2022: Homily, not Harm-ily.

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We in the Ordinariate are so blessed with excellent preachers! Alas, our saintly kin in diocesan circles are too often saddled with homilists who, it seems, delight in every fad, delivering sermons with gimmicks or by soaring with highly affected voices that merely accentuate the insult of strange or flaccid content. Saintly kin, because their ability to survive the regular Sunday assault on their collective intelligence is worthy of respect.

Even during these sobering coronavirus times when one could imagine clergy having time to apply themselves to the relief of study, one still frequently hears from diocesan Catholics who lament their exposure to (facepalm) goofy sermons. More than a few diocesan pewsitters in our neck of the woods are attending Ordinariate Masses and finding sustenance, which is swelling our ranks. Unfortunately, diocesan clergy, rather than understand the reason behind the effect, choose to characterize the defections as sheep stealing instead of acknowledging the free choice of defectors pursuing authentic spiritual nourishment. Sometimes the truth stings.

The following list is a response to concerns on behalf of our diocesan brethren.

Diocesan preachers, preach well the Gospel!

1. Speak the truth about the human condition and provide ageless wisdom to help your flocks avoid the quicksand that traps people in self-centeredness. Human nature is fallen - so help your people discover the only One Who can lift us up - Jesus Christ the Lord!
2. Stop riffing on the same pop (corny, pseudo-psychology) topics that everyone knows about. People need substance.
3. Stop trying to keep up with the times. The "times" are an ever shifting field of quicksand.
4. Stop trying to make people feel good about themselves because, frankly, you are not that good at it. 
5. Skip the vapid rhetoric that sounds like you just read the latest issue of Vanity Fair or The Atlantic. Draw from the font of the daily Divine Office. Yes, you're supposed to be praying the Office everyday!
6. Give your people the lives of the saints! Stop the agonizingly stupid attempts at humour that only serve to illustrate how much in need you are of a deep and cleansing immersion in Catholicism 101.

As for us laity, in whatever kind of situation we might find ourselves, let's support our priests with constructive feedback. Look for the good; gently challenge the bad. Let us support priests and deacons with prayer and kindness, and let us invite our clergy to preach with dignity and with faithfulness to the Magisterium. One might even forward to one's pastor a link to a sermon by Saint John Henry Newman with a brief note explaining why it is, to your mind, a grace-filled edifying homily. Assuming, that is, your mind is not content with fluff and you are able to recognize excellence.

What would Saint John Henry Newman preach?

Father John McCloskey has a few comments that further define the context:

https://www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com/heart-to-heart-preaching-bl-john-henry-cardinal-newman-in-the-pulpit-by-fr-john-mccloskey/

For a minute let’s imagine what Bl. John Henry would have thought if he were moved in a H.G. Wells time machine from the church of the Brompton Oratory to a typical Catholic parish in the U.S. in the year 1975 (2022?). There he would encounter 10-minute amplified homilies (what is that?), talking in Church, applause, and guitar masses with their childish tunes and saccharine lyrics. He would see the priest assuming the role of emcee, facing the people, adding his own words to the Canon of the Mass, and venturing out from the altar into the congregation, possibly dressed as a clown, to shake hands. And the list goes on.

It is all too painful to contemplate, and at this juncture almost difficult to believe that most of us lived through it. Happily John Henry did not witness this, or perhaps he would have apostatized back to the Anglican community he had left in 1846.

Newman was quite possibly the greatest Catholic preacher in English in the history of the Church up to this day. In my opinion he achieves this ranking not only because of the effect his preaching had on congregations (and readers of his sermons) in his own time, but also because of his enormous influence on the other great preachers we are examining in this seminar, i.e., Msgr. Ronald Knox and Venerable Fulton Sheen. These men were great preachers, but with all their talents and all their particular gifts, there is in their own preaching perhaps something somewhat derivative of Newman’s writing and his sermons, which they had undoubtedly read and, consciously or not, allowed to play at least a role in their own writing’s content and style.

Father McCloskey draws his brief (2014) essay to a close with the following instruction:

Finally, as to the writing or delivery of sermons, Newman said that the great thing is to have your subject distinctly before you: to think it over until you have it perfectly in your head; to take care that it should be one subject, not several; to sacrifice every thought however good and clever which does not tend to bring out the one point, and to aim earnestly and supremely to bring home that!

Amen!