for the conversion of his wayward son and who welcomes him back without scolding and punishing him. He is a Father who considers all men his children (Mt 6:45). The Father’s tenderness is a model to imitate and practice (Lk 6:36).

·        He faces his passion and death with courage. He is the Suffering Servant who relieved the suffering of others but himself did not avoid suffering and death. He cried, experienced fear, sadness and anguish.  He taught his disciples to learn that suffering and death are part of Jesus’ earthly destiny and of Christian identity itself and that these are prerequisites for eternal life (Mt 5:4). Jesus transforms suffering into an instrument of salvation. His acceptance of suffering was the cause of salvation for all humankind. He is the new Adam, the new man, who through the obedient acceptance of suffering and death, restores to the Father a renewed humanity (Eph 2:4-5). 

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Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 08:24:28 PM