The Fullness of Preaching

The Incarnate Divine Example

PS 502 Source & Structure of the Homily

Rev. Denis McManus

Br. Paul M. Nguyen, OMV

Congregationis Oblatorum Beat Mari Virginis
November 23, 2015

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Praedicare. Speak before the assembly. This is an office of the high priesthood of Jesus
Christ that is participated by the ordained priest and analogously shared by all the baptized. Here,
we intend to study the kinds of preaching that Jesus employed, which were recorded and
transmitted in the Gospels, and which stand as a definitive example of how to relate the saving
truths He revealed. These same methods were used in the earliest days and continue in use up to
our present time, although the full richness of the manner in which Jesus preached deserves to be
revived in our own day.
The passage from Mark 9: 9-32, which proceeds from the post-Transfiguration discourse
through the journey to Galilee following an exorcism, contains a paradigmatic cycle of
complementary kerygmatic, didactic, and mystagogical preaching at that ritual occasion.
We will define each form of preaching, apply them to the selected pericope, and show the
strength of their unity in this passage despiteand even depending upontheir diversity.
We find three forms of preaching in the course of the public ministry of Jesus and in the
tradition that follows Him. The first is didache, the ministry of instruction and teaching. Here,
the law and the prophets are interpreted, the virtues are expounded, and the saving truths about
the life of the believer are given. The next is kerygma, the basic proclamation of the essentials
of the faith. This was given in the previous form of the mysterium fidei proclamation: Christ has
died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. The consummation of Christs earthly mission
begun in the Incarnation is the essential Good News, in which all are called to have faith. Of
course, prior to the event, Jesus Himself only preaches the kerygma proleptically. Finally, the
mode of mystagogy is the whole process by which Jesus helps others to interpret their
experiences of God, especially seeking to understand the meaning of having witnessed a sign or
experienced a ritual of some sort. In other words, it is to internalize and appropriate an encounter

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with God, growing in personal knowledge of what has happened, both on the level of the mind
and of the heart and soul. Through the knowledge gained by this preaching, the believer grows in
faith, hope, and love and is moved to live his life more deeply, as informed by Gods
interventions: Preaching is more than explanation, it is transformation.1
In this passage from the ninth chapter of St. Marks Gospel, we find three subdivisions:
the return down the mount of the Transfiguration (9:9-13), the exorcism in the crowd (9:14-29),
and the continuation of the journey through Galilee (9:30-32). In the first, the Passion and
Resurrection is forecasted, but the disciples do not understand. The kerygma has been delivered,
but because it has not happened yet, and because the disciples are preoccupied trying to make
sense of the vision on the mountain. In a didactic moment, Jesus does answer the sidebar
question about Elijah (9:10-13). The episode at the bottom of the hill is an encounter between
Jesus and a man and his son who need Him (9:18). The mans faith is weak, and whatever his
prior motivations for seeking Jesus, he did not yet have precision in how he asked God for this
favor, incidentally expressing doubt within his very request (9:22-23). His disciples likewise
lacked a full understanding of the divine order and what powers they did and did not have (9:1819). Jesus instructs the man quickly that faith can do all things (didache). And the man seemingly
is moved in faith: immediately he confesses his belief and, in the same breath, how little his
faith is (9:24). Jesus commands the spirit to leave, and raises up the boy whom the crowd took
for dead. The disciples, all together now, ask Jesus in private why they could not drive out the
demon, and he teaches them: This kind can only come out through prayer (9:29, NABRE).
Finally, Jesus tells all of his disciples together of his impending Passion and Resurrection
(kerygma), but even the whole group together was not ready to ask for clarification (9:30-32).

Robert P. Waznak, The Catechism and the Sunday homily, America 171, no. 12 (October 22, 1994), 20.

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The integrity of these elements is compelling. The text of the Gospel itself contains the
connecting phrases that reinforce the continuity of this passage, so that we understand it is one
event. The forecasted kerygma, given in a limited way to the few disciples coming down from
the mountain of the Transfiguration, gives way to the scene of the crowd and Jewish leaders
surrounding the demoniac and his distraught father. Here, Jesus takes hold of the situation,
drawing forth the truth of the matter, eliciting an initial faith from the father, and expelling the
demon. Jesus seemingly keeps moving with all his disciples, and He begins to unpack that
experience of the exorcism (mystagogy) by answering their question about how He easily
accomplished that with which they had struggled. He evidently continued to explain things to
them, and reiterates to the whole group what He had formerly told only those who accompanied
Him up the mountain: the kerygmatic message of his impending suffering, death, and
resurrection. The overriding dynamic is to draw the disciples into the mystery of who Jesus is, by
signs including the preceding Transfiguration and this exorcism, and by explicit announcements
of what He had come to accomplish. In fact, the liberation of the demoniac is placed at the
chiastic center of the passion predictions within this pericope, following, however upon the
fathers humble confession: I believe; help my unbelief, (NABRE) to which the disciples are
likewise called. The unity of this passage is itself mystagogical since every moment is an
invitation to greater faith in Christ and a deeper appropriation of these truths and mysteries,
especially liberation from sins unto transformation into the good and holy life, even to ones own
Cross.2
We have examined the three modes of preaching: the essential announcement of Gods
economy of salvation in Christ, imparting other truths about how God accomplishes works of
grace in individuals and how He means for His disciples to live, and opening their minds and
2

USCCB, Preaching the Mystery of Faith, (Washington D.C.: 2012), 23.

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hearts to perceive the deeper truths of the marvels they have seen while accompanying Him on
earth. In this story, all three modes are intertwined and together achieve the great impact of the
message: we want to follow Him, we want to become like Him, and we want to share Him with
others. And there is an incredibly personal element here, deserving of attention for preachers of
every age: Jesus brought one man to faith by instruction. This is not the baptism of thousands
from the Apostolic age. This is the one-on-one encounter of Jesus with a father concerned for the
well-being of his son, at least on the natural level. The scribes and Pharisees stood around, all
twelve of the disciples were present, and the crowd gathered around the possessed boy. Yet in the
essential saving action Jesus performed, He only addressed one person at a time. First the father,
then the demon, then the boy who seemed to die. The kerygmatic components in this story hold
together on the part of the disciples, who, though still actually ignorant of what is about to take
place, nonetheless hold in their hearts what Jesus has said and gather together their memories of
what they have experienced, thus becoming more and more disposed to receive that
breakthrough grace of full conversion.
This kind of study opens up to all of the Gospels, and also the rest of the New Testament
as Jesus example is lived out by the Apostles and their successors. Jesus always speaks from his
interior divine life. And it is incumbent upon the preacher to do the same, to speak from his
participation in divine life, to share the fruits of this contemplation, as the Dominican motto
goes. No work of grace would be possible in another save for the merit of others cooperating
with grace, as Jesus taught in this passage. And the preacher who is able to draw out of his
hearers the obstacles in their spiritual lives goes a very long way to dispose them for receiving
those life-changing graces of conversion and healing, as they are able to bring them in humility
before the Lord. The preacher who can share his interior life invites his hearers to the same, and

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accomplishes his mission to draw people ever closer to God Who is the way, the truth, and the
life, unto eternal beatitude.

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References
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Preaching the Mystery of Faith. (Washington
D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2012).
Waznak, Robert P. The Catechism and the Sunday homily. America 171, no. 12 (October 22,
1994): 18-21. Education Research Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 18, 2015).