Christology In Anthropological Pastoral Key

Evangelizing through the five senses

Abstract

The objective of this article is to take a Christological perspective based on the five senses when facing the challenges of evangelizing in the current context. The question is: how to implement a process of evangelization centered on a personal encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, which can be relevant when faced with the profound crisis that humanity is living in? It is necessary to deal with the shadows of the world that generate relationships between people marked by indifference, patriarchy, a throwaway culture, of hatred and individualism. For its part, we believe that the culture of encounter proposed by Pope Francis can be visualized through a deepening of the experience involving the senses in evangelizing action. This reflection starts from Christology and goes through aspects of how Jesus made use of the senses in his practice of announcing the Kingdom of God, opening windows for a humanizing pastoral. After considering some reasons that justify the importance of returning to the freshness/love of Jesus, a theme that is strongly present in the pontificate of Pope Francis, this article dedicates to tracing the path of returning to biblical narratives in order to understand the way in which Jesus lives his mission, emphasizing the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. In conclusion, it affirms that the Christology of the senses offers important elements to better understand the human dimension of Jesus; it contributes to a process of inculturation and liturgical experience that is more coherent with an integrated anthropology without dualisms and it envisions a humanizing/mystagogical path for the continuity of the mission of Jesus of Nazareth.