Better preaching

by Editor · March 5, 2008

Spare a thought for the poor priest who must prepare a homily, often every week, which will not only grab his congregation’s attention, but also communicate matters of faith in a way that is relevant to the Mass readings and to the lives of those to whom it is addressed, to be delivered with enough panache to keep his audience listening.

To some priests, preaching is a joy. They have a natural talent for composing a homily and delivering it in a way that engages their congregations. Some can speak on any given theme off the cuff; others prepare their homily meticulously and rely on their public speaking skills to get their point across.

For many priests, however, putting into words a well-reasoned meditation on the Mass readings is not an effortless task. Some, if they do manage to compose a good homily, encounter difficulty in presenting their text.

The problem is compounded by the busy lifestyle of many priests. With all the distractions of clerical life today, many do not have the requisite time and quietude to reflect fruitfully on a subject for a sermon. It may even be that some priests certainly not a large number have simply stopped caring about the content and quality of their homilies, because they feel that nobody is listening anyway.

It is not a surprise to learn, then, that some priests in Poland and doubtless everywhere in the Catholic world are recycling sermons which other priests have uploaded to the Internet.

Passing off somebody elses work as ones own is plagiarism, and as such is not in accord with ethics or the law. This cannot be condoned, of course.

Yet a priests temptation to borrow somebody elses sermon for a weekend is understandable. On some days of the Church year, that temptation must become acute as a priest struggles to find something fresh to say about, say, Easter or Pentecost.

One may presume that sermons are uploaded to the Internet by their authors for the explicit purpose of communicating the Gospel message, offering inspiration to the reader. There can be no objection when a struggling homilist seeks stimulus from on-line sermons. Surely the authors should be delighted that their writings form the basis of a good homily and that they have helped a brother priest out of a tough spot.

But the key is that on-line sermons must not be appropriated and presented to a congregation as an original work. The ethical dilemma is easily circumvented by adroit paraphrasing and referencing the writer whose ideas one has borrowed. Failure to do so would be lazy and dishonest.

A frequent complaint among the faithful concerns the quality of homilies heard in Southern Africas churches. Such critics tend to take issue with such sermons irrelevance to their lives, misplaced solemnity or mirth, poor delivery, excessive duration (five minutes tops, Fathers!) or lack of preparation.

The faithful and the Church deserve better than that.

It may be desirable, therefore, to encourage priests who struggle with their homiletics to make ethical and responsible use of the rich repository of on-line homilies, so that they can communicate the Gospel message most productively in that short time at Mass when they command the faithfuls attention.