Spirituality: Preaching at Mass

For next week, think about these questions:

 

We know that the church and society are polarized. What might please us in a homily may anger another person or make them feel disconnected and disengaged. Some people like to hear about Pope Francis’s reforms of the church, while others will receive that news as a dagger to their dreams. We also have people who are in the 80’s and 90’s and are facing the late stages of life, while seven- and eight-year-olds are trying to find something interesting in what the priest says. We have young people looking for beauty and mystery, and middle-aged people looking for the blessings of the ordinary. We have people who are sick, getting ready for surgery, and those who are starting new jobs and careers. We have women and men who have not found a suitable person to be one’s spouse at the same time that we have young parents celebrating the pregnancy of their first child. There are people in the congregation with PhD’s and those who have not finished high school. Some have studied theology; others basically skipped Confirmation classes. We have people who are eager to learn from the congregation about this person, Jesus, who they just met, while others are virtually done with the church, and still others have been brought to church though they have no foundational faith in their background. We have those who are wealthy, white, like-minded, as well as those who are black or brown, discriminated against, and placed on the margins of society. Some people have mental illness, are nearly homeless, have addictions to alcohol and drugs, while others hold position of status and prestige in society and are quite generous to many causes. Many other categories of people sit in the pews. 

 

The question is: How does one preach?

 

A hermeneutic I use is:

 

                                                Does my preaching reach a person who is hearing about Jesus for the first time? 

                                                Does my preaching reach a person who will hear about Jesus for the last time? 

 

How does one preach to reach these different categories of people?

 

What should Catholic preaching focus upon?

 

What makes the preaching Catholic? What should a priest say in his homily? What should we tell our local priest we want to hear?

 

And, of course, the purpose of the homily is to move a person to deeper faith, increased holiness, to form a bond with God and the community.

 

Let’s discuss our thoughts.