“Please, let us continue to pray for peace”: Pope Francis renewed his heartfelt appeal at the end of Wednesday’s general audience in St Peter’s Square, the first to include a summary of the catechesis – dedicated to the role of the Holy Spirit in Church preaching – in the Chinese language.
“War is a human defeat,” Francis stressed in his greeting to the Italian-speaking pilgrims: “War does not solve problems, war is evil, war is destructive.” “Let us pray for the war-torn countries”, the Pope’s exhortation: “Let us not forget the tormented Ukraine, let us not forget Palestine, Israel, Myanmar. So many dead children, so many innocent dead! Let us pray that the Lord will bring us peace. Let us always pray for peace.” Addressing the Polish faithful earlier in the day, the Pope noted that next Sunday Poland will celebrate the 25th Day of Prayer and Material Aid for the Church in the East, and expressed his gratitude “to all those who support the Church in those territories with prayers and offerings, especially in war-torn Ukraine.”
“It is necessary always to start anew from the proclamation of what Christ has done for us”,
Francis said in the opening of his catechesis. It is kerygma or “proclamation”, that on which “every moral application depends,” the Pope said to the faithful, to whom he reminded: “in catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be at the centre of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal.” “The first proclamation is called ‘first’ not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things”, the Pope pointed out: “It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another through the process of catechesis, at every level and moment.” “We must not think that in catechesis the kerygma gives way to a supposedly more ‘solid’ formation”, for “Nothing is more solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled than that initial proclamation” namely, the kerygma”, the Pope remarked.
“The Gospel must be preached “through the Holy Spirit”
For the Pope, catechesis “must do precisely what Jesus says at the beginning of His public ministry: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor’.” “Preaching with the anointing of the Holy Spirit means transmitting, together with the ideas and the doctrine, the life and conviction of our faith”, Francis explained: “It means doing so not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, as Saint Paul wrote.”
“Woe to those who preach without praying! They become those whom the Apostle defines as ‘a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal’”,
the Pope said, quoting from Saint Paul. “The first thing that depends on us is praying, so that the Holy Spirit may come”, Francis explained: “The second is not wanting to preach ourselves, but Jesus the Lord”. “This relates to preaching”, Francis continued in unscripted remarks, guarding against excessively long sermons:
“At times there are long sermons, twenty minutes, thirty minutes… But, please, preachers must preach an idea, a feeling and a call to action. Beyond eight minutes the preaching starts to fade, it is not understood.
And I say this to preachers.” “I can see that you like to hear this!”, the Pope said jokingly, addressing the faithful: “At times – he continued off-text – we see men who, when the sermon starts, go outside to smoke a cigarette and then come back in.” “Please, the sermon must be an idea, a feeling and a call to action. And it must never exceed ten minutes!”, Francis’ appeal: “This is very important.” “Not wanting to preach oneself also implies not always giving priority to pastoral initiatives promoted by us and linked to our own name, but willingly collaborating, if requested, in community initiatives, or entrusted to us by obedience”, the second recommendation of the Pope.
