Our first year is here, so we turn our attention to the theme for 2025, Proclaim the Faith (evangelization).

The key word for this year is kerygma — the Greek word meaning “proclamation.” It can refer to the faith that is proclaimed and the act of proclaiming that faith. We will dive deep into both this year beginning with the major points of the kerygma, which is the message of salvation in Christ Jesus. The message of Good News (Gospel) includes several points where we will spend some time, and we will also talk about how to proclaim that Gospel message.

There are many ways to proclaim the Gospel and many forms that the proclamation takes. Part of the beauty of the Gospel is that it is never old news. Some evangelization organizations break down the kerygma into points and paradigms that are useful for getting to know the content of the Gospel proclamation. Let’s do something similar.

The kerygma is at the heart of the Christian faith, so many (probably all) of these points should sound familiar to us. Over the coming months we will talk about the fact that God created us in love but humanity’s sin has separated us from God. Yet he continued to love us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, who suffered, died, rose and ascended for us. In doing this, Jesus offered us eternal life. This is not an abstract idea; we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Church, whose sacramental life sustains and directs us toward that gift of eternal life.

So, let’s reflect on that first point: God created us in love. This focus in the proclamation is sometimes either forgotten, overlooked or simply presumed — yet it is profound. Looking at the two creation accounts at the beginning of Genesis, we find two very different stories about the creation of the world. Both tell us something important. They each, in their own way, demonstrate the order and care with which the world has been formed by God. Additionally, they highlight the special place for humanity within that creation.

In the first creation account, humans are the pinnacle of God’s creation, bringing it to completion. Humans are made in the “image and likeness” of God (Gen 1:27), a high privilege that brings with it great dignity.

In the second creation story, we see God form man out of the earth and, in an image of the Holy Spirit, breathe life into him. All the subsequent creatures are made for him, culminating in the creation of woman. We see the intimate relationship of God with humanity that is reflected in the relationship of man and woman. This reflection quickly gets pushed aside as humans introduce sin into the world. But God’s loving creation of us and the world is not lost.

Before we move to human sinfulness, it is important to note that what we see from the very beginning in Genesis is that God wants to be in a relationship with us as humanity and individually. So, we must remember and reflect on the fundamental, underlying goodness of creation and the goodness of humanity specifically. The core of the message of the kerygma is human redemption in Christ.

What underlies the act of redemption is that God loved humanity from the beginning and always desired to live in relationship with the people he created. God does not change his mind and decide to love us at some point along the way. Rather, creation itself is an act of love. This loving act of creation finds its fulfillment in the self-emptying love of Jesus that brings about redemption. Creation and redemption are not opposites, but are two parts of the same process and love.

There are many implications of the assertion that God created the world in love and that it is fundamentally good. For instance, it shapes how we understand evil in the world and how we react to those who commit evil. We must strive always to remember the goodness of all creation and all people — at the same time, we realize that goodness is not always exhibited and is sometimes distorted. Nonetheless, there is a fundamental dignity to the human person that can never be lost, no matter what others do to a person or what a person does to himself or herself through sin.

The Son of God entered the world through the Incarnation because the fundamental human dignity and the fundamental goodness of creation was never lost. Christ entered our world because he recognized a world worth saving. This is good news, and we too must model our behavior after this recognition.

As we evangelize others, we must recognize first, in each human person, someone whom God loved from the beginning.