Make It Your Priority to Preach the Gospel — Fr. John Riccardo’s Advice to a Newly Ordained Priest
“Make it a priority, please, to preach the Gospel.
For all throughout the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, we see Paul and all the others telling a world that had never heard of Jesus what it is that the Father has done for us. And though we're living 2,000 years later, we're also living in a world which has really never heard the Gospel, most especially what we call the kerygma, that core content of the proclamation.
Pope John Paul II used to say that the initial, ardent proclamation of the Gospel is supposed to be such that those who hear it are gradually overwhelmed, moved to make a decision to surrender everything to Jesus in faith—everything: children, future, health, sexuality, money, reputation, everything.
Really, I don't think that's happened. I don't think most people in most parishes where you're ever going to serve have been overwhelmed by the Gospel, and I certainly don't think most people have made a decision to entrust their entire life to Jesus in faith. And they'll never be able to unless they come to know who He is and why that's such an intelligent and rational decision to make.
And as we proclaim that Gospel, it's essential to help people know that God is good, that He's a loving Father, that He knows what He's doing. He's got a plan. He's not anxious right now. He's not nervous.
But it's also essential to help them understand we have an enemy, and even as we proclaim that, to help people to know who the enemy is and who the enemy is not. For there's only one enemy of the human race: Satan and his minions. Nobody else is my enemy.”
Fr. John Riccardo
Fr. James Musgrave Mass of Thanksgiving
Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Parish
Plymouth, MI