Indeed we are in the midst of just such a shift of focus. As our calendar year turns, we begin to turn our attention from “Proclaiming the Faith,” the kerygma, to “Understanding the Faith,” catechesis — a new annual theme that we will take up beginning this Ash Wednesday. As the Year of Catechesis begins, we will spend significant time reflecting on what catechesis is, how we are all called to catechize and be catechized, and even what some particular callings to catechize might look like.

But, as we enter this last phase of our year devoted to evangelization, it is worth looking at all we have discussed and learned, while also looking forward to a natural progression to a new theme. Throughout 2025, we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the kerygma (Greek: κήρυγμα, or proclamation), that is, the message of Good News that we proclaim. 

This Good News, rooted in God’s love for us, brought about our very creation, and it was not negated by our sinfulness. In fact, in response to our sinfulness, God the Father sent his only-begotten Son to take on our humanity and thereby transform it. The Son, Jesus, by his life, revealed God to us, also revealing us to ourselves and showing us how to be truly human. 

Jesus, who is both God and human, suffered and died for us on the cross, sacrificing himself for our salvation. He rose again and ascended into heaven with his full humanity intact, giving human life a new trajectory that has become available to us through our union with him in baptism. This resurrected life in a glorified body is also an invitation into the life of love, that is, communion — the very life of the trinitarian Father God, Son Jesus and Holy Spirit.

To extend this life to us, the Father and Son sent us the Holy Spirit, who dwells within each Christian individually and who animates the Church as a whole. This gives us a share now in that life of communion that we anticipate. Furthermore, in the gift of the Church and her sacraments, we are brought into this life through very tangible and accessible means.

This is the kerygma. In every piece of this proclamation of the Good News, we are met with the superabundance of God’s love for us, a love that we can never earn. The accomplishment of this love goes beyond our limited capacity as human beings; this love came before us and always grounds our very existence. 

The central message of our Christian faith, then, is the tremendous, perfect, almost unimaginable, depth and breadth of God’s love for us. His love captures us as a whole Church and each of us as an individual. It is the overflowing of this love that compels us to enact kerygma as a verb — to go out to the whole world and proclaim this Good News. We do this in our acts and in our words. And the more we authentically let this proclamation overflow from God’s loving work in our lives, the more we serve the mission to which we are called as Christians.

As we begin to pivot our attention as a diocesan family to deeper formation in the faith, which is catechesis, we can never forget that this Good News of God’s saving love for us is at the heart of understanding the faith. As we explore the theme of catechesis, we will find that all the tenets of our faith flow directly from the kerygma and find their significance in that foundation. Furthermore, we will also discover that the very act of catechizing, of forming others in the faith, begins with the proclamation of the Gospel and always leads us to the Good News.