Evangeletics and Homiletics

These two terms deal with the art of preaching. Preaching to baptized people is covered by Homiletics, while Evangeletics is concerned with preaching to those, who do not believe yet.

Evangeletics is a very new and seldom used word. It denotes the branch of Evangelization that specifically treats of the composition and delivery of “missionary sermons” or “missionary preaching” (called “kerygma” in the Books of the New Testament) that are addressed to those, who do not believe in Jesus yet.

Homiletics on the other hand is a very well known word. It denotes the branch of pastoral care, which treats of the composition and delivery of “pastoral sermons” or “homilies” to believers, either during liturgical celebrations or catechetical instructions.

The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy describes the homily in these words:

“By means of the homily the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text, during the course of the liturgical year” (52)

Both Evangeletics and Homiletics have a common topic: Jesus Christ and His Gospel. But they differ in :

3a.	Goal : The goal of the homily is to “expound the mysteries of the faith (as written in the Bible) and the guiding principles of the Christian life to the congregation of believers during a liturgical celebration. The goal of the missionary preaching or kerygma is to proclaim Jesus Christ to people (individuals or groups), who do not know Him and do not believe yet, in order to lead them to faith and conversion. At the end of his first missionary preaching in Jerusalem, Peter invites the hearers to conversion and baptism. “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2: 37-38)
3b.	Method : The homilist guides the congregation of believers to apply the teaching of the biblical text to the concrete situations of daily living. His method is direct: he draws material from the sacred text, which is accepted by all believers and from Christian moral principles drawn from the catechism. The evangelist on the contrary has no such direct approach to guide the audience of “hearers” to accept Jesus. His method will have to be as varied as the ”hearers” are. Often the evangelist will have to use a very indirect approach, starting from a common experience or event, which eventually will lead the “hearers” to the proclamation of Jesus. A clear example of this method is recorded in Acts 17, which describes the first missionary preaching of Paul in Athens. While there for a very short time, Paul had observed that among the many altars of worship, the Athenians had built one altar to ‘the unknown god”. He takes this as a starting point of his preaching: “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17: 22-23) In his first missionary preaching at Pentecost in Jerusalem, Peter observes the different reactions of the crowds to the event of the outpouring of the Spirit on the apostles. Some of the crowds were “amazed and perplexed and were asking one another, What does this mean? Some, however, made fun of the apostles and said, They have had too much wine.” (Acts 2: 12-13) Peters grabs this opportunity to start his proclamation. “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!” (Acts 2: 14-15) Then Peter proceeds with the explicit and direct proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The evangelist will continuously adapt his method of missionary preaching to different audiences. At times he will have to use an argumentative method, similar to apologetics and debate. A good example of this is offered by Paul, who had been trained in the art of debating. After his conversion he used that art to spread Jesus’ Gospel. “Saul's preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn't refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.” (Acts 9:22) “Every Sabbath Paul reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 18: 4) At other times the method of missionary preaching would be more philosophical and sociological (Acts 17:24-28) or very biblical (Acts 7:1-53)
3c.	Content : .The homily presents the mysteries of Christ to believers, to make them become more aware of what they really are. The content of the missionary preaching may be confined to the historical proves of Jesus’ existence or the contribution that His Gospel gives to each culture and tradition.
3d.	Language : The homily uses a religious language familiar to believers. The missionary preaching uses the language of the hearers. St Paul delivers a pastoral sermon to the believers in Philippi, telling them in a very religious language known only to the initiated: “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2: 5-8) But when Paul in Athens has to address a crowd of intellectual Athenians, he has to use the language and the poetic expressions of the Athenians: “…God is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, ‘We are his offspring.’” (Acts 17: 27-28)
3e.	Context : The homily is delivered to a well defined congregation, by an officially recognized and ordained celebrant, in an approved liturgical framework. The missionary preaching has no defined audience; can be delivered by any baptized person and it has no fixed framework.

