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| Let's have homilies that are brilliant, not boring |
Whether
at home in Dhaka or abroad, I attend Holy Mass every Sunday unless sickness or
an urgent duty requires my attention.
My
fidelity to Mass is not a response to any Church mandate. I would not call
myself a traditional or a particularly devout Catholic.
For me,
it is a spontaneous inner call to spend an hour or so with God and listen to
His words, to rejoice over the good things in my life, to find solace for
earthly pain and to receive encouragement to face future challenges.
Too
often, however, I find myself in a miserable situation – as many others in the
pews next to me do – because priests continue to fail in their duties as
preachers to deliver an inspiring and thoughtful homily.
There
is growing discontent among Bangladeshi Catholics over the quality of the
preaching during Mass, which as a result has become a burden rather than a joy
to attend.
Homilies
these days comprise either well-worn retellings of the Gospels or the random
thoughts of a particular priest. This is not simply unprofessional but also a
failure in one of the signal duties of a shepherd of the Church.
They
fail to imitate Jesus’ duty to the poor, hungry and worn-out crowds who
followed him from the mountains to the sea to hear his words. Our priests run
out of fuel while trying to offer spiritual nourishment to those in such
desperate need of it.
I feel
badly for myself, but worse for others, who take great pains to carve time out
of their day for Mass before or after office hours, and on Sunday – a workday
in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Priests
should use their homilies as a tool to explain the Gospels to the congregation
in a way that is precise and specific. Parishioners are not abstractions. They
are flesh-and-blood people with real joys and sorrows, and they seek honest
answers to serious questions that have dogged believers of every age.
Why do
bad things happen to good people? Why does evil seem to hold the upper hand
over good?
If a
doctor fails to prescribe the proper medication or treatment for a patient, his
reputation will suffer, patients will go elsewhere and he may even face legal
consequences.
This is
not the case with priests, of course.
Most
Catholics remain devoted and hopeful that things will improve. They continue to
endure banal preaching but make no effort to confront the issue by demanding
better nourishment.
Over
the many years that I have attended Mass, I have discovered two principal
causes for bad preaching.
First,
many priests seem to feel that what they were taught decades ago in seminary
should still suffice. They remain ignorant either to significant developments
in theology and homiletics, or to the changes and challenges of modern life.
Second,
they seem to spend much more time examining their own needs, experiences or
concerns, and then projecting them onto their audience – in effect, telling
their parishioners what they should be concerned about rather than equipping
them with Gospel-based guidance on real-life challenges.
Our
priests need to come down from their ivory towers and get a good look at life
as it is lived in the back streets, markets and humble homes of the People of
God.
They
should be inquisitive about the lives, joys and sorrows of the people God has
put in their care. They should be curious about the world and eager to explain
in compelling ways how the Gospel remains sufficient for every crisis in an age
of multiplying crises. They should be eager to help their flocks find the
answers to increasingly complex questions.
I am
not arguing that all priests must rise to the rhetorical level of such noted
orators as US President Barack Obama, but they should at least employ the
humility and love of St John Marie Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests.
Our
priests are mediators between God and His people. Their role is to communicate
the wonder and joy of faith and the deep love between God and his creation.
So they
should be ever mindful of the great responsibility of this office and remember
that Mass is not a moribund ritual. It is the feeding of a hungry flock that is
desperate for real, substantial and informed guidance.
The Third Eye is the pseudonym of a journalist and commentator
based in Dhaka
