The Gospel Is Power: The First Essential Principle for the Transformation of the Church

Fr. John Riccardo

March 3, 2021

“In the final analysis, theological speculation can only take us so far; we need 

to know the story.” Fleming Rutledge

Last week, we mentioned that we both believe and think that the Lord has shown us in ACTS XXIX what we have come to call “three essential principles” for the transformation of the Church in this age that He has destined for us to live in. There is no magic bullet for what ails the Church right now. Nor are programs or best practices, as helpful as they can be, the answer. Rather, the answers, we hold, are found in implementing over and over again in everything we do these three principles.

The first principle is to re-acquire a biblical worldview.

In his letter to the Church in Rome, St. Paul tells us, “The gospel is the power of God for salvation” (1:16). This simple verse is rich in meaning. When Paul says “the gospel” he doesn’t mean Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Those weren’t written yet. He means the announcement, the proclamation of what God the Father has done for us in the Person of His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. That announcement, that proclamation, is often referred to in the Church as the kerygma, the Greek word for proclamation. The word that is translated as “power” into English is the one from which we get the word “dynamite.” In other words, the gospel is not mere news; it is extraordinary, unexpected, and life-changing news! And, finally, note that Paul doesn’t say the herald of the gospel is power, but rather the gospel itself is power. In other words, it doesn’t ultimately depend on the oratory skills of the herald, be he a priest in the pulpit or a mom talking with her children. This takes the pressure off of us.

St. John Paul II wrote that the result of preaching the kerygma should be that “a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith” (Catechesi tradendae, 25).

Now, seriously, ask yourself: how many Catholics do you know would say they have been “overwhelmed” by the gospel? How many people do you know who would say they have made a decision to “entrust,” that is to say, “surrender,” their whole lives to Jesus by faith? Imagine standing up at Mass this coming Sunday and asking for a show of hands to those questions. How many do you think would be raised?

 We would argue that the most urgent need right now in the Church, let alone outside the Church, is to proclaim the gospel. And we don’t think most Catholics have ever really heard it. Oh, they’ve heard parts of it, to be sure. But how common is it to hear a family member or friend say something like, “I grew up Catholic, but ‘met’ Jesus at [you name the evangelical church]. Now, to be clear, objectively speaking, you can’t possibly “meet” Jesus more concretely than in the Eucharist. But they didn’t know that. What many of our evangelical brothers and sisters do so well is proclaim the power of the gospel. And we would do well to make it a priority in our preaching to spend intentional time each year doing the same. How?

One of the joys, and challenges, of being Catholic is the lectionary we read from at Mass on Sundays. The joy is that in the course of three years at Mass, we are immersed in a wide swath of Scripture. The challenge is that the lectionary presumes you already know and understand the story. Because of the level of biblical illiteracy in so many Catholics, we have found in our ministry at ACTS XXIX, and before that in the parish, there is a need to intentionally set aside time on at least four consecutive Sundays to just preach the gospel. And when we finish, the comment we hear more than any other is, “Why have I never heard this before?!” To help preach this, and to help others share it, we have found it important to make the message easily repeatable, and so we’ve broken the gospel down into just four words: Created, Captured, Rescued, Response. We’ve found this so important that we wrote a book on it. 

Behind each of these words is a profound question: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is everything so obviously messed up? What, if anything, has God done about it? And, if He has, how should I reasonably respond?

 Teachers, especially of younger students, make time every year to review before they move on to new material. But we almost never review in the Church! We would advocate that at least once a year every parish should set aside four weeks or so to break open the gospel, to proclaim the announcement that is power, to allow the Holy Spirit to overwhelm people’s lives so that they can surrender to Jesus by faith. This could be done in Advent, or Lent, or even after Labor Day when, at least in most parishes, congregations return to higher attendance levels (at least pre-COVID). 

It’s not surprising to us that the most popular podcast right now is Fr. Mike Schmitz’s “Bible in a Year.” Most people simply do not know the story. . .and they want to learn it! The Scriptures help us to see where we came from, where we’re going, and how to get there. In them God reveals His plan, His love, and His power. They make clear that there is an enemy in this life—and that he is not another political party, race, class, or gender. They reveal his tactics and strategy to deceive us from the happiness God created us for. They help us understand why the eternal Son of God became Flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, and they make clear that Jesus is not just kind, gentle, and merciful (though He is these, to be sure, blessed be God!). Jesus is LORD, which is to say no one else is. They reveal that Jesus is utterly unconquerable, that He has no rival, that He has robbed the enemy of his power and conquered Sin and Death, and because He has, we have nothing to fear. And right now, in this time of immense anxiety and fear, we urgently need both to know and to share these things.