A Georgia Catholic Priest's Homily on People that Criticize Homilies

Option C, a fellow Convert, has a great post Before You Criticize the Homily…. That post has a small pfd file of a Georgia (the state not the country) Catholic Priest's homily he gave on the Feast of St Peter and Paul just a few weeks ago. This homily is circulating in his area, It is quite good and I would go to his post and read it. In fact it should be distributed a good bit

Wait you are saying faithful readers, you (meaning Opinionated Catholic have criticized some homilies in general in the past ) Mr Holier than Thou. Yes I have and more on that at the end of the post.

A few excerpts here and again not only do I encourage you to read it but to email it to your friends.

First I had to laugh at how he opens his Homily:

One time while in the seminary visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, I sat within earshot of two
women who, I presumed, met while on pilgrimage. As they sat together looking up at the two magnificent statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, they began to compare the sad state of affairs
of their home parishes, namely their priests. One woman said, “We can’t even understand our priest, all he does is get up, mumble some trite, mundane homily, never smiles, never puts any energy
into them and then goes and sits down.” “You’re lucky,” said the other women, “we call our
pastor ‘ether breath’ because when he starts speaking, the whole congregation falls asleep.”
One of the women looked up again at the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul and said, almost
wistfully, “Oh, if only our priest’s homilies had the fire of St. Peter and the passion of St. Paul.”

Now Father does not mention this in his homily ,but this really funny in a way especially as to the part I just bold ed

At the risk of getting a cease and desist from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops let me quote from the Book of Acts here:

On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to them because he was going to leave on the next day, and he kept on speaking until midnight.
There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered, and a young man named Eutychus who was sitting on the window sill was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Once overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and when he was picked up, he was dead.
Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and said as he embraced him, "Don't be alarmed; there is life in him."
Then he returned upstairs, broke the bread, and ate; after a long conversation that lasted until daybreak, he departed. And they took the boy away alive and were immeasurably comforted.

Needless to say regardless what the good ladies think , Paul was not always Mr Dynamic it appears. I also think this section touches on perhaps something else that Father hits on in his Homily. It is not clear to me that the Young man "broke the break" or if he was nursing a concussion downstairs . But if he did go to "Mass" it shows Father's later point.

Father makes these points that among many caught my eye:

You see, rare is the priest who is gifted in all areas. And so before you charge into criticism of the
poor sermons you have heard, consider the weekly crucifixion it
must be for the priest who knows he is not a gifted speaker or homilist and yet must preach
week after week anyway.

I think that is a good point.

He states elsewhere :

there is only one gift, one gift, that you may in justice demand of your priests, and that is holiness.
All other gifts are simply the gift of grace from the Holy Spirit. So, if you find yourself chronically discontent with
preaching and constantly complaining to others, then please ask yourself these
questions:

* Do you arrive at Mass early, do
you pray before Mass, or do you
rush in late and leave early,
disgusted you have not received
more from your monumental
efforts?

* Do you struggle to pay
attention to the Scriptures read
at Mass or do you ever bother to
prepare for Mass by
familiarizing yourself to the
Sunday readings earlier in the
week?

* Do you pray for the priest as
he begins his homily or do you
sit there in cold arrogance
daring him to either entertain
you or mess up so you can
continue your running tally week
after week?

Let me say we can all be reminded of this. A lot of this is on my mind today even more because our pretty young priest had a stroke (please keep this man in you prayers). Thankfully it was be a light one and after a few weeks it appears he will be slowly getting back in the saddle. Thanks be to God!!

He has four churches , plus the prisons, plus the nursing homes in three North Louisiana Parishes (what everyone outside Louisiana calls Counties) . He also I suspect a rather large migrant community no doubt that are in the shadows he must attend too. However one recalls how luckily we are to have these men in my Diocese of Shreveport where we have a shortage of priests.

One recalls , and I thought about this at Mass today because of Father Stroke, how important the speaking of a priest is. I have not checked this out but I am pretty sure the priest cannot Sign Language the Mass. The Priest cannot Sign Language or grunt or nod his way when giving Absolution in Confession. When the Priest say This is my Body or I absolve you etc. he must speak those words. That is something incredible to think about. Especially in my case when this particular priest has been such a GREAT help for me in the confessional recently

Hearing those words "I absolve you" though I am hearing Father's Mark's voice I know that at that moment it is Christ doing it. It puts his homilies (which are very good) or any priests homilies in the proper viewpoint. It shows me how blessed I am in the stick to have a priest at all. I mean look at China and other places in the world

On this topic, imagine for a second how scary a serious stroke is for a Priest himself. It must be like a airline pilot losing his eyesight. I once knew a very Holy Franciscan priest at my College (I think he is back in Chicago) that related to me in our RCIA Class what it was like when he lost his voice for several months after a illiness. It was time of testing for him to say the least.

