In order to speak of a “kerygmatic Church”, we must first focus our attention on that which defines and characterizes the Church as Church. To do this, it is essential to study the moment and origin of its birth, in order to trace the essential elements inscribed in its DNA, elements that have remained fixed throughout the course of history.  

The question of the Church’s origins
If we examine diverse texts, we find varying accounts of the Church’s origins. However, the core of Christology is present in all of them: the Incarnation of the Word made flesh, the calling and sending forth of the apostles and disciples, Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom; Mary and John standing at the foot of the cross, blood and water flowing from the wound of the Crucified Jesus, the appearances of the Risen Jesus after the resurrection, and the Holy Spirit’s descent at Pentecost. 

In one way or another, all the varied textual perspectives are true. Rather than a paradox, this affirms a great truth: The Church constitutes an ongoing phenomenon; one that began and developed throughout the course of history instead of in a single instant.

Fruits of a shared experience 
In this light, there is one key episode referred to by most ecclesial scholars. It is found in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There, we find Peter in front of a large assembly, standing and recounting his experience of Christ. What happens in that moment? We read in the text: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’" (Acts 2, 37). And it concludes: “So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added to their number.” (Acts 2, 41).

To understand the most authentic meaning of the “kerygmatic Church”, it is important to understand what happened in that moment of Peter’s preaching, irrespective of the essential sacramental dimension linked to baptism. An apostle stands up and speaks of his own personal experience of Jesus. Peter is totally involved in this story; he is present in the content of that announcement.

This is a first characteristic of the kerygmatic proclamation: the one who is communicating the faith must share his or her own personal experience of living it. The one who proclaims must be existentially involved in what is announced. It is not a question of reporting events, but rather recounting those facts that one’s eyes have seen, one’s ears have heard and one’s hands have touched (cf. I Jn 1, 1-3).

From religious information to “performative” communication
One clear problem in current catechetical formation, especially in Western Christian communities, is that of being satisfied with the simple delivery of religious ‘information’ about someone in a way where personal involvement in the story is lacking. Being a part of what is being recounted is not about presenting a myriad of concepts; instead, it is about sharing a reality, something that really happened; something the speaker experienced. In addition, if one starts from abstract discourse, it is easy to slip into a catechetical mode focused almost exclusively on transmission of faith content, as if faith itself can be contained through its mere accumulation. It is as if the Church is considered kerygmatic in nature because information and concepts are communicated. Instead, the Church must be “performative” in its way of communicating, and thus able to generate the same experience in both the listener and the communicator. 

Proclamation generates a communion of life
Returning to the episode from the Acts of the Apostles, communication of the faith preceded the sacrament of baptism, constitutively forming and marking the beginning of the phenomenon of the Church. This is how it began. Precisely for this reason, proclamation not only refers to the past but it is a dynamic reality that continues to define the Church down through the centuries, day after day.

Through a kind of osmosis, communicating one’s own experience gives rise to a deep communion of life between the one who preaches and the one who welcomes the announcement: whoever communicates his or her faith feels a part of what is being proclaimed. It is as if a person gives both themselves and the content at the same time. Thus, in welcoming the proclaimed message, a person welcomes both the witness and the content. If the one who proclaims is in fact a part of what is being proclaimed, then it is equally true that the person receiving this same testimony is existentially involved as well.