The first topic that usually crops up when speaking to people, irrespective of whether they happen to be Catholics estranged from the Church or regularly attend Sunday Mass, is the homily.
Many are those who feel irritated at the type of homilies we priests preach in our churches. Some complain that the homilies are too long. They lack a simple means to help listeners follow their content so that the latter can interiorise the message they are trying to convey on the readings of the Mass.
Can priests draw the attention of, exhort or teach the faithful on an issue afflicting their parish or the Church in Malta?
Others feel frustrated when certain priests celebrate the Mass as they can anticipate what they are going to preach in their homilies. Unfortunately, these preachers are hooked on repetitive thoughts from one Sunday to the next.
Others feel lost because some preachers deliver what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI described as “generic and abstract homilies” which gravely weaken the straightforwardness of God’s Word. They are annoyed when a priest goes off on unnecessary digressions and explanations of irrelevant details of the biblical text. No wonder that many feel that listening to such homilies is a waste of precious time.
The Introduction to the Lectionary explains what the ideal homily should be: “The homily... whether it explains the word of sacred Scripture that has been proclaimed or another liturgical text, ought to lead the community of the faithful to celebrate the Eucharist actively, so that ‘they may hold in their manner of life what they have grasped by faith’. By this living explanation of the Word of God... the celebrations of the Church... can acquire a greater efficacy if the homily is truly the fruit of meditation, aptly prepared, neither excessively drawn out nor too brief, and if it is attentive to the needs of all those present, even children and the uninstructed” (no. 24).
This suggests that a homily is an explanation of God’s Word that is the result of the preacher’s prayerful study. It aims to address the present needs of the community. For instance, one of the leading Church Fathers, St Augustine, himself a great theologian and pastor of souls, in order to rebuke, and at the same time invite back to the Church those Christians who had joined the Donatist schism, presented a series of homilies on the First Epistle of John. Similarly can priests make use of the Sunday readings to draw the attention of, exhort or teach the faithful on an issue afflicting their parish or the Church in Malta?
Some homilies are too exegetical in nature. The risk of such exegesis is that of neglecting the instruction of the faithful in the fundamentals of the Catholic faith. How many believers are familiar with Church teachings on key Catholic beliefs such as original, mortal and venial sin, the Incarnation, the Trinity, heaven, hell, purgatory, the Real Presence, bodily resurrection, and so forth?
Are priests happy to deliver excellent homilies on Scripture without supporting them with a clear instruction of the fundamentals of the Catholic faith? If so, there is the risk their listeners will reach decisions and form their private interpretation of the Bible without any reference to the magisterial teaching of the Church.
Some insights that may surely help priests prepare a good homily are to be found in no 59 of Benedict XVI’s apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini. Since the homily is meant to incarnate the bible’s message, are priests in close and constant contact with the everyday life of believers?
Do priests meditate and pray on it so that they can preach it with passion and conviction? Most importantly, do priests pray for the Holy Spirit’s blessing with the congregation before they preach it?
frmarioa@gmail.com
Fr Mario Attard is a member of the Order of Franciscan Capuchins.