Jesus used both missionary and pastoral preaching. Examples of his missionary preaching are all the parables he used for the crowds in Galilee (Matthew 13) and the debates and argumentations he had with priests and Pharisees in Jerusalem. (John 7-11)

Jesus’ words to his apostles at the last supper are a very good example of pastoral preaching. (John 13-16)

Jesus sent his disciples and apostles to continue his preaching both to all nations (missionary preaching: Matthew 28) and to the brethren (pastoral preaching: Matthew 18). His disciples had to continue Jesus’ care for the sheep within the sheepfold and those that did not belong to it yet. (John 10)

St Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, who traveled all over the Roman empire to proclaim Jesus Christ to all nations, gives splendid examples of pastoral preaching.

During his second missionary journey, Paul and his companions, stayed at Troas seven days (Troas was the place from where they had started the journey into Europe). There they celebrated the Eucharist and during the celebration Paul gave a very long homily.

“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight…he then broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.” (Acts 20: 7-11)

Throughout the history of the Church both missionary and pastoral preaching went through periods of great renewal followed by periods of decline.

5a.	During the time of persecution (the first three centuries), while the missionary preaching kept its vigour and spread Christianity all over the Roman empire, the homily as such was not developed yet into a well defined independent unit of the liturgical celebration. It was often of the simplest kind, being merely an exposition or a paraphrase of the passage of Scripture that was read, coupled with extempore effusions of the homilist’s heart. We must also add that in the first centuries, all the liturgical prayers (including the Eucharistic prayers) were not codified yet. They were left in great part to the creativity of the celebrant. In this context, it would be difficult to place the homily as an independent unit, because in a sense the whole celebration was an homily. One more point to notice is the fact that most probably in the early stage of Christianity, there was no strict boundary between missionary and pastoral preaching. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives a clear hint that “unbelievers” (most probably relatives or friends of believers) had the chance of participating in Christian assemblies. “If the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he … will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14: 23-25)
5b.	After the Church gained freedom under emperor Constantine (in the year 313), the homily developed quickly and it was greatly influenced by the oratory customs of the time. Although rules were issued to keep the homily a tool of instruction for all rather than an oratory exercise, nevertheless the demand for literary beauty on one hand and the fact that many bishops and homilists were trained orators themselves, had a great impact on the new form of the homily. In some places, there was “the applause of the congregation” to welcome a famous homilist, to whom special donations were offered too.
5c.	Other historical factors that contributed to the shaping and restrictions of the homily were: the difficulty of ordinary people to understand Latin, which was gradually being substituted by new national languages and the heresies condemned by the Church. In some places the Bishops forbade priests (unless with explicit permission) to preach the homily. But it would be a mistake to generalize. Let us mention here just two great homilists: St Crysostom from Antioch, who died in 407. His name in Greek means “golden-mouthed”. He was given that name on account of his eloquence. St. Chrysostom's homilies were models of simplicity, he tried to refrain the people from the traditional applause and frequently interrupted his discourse to put questions to the congregation in order to make sure that he was understood. Augustine of Hippo (North Africa), who died in 430, was a great philosopher and theologian. He took great pains that in his homilies he could humble himself that Christ might be exalted. St Augustine never forgot how much the sermons of St Ambrose in Milan had contributed to his conversion. Crysostom and Augustine are considered the founders of the art of preaching. They both wrote books on the subject of ow to preach.
5d.	Scholastic philosophy had great influence (especially in the West) on the theology and the training of priests, who tended to have an intellectual approach to the homily. They spoke more to the mind of the people rather than to the hearts. Other counter movements tried a mystical or a devotional approach to the homily. Many books were written on the homily. There was general consensus that the homily should “teach the minds and touch the hearts”. When Liturgical celebrations were conducted in Latin, the homily was the only moment when the celebrant could speak the language of the people. At times it occupied too much time of the celebration and had too prominent a place. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy states clearly: “The homily is to be highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself; in fact, at those Masses which are celebrated with the assistance of the people on Sundays and feasts of obligation, it should not be omitted except for a serious reason.” (52)
5e.	Many believers attach great importance to the homily. They expect a lot from the celebrant. Unfortunately not the same can be said of the missionary preaching, which has not been fully studied as a separate and independent theological subject. But the consciousness of each baptized person sharing in the missionary nature of the whole Church is permeating the community of believers. This will create the right atmosphere for a deep research on the topic of evangeletics.