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"The Kingdom is for all"
(33)
163. At the beginning of his
ministry, Jesus proclaimed that he had been sent to announce a joyful message
(34) to the poor, making it plain and confirming by his life that the
Kingdom of God is for all men, beginning with those who are most disadvantaged.
Indeed he made himself a catechist of the Kingdom of God for all
categories of persons, great and small, rich and poor, healthy and sick, near
and far, Jews and pagans, men and women, righteous and sinners, rulers and
subjects, individuals and groups. He is available to all. He is interested in
the needs of every person, body and soul. He heals and forgives, corrects and
encourages, with words and deeds.
Jesus concluded his earthly life by sending
his disciples to do the same, to preach the Gospel to every creature on
earth,(35) to "all nations" (Mt 28,19; Lk 24,47)
"to the end of the earth", (Acts 1,8) for all time, "to
the close of the age" (Mt 28,20).
164. Throughout her
two-thousand-year history, the Church, continually prompted by the Holy Spirit,
has accomplished the task of paying her obligation of evagelizing "both to
Greeks, and to Barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish" (Rm 1,14)
with an immense variety of experience in proclamation or catechesis. In this
way the characteristics of a pedagogy of the faith have been articulated in
which the universal openness of catechesis and its visible incarnation in the
world of those to whom it is addressed, are clearly linked.
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