The cry emerging from the heart of the Church

By Fr Robert Christo

Vicar for Communications

There seems to be a quiet yet powerful cry emerging once again from the heart of the Church: we must return to the kerygma. The Church is recognising that while doctrine, ritual, and sacramental life remain essential and sacred, many people have not yet experienced the living heart behind them all—an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ Himself.

Recently, Church leaders in Rome have again emphasised the importance of ‘kerygmatic evangelisation’. The word kerygma comes from the Greek word keryssein, meaning ‘to proclaim’ or ‘to herald’.

In the early Church, the kerygma was the explosive first proclamation of Christianity: Jesus Christ loves you, Jesus died for your sins, Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus is alive, repent and believe the Gospel, and receive the Holy Spirit—the Paschal Mystery.

The Apostles were not first selling religion or defending structures. They were announcing an encounter with the Risen Christ, and people felt it deeply.

Sacramentalised but not always evangelised

Today, many Catholics quietly admit something painful yet true: we have often become heavily sacramentalised without being fully evangelised. Many persons were baptised, confirmed, married, and eventually buried in the Church, but some were never deeply introduced to the living person of Jesus Christ. We mastered rituals and a litany of church events while avoiding real relationships.

Jesus warned about this danger when He spoke of people honouring God with their lips while their hearts remained far away from Him (Mk 7:6). Throughout the Gospels, Christ constantly invited people beyond surface religion into communion and transformation.

Blind Bartimaeus encountered Christ and threw away his cloak. Zacchaeus climbed a tree curious but came down transformed. The Samaritan woman came searching for ordinary water and left carrying living water back to her village. Peter encountered Jesus and abandoned his fishing nets. St Paul encountered Christ on the road falling from his high horse in Damascus and moved from persecutor to itinerant preacher.

None of them were forced. None were bribed. They encountered Him freely and personally.

The Holy Trinity and the mystery of relationship

This is precisely why the Feast of the Holy Trinity becomes so important for the Church today. The Trinity reveals that God in essence and in existence is relationship itself. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father, yet all three are fully God—distinct persons united perfectly and dynamically in love.

The Trinity teaches humanity that ultimate reality is communion, relationship, and living personhood. One of the great dangers of modern society is reducing God into a vague energy, ‘go to, to get through’ or distant cosmic force.

Christianity boldly proclaims something radically different: God knows us personally, speaks personally, listens personally, enters human history personally, and dwells within us through the Holy Spirit.

As St Paul declares in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” This is encounter language.

Why the Caribbean understands this so well

Caribbean people instinctively understand relationality and hospitality. We lime together over All Fours, talk loudly by the corner, ‘chip’ synchronically to the same beat irrespective of race, colour or creed, hug freely, and cook extra food “just in case somebody pass”.

The early Church itself grew through this same spirit of hospitality. People encountered Christian communities where the sick were cared for, strangers welcomed, and the poor fed with dignity. It felt like mercy touching wounded hearts.

Kerygma is announcing the Good News with conviction, authenticity, witness, and love in all aspects of daily living.

The human heart is restless for God

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the desire for God is written into the human heart (Jer 31:33) because humanity is created by God and for God. Deep within every person exists a hunger that no amount of money, rum, bacchanal, social media attention, or worldly success can fully satisfy.

St Augustine captured this truth beautifully when he wrote: “We are made by and for God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” That restlessness is visible everywhere today—in anxiety, violence, crime, addiction, loneliness, depression, and the endless search for meaning. Many people are not rejecting God entirely; they are searching desperately for authentic encounter.

How do we become more kerygmatic?

The practical question now becomes: how do Catholics become more kerygmatic?

First, we need personal prayer again, genuine conversation with Jesus about fears, wounds, and struggles.

Second, Catholics need to rediscover Scripture. Scripture is living encounter through the Word of God.

Third, we need Eucharistic spirituality. The Eucharist is not a magic wafer, cultural obligation, or a blessing. It is communion with the living Christ who nourishes His people.

Fourth, we need authentic Christian communities where people are personally known, loved, and accompanied.

Finally, we must recover missionary discipleship. Christianity cannot remain private. Authentic encounter naturally overflows into witness.

The future of the Church in the Caribbean

The Church in the Caribbean now stands at an important crossroads. We cannot survive on cultural Catholicism alone. The younger generation is searching intensely for authenticity, healing, and encounter. They are asking: “Is Jesus real? Can I know Him personally? Can He heal me? Can He speak into my anxiety, confusion, loneliness, and fear?”

The answer of the Gospel remains ‘yes’.

Perhaps this is the deeper invitation of the Feast of the Holy Trinity in our time. We are being called to move from ritual alone into relationship, from spectators into disciples, from maintenance into mission, from merely sacramentalised into fully evangelised, from pews to pavements, and from religion experienced as obligation into communion experienced as joy.

The kerygma is not old-fashioned. It is the real fire the Church desperately needs again.