Most of my students are terrified when it comes to my views. One student asked, “Sir, do you have a religion?” I said, “Yes.” When ask which faith specifically, I told them I am Roman Catholic, I pray, and attend mass.
Based on a 2017 Social Weather Stations survey, there has been a decrease in church attendance among the Roman Catholic faithful. Some have converted to other denominations with many citing recent scandals plaguing the clergy. In addition, there is also “highbrow theology” that it is hardly understood and priests who do not give meaningful homilies and miss the Gospel’s message.
As a former seminarian, I have encountered priests who are not good at preparing homilies. One parish priest in Talisay City would use humor to entertain parishioners and serenade them, but it had nothing to do with the Gospel. The entire message would not be elaborated and I would leave mass early and attend the later service with a priest who would elucidate the Gospel.
Msgr. Louie Galbines, the current bishop for the Diocese of Kabankalan, does good homilies.
Bad preaching leads to spiritual dullness
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a priest is a mediator between God and humanity and does so through teaching, divine worship, and leading the public. I understand the hardship of staying in the seminary, studying philosophy and theology, one year of ministry before ordination, and the process of formation; however, sadly, some do not study the same way after ordination.
As a mediator, a priest guides people closer to God, which is done through homilies. How do believers become closer to God if a priest is too lazy to craft good homilies? How does one persuade people to keep their faith through empty homilies?
Being members of one holy, Catholic, and apostolic church, the faithful are supposed to be beneficiaries of the fullness of faith. For some parishioners, one cannot excuse a lousy preacher by saying, “At least we are still getting the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and that is the meat of celebration.” Mass is a sacrament of the word and the Eucharist. Presence, homily, and sacrament are necessary and if one is absent, the entire thing lacks balance and spiritual fulfillment is operating merely on rites.
Preach the good news
Auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Fr. Robert Barron, identified bad preaching as “the primary reason that people leave the Catholic Church.” He said,” People said that they left the Church because homilies were ‘boring, irrelevant, poorly prepared’ or ‘delivered in an impenetrable accent.’
The clergyman continued: “An interesting homily identifies that longing and demonstrates, concretely, how Jesus fulfills it. When the homily both reminds people how thirsty they are and provides water to quench the thirst, people will listen.”
Preaching is essential. According to 2 Timothy 4-5: “Be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”
The centerpiece of this passage is that good preaching helps prevent apostasy. It is central to faithful ministry and evangelization. Pope Benedict XVI, in his post-Synod Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, wrote: “The importance of the word of God, the quality of homilies needs to be improved … The homily is a means of bringing the scriptural message to life in a way that helps the faithful to realize that God’s word is present and at work in their everyday lives. The faithful should be able to perceive clearly that the preacher has a compelling desire to present Christ, who must stand at the center of every homily. The faithful should be able to perceive clearly that the preacher has a compelling desire to present Christ, who must stand at the center of every homily.”
For this reason, preachers need to be in close and constant contact with the sacred text; they should prepare for the homily through meditation and prayer, in order to preach with conviction and passion. Now, imagine a mass where a hungry soul not only received the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, but is also educated and motivated by a scriptural-sound, profoundly relevant, and Christ-exalting homily. Their commitment to the church remains and they will become motivated to nourish others. For the priest, please prioritize the study of scripture and produce good homilies, our society needs dynamic communicators. You are entrusted to guide the flocks not to confuse them. Be the instrument God wants you to be.
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For comments and suggestion, email me at sensei.adorador@chmsc.edu.ph/WDJ