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August 29, 2024How would you do a Catholic faith elevator pitch? Would you fumble for words? Maybe wonder, “Where do I begin?” Would you be able to sum up all of what you know to someone? Maybe even someone who has no idea about the who and why of God?
Some might say to the curious person, “God loves you,” and might go on saying, “And he died for your sins.” But Edward Sri, a keynote speaker at the 2024 Discipleship Conference of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, offers a shortcut requiring one word: Kerygma.
With charisma, Sri broke open the conference, held Aug. 10 at the Oklahoma City Convention Center, as the first keynote speaker with this one word. But what is Kerygma, exactly? Kerygma can be equated to the core gospel message. The Kerygma is first in that it is the primary teaching of the Catholic faith, and it’s simple, as told by Sri, in five R-words.
Relationship. Humans were made for relationship.
Rebellion. Humanity rebelled against God in the fall. To quote Sri, “We have been dealt a mortal wound in our soul.
Reconciliation. Reconciliation is found through Christ.
Recreated. We are re-created in Christ.
Response. A Response is required.
“These basic truths of the faith are kind of like wedding vows,” Sri told a sellout crowd. “Vows made by a God that loves us infinitely.”
Sri quoted Saint Catherine of Siena when he said, “God, you are drunk with love.” And he said this immense love was not earned, and there is nothing one can do to change the mind of this God, inebriated with love for us. He added that this love God has for us is perfect, pure and creates an infinite debt of love that we can never repay.
The only way to repay an infinite debt is with an infinite payment. Still, don’t lose heart, Sri said, a God-man (Jesus) made and makes a payment on our behalf. Our “mortal wound” of sin can and is healed through Christ. Because of our sinful state, Jesus wants to make us a new creation. The only way that he can, however, is through our response, so, we need to respond with a movement on our behalf, an opening of the heart to Jesus and his love. And when that love enters in, our only true and just response is to share the good news. Even in an elevator, if necessary.
As Sri came to a close, he spoke of the “primacy of the interior life,” or how the prayer life of each person should take precedence over the worldly life of the individual. He encouraged all who were there to persevere in prayer, overcoming distractions in prayer: “Give God the good intention.”
This intention of prayer is the reason we pray and once it is given to God, he holds onto it. No distraction on your end can take away what has already been given to God, he holds it in his infinitely powerful hands.
After Sri finished, the crowds dispersed into breakout rooms, where attendees chose from a mix of places and speakers and topics. The conference, in its second year, was billed as a success, and summed up by Archbishop Coakley, who said, “In order to make disciples, we have to first become disciples, living out a real relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Anne-Marie Hagen is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Photo: (Above) Edward Sri.
The archdiocesan Discipleship Conference was held on Aug. 10 at the Oklahoma City Convention Center. Photos Avery Holt/Sooner Catholic