Moving on

Father touches on a important point later when he says:

In the Middle Ages, Catholics had the custom of running from church to church to gaze on the
host elevated at Mass. Today Catholics rush from parish to parish in order to find the preacher and liturgy that inspires and entertains them the most. “Who’s saying the Noon Mass?” is a frequent call in most rectories.
This is a strange question since everyone knows that answer, which is, a Catholic priest will be celebrating all the Masses. My friends… my question to you is: “Have we lost a sense of what, in all places, the Mass is? For the Mass, after all, is the renewal of Christ’s loving sacrifice, the sacrament of His real presence, the wonder-working grace that shapes us all into the family of His Father.

So I dare ask you, what more do you want? Let me tell you honestly, any parish, any personal faith based on the preaching or personality of a priest, rather that on Christ’s Eucharistic Presence and His Sacrificial Love for us is
bound to crumble and fall, for faith without substance is a lie.

Let me say I am tad guilty of this. However when I have done this it was often because the other priest was a flaming liberal that sort of mocks the teaching of the Church or preaching something 180 degrees opposite it. More often I am made that call because the priest was making the MASS his own personal production so full of liturgical abuses one wonders how illicit can it be be before you should walk out. So I am guilty as charged on that too a certain extent.

But Father points I list above and the numerous other he makes are valid.

He ends his very good homily with this:

So, dear people, my dear friends in Christ, I ask you, let all of us turn our criticisms, our comments, and our emails into prayers, sacrifices and fasting for the holiness of the clergy, and then I believe you will get the
fire of St. Paul and the passion of St. Peter in the homilies you are yearning for from the pulpit.

I think that if a very fair point. As he pointed out earlier "“Poor preaching is God’s curse on a congregation that does not pray.”

Now what about my past criticisms of Priest's Homilies in general. First before I make them on this blog or in general I will re read this homily.

There is a flip side here of course. I suspect that if the above priest got no emails on his sermons he would not like that. At least people are paying attention.

But I am standing on my past criticisms as a general manner that I have observed after many years a convert .

I think that concerned Catholics should in a diplomatic way and gentle way nudge their priests perhaps into thinking of some things. My criticism have little to do with style or excitement. In fact it has little to do with the priest's ability to make a important doctrine understandable. I am not getting all upset if the Priest cannot explain the Third person of the Trinity all the time so the laity gets its. As we saw on Saturday not everyone can be Pope Benedict as to that topic. See my post from Saturday Benedict Explains the Holy Spirit with the Help of Augustine to Youth at World Youth Day Vigil (Full text and Pics of Vigil with the young people )

I can think of a Priest in this Diocese that is very Faithful ,VERY HOLY, and gives great informative homilies. He is not Mr Excitement but if the person in the pews can't pick up on the nuggets of wisdom he is giving they need to do Father 's above steps for the complaining laity.

That is when we are dealing because of a couple of decades of bad CCD a pretty bad educated Laity it is helpful that:

(1) When something Catholic is the News for the spiritual help of the Catholics themselves ,and to arm themselves against the questions they will get from Non Catholics to briefly hit at least the main points of doctrine x. For instance when the Pope came to town or when John Paul the II died I got a ton of questions on what all this Pope stuff was. It is helpful if Catholics get a refresher course for about 5 minutes

(2) When the Readings hit unique Catholic themes (The Papacy, The Real Presence, The Mass Mary, The Saints, Any of the Seven Sacraments , purgatory, and issues of Salvation touching on the "Are You Saved Question) then it would be great if he could t go "LOOK Despite what all your Evangelical neighbors are saying it is indeed in the Bible!!!" Our Faith is Biblical!! I am not expecting a Scott Hahn like apologetic lecture on all these points every Sunday when a scripture reading hits on one of these topics. But just a brief mention would be great. So many Catholics leave the faith because of bad information by well meaning Evangelcials and others

(3) In Father's above homily he says as to the laity:

In controversial matters, we
critique the Church’s teaching
with our opinions such as “That
isn’t fair,” “It’s my body,” or
“Who is the Church to tell me
what I can and cannot do?”,
rather than let Christ’s Bride
shape our opinions.

Let me say I sometimes think we do not touch on the controversial matters enough. I know it is full of headaches but for instance issues of birth Control, issues of a all male priesthood, the Church teaching on homosexuality , on marriage etc need to be talked about so at least the Catholic laity knows the Churches position and have to grapple with it.

IF they reject it or get a into a huff that is their problem . At the very least it gives us Catholic in the pews that are trying to stay true to the tough Church teaching a feeling that yes the we are not freaks of nature and it is a bit of encouragement from the pulpit.We need that.

That being said I am printing this out ,and if I am a Church and my mind starts wandering or I get into complaining mode I am pulling out this homily. Then as Father suggests pray for the holiness of the clergy