Good preaching: Its that important

BY MARGARET MOLLETT

Sporadic letters to the editor and news items in The Southern Cross, and also in other publications, suggest that it is unclear what exactly Catholics expect of a good homily. Unfortunately there is no consensus on the standard of what may be considered as good preaching in the Church, nor on how important it really is in the life of the Church. Even if a petition for better homilies was circulated, to whom would it be addressed?

A priest delivers his homily at Mass. (Photo: Nancy Wiechec, CNS)

Directives are a-plenty, the latest being Benedict’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010) in which he calls for an “improvement in the quality of homilies” and warns against “generic and abstract homilies” and “useless digressions”.

While Verbum Domini is inspiring and motivational, it does not explain why “poor preaching” has become a distinguishing characteristic of Catholic liturgy. Priests themselves would say they are too busy, or that congregants don’t listen to their homilies anyway. They fidget, look around, and even go for a stroll. In return the congregants themselves will have a list of complaints.

To perpetuate, however, the demeaning and demoralising notion that Catholic priests cannot preach and that this shortcoming must simply be tolerated or joked about is inconsistent with the high standards required for the liturgy as a whole.

In the first of a series of six articles I suggest that the reason for inadequate preaching may be found in how Catholics perceive the role of the priest, and the sacraments.

A remark by the French Nobel laureate François Mauriac’s remark is revealing: “The priest is the man who first gives me forgiveness then places the host in my mouth.” He continues to say that the priest should “give him God and not speak about him”.

That God’s voice speaks to us through the minister of the Word at Mass is hard to comprehend. Indeed better that the Word speaks for itself and the preacher bow out. Maybe we believe with Mauriac that all we need are our regular God-shots, so to speak, and not all this talk about him. Yet, as theologians put it: “God is the principal cause of preaching; the preacher the instrumental cause.”

It may be found that preachers are only too pleased if another substitutes for them and congregants are as pleased if there is a five-minute or shorter homily (better still not one at all). Preacher and congregants have still to reach the point of an “aha experience”, a moment of illumination which is nothing less than a sacramental encounter, therefore hardly secondary and disposable, but rather that important.

However, it will take more than an occasional prod to get to that point; it will take nothing less than a shared passion for the Bible; one that ripens as preachers cannot contain themselves in speaking about God and listeners cannot contain themselves in desiring to hear God spoken about, while placing equal value on receiving Holy Communion.

Church documents give the right reasons and recommendations for the improvement of biblical preaching, but they cannot ensure that implementation of these is not left to chance. The onus rests on Catholic educators and preachers themselves to counter a whimsical and indifferent attitude with one of earnestness and enthusiasm. Initiatives and developments in this regard need to be widely publicised by Catholic media.

Glimpses into the preaching of St John Chrysostom, St Augustine, Archbishop François Fénelon, Cardinal John Henry Newman and Archbishop Fulton Sheen project hope for that often barren space wedged between the Gospel and the Creed.  We learn from these preachers that the preaching event happens at the intersection of the vertical axis of divine inspiration, biblical exegesis, contemplation and prayer—and the horizontal axis of communication science in all its facets.

Dr Margaret Mollett is an independent writer and researcher. She lives in Piketberg, Western Cape. This is the first article in a series of six on preaching. In next month’s column she will discuss St John Chrysostom, the “Golden Mouth”.