HERMENEUTICS OF PREACHING

Preaching is a combination of a gift and discipline. It is a gift, first and foremost, for its origin can be traced from God Himself. It is freely given by the Lord to whoever is tasked to proclaim the message of God to His people. It is a grace that never been asked but simply and unworthily given. It is an inclination; a tendency towards which a person called to assume the responsibility of bring God’s Good News finds himself into. But just like a seed that has to be sowed and nurtured by the elements, preaching too has to be hone, thus it is a discipline. Preaching as a discipline is to acknowledge and receive the gift of preaching from God. It begins by assuming the tasks given and the faith in the One who gave it. That would only be the beginning; acknowledgement; owning it; embracing it; being it (I am my preaching). By discipline, the preacher has to know himself, the talents that accompany the gift of preaching and the limitations too. By the discerning that things, experiences the person (given the gift of preaching) possess, he would be able to use them to realize and fulfill the task and end of preaching the Good News. He would be able to bend the branches of his life that had grown wildly to all directions towards one direction; towards the glory of God. He would be able to trim the leaves that are of no use in nurturing and growing the message of God in his very own life. He would be able to identify the nourishment he has to take to sustain him in the long and rigorous life of preaching. Preaching, indeed is a gift from God, however, it is given to man a creature enveloped with various tendency that may be fatal in the development of the gift of preaching. Thus discipline of the recipient is needed to develop the gift of preaching; that he who received this gift may truly nourish all who approach him, with the Word of God; that he may become the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

The vocation to preach is the seminal beginning of a life of preaching. Thus, the vocation to preach takes us to a long view of preaching. Vocation comes from the Latin word Vocare, meaning to call. In the context of the word vocation, it means being called. In this discourse of call, there are four parties involved; the one calling, the one being called, the purpose for which one is called for, and lastly the reply by the one called to the one calling him. The vocation to preach comes from God. No man can say he himself assumed this vocation by himself, from the very beginning. It is something given. Though one may ask for it, the grace that pushed him to ask for it comes from God still and the decision to grant such request comes from God too. The vocation to preach has its origin from God, and one would realize He too is the end of such calling. In the discourse of vocation God is the Caller; God empowers the one called to response; and God is the end for which one is called to. This calling serves as the sure foundation of a life of preaching for it can assure as that the person assuming the life of preaching stands on a sure and sound ground from where he preaches the Good News to the People of God. This calling is the well from which the preacher can draw the Water of life that would sustain his preaching ministry. Though sometimes this well may seem to run dry, the sure companionship of God, the one who called the preacher, is an enough comfort for a preacher who thirst and persevere to fulfill the very task of bringing God to His people.

The Church from the beginning of her existence; during the public ministry of Jesus, to the day of her inauguration; during the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles gathered together in the upper room, is truly blessed. It is in her midst that the mystery of incarnation unfolded and is fulfilled. It is in the midst of the people called and gathered by Christ that the Good News of our salvation had been proclaimed. It is primarily in the midst of this gathered people of God, that the Holy Spirit continues to breath in and inspire towards the realization of the Kingdom and will of the Father (on earth as it is in heaven). Indeed, the Church received and continues to receive a tremendous Good News and blessings. It is a blessed Church. The blessings and graces the Church have received from the Father through the Son and Holy Spirit is so enormous that the Church can contain such. The Church burst out with joy and exuberance. She preaches, proclaims the Good News she have received, realizing that whatever she have received are not meant for herself alone. Indeed, all that she had received finds their fulfillment and realization only when shared, imparted to others especially to the poor (for whom Christ came). The Church assumes the task of preaching the Good News, for truly, this is the natural reaction of one who had received a Good News. Just like Mary, the Church sings to the whole humanity: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Furthermore, the task of preaching assumed by the Church assures the realization of the message She have received; that is the message of love of God to everyone.

The vocation to preach entails the proclamation of God to people (of goodwill); to everyone. How would a preacher talks about God if not the way one experienced God in his life. God is experience in this world through those moments when one feels love or in need of love. Clearly God is sensed, whenever love is and love seemed to be absent, after all our God is Love. It is in loving or seeking to love, even to be loved, that one is able to communicate the message of God which is Himself; Love.