The Priest at Prayer, June 21

The Priestly Ministry

Preaching

Second Meditation - Practical Points on Preaching

I. Who has to preach? Out of justice, according to canon 1327 [1917 Code], the obligation rests with bishops, unless they are legitimately impeded; and it is also their duty to enlist the services of suitable preachers, besides parish priests, to help them to perform this ministry of the Word in their dioceses in a becoming manner.

Parish priests, administrators and others of similar standing are also bound to preach, ratione beneficii, and they will offend God grievously and jeopardise their eternal salvation if they omit to preach for what grave authors consider a notable length of time.

O Sovereign Judge of the living and the dead! How many priests hast Thou rejected forever from Thy eternal dwellings for the crime of having refused Thy children the bread of the divine Word which was theirs by right of justice? How many villages, towns and counties have lost the Faith or have grown lukewarm and forgotten the fear of God, because they never heard the voice of their shepherds!

But though you may not be strictly bound to this task, if you have the canonical faculties, and if God has not entirely withheld from you the gift of per­suasion, offer yourself, within the limits of your ability and your position, as an angel of the good tidings, keep­ing in mind the great reward:

They that instruct many to justice shall shine as stars for all eternity. (Dan. xii, 3)

He that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. v, 19)

II. What should be preached? O Jesus, Model and Exemplar of the Gospel preacher, enlighten me; do not allow me to tarnish the chair of Truth - the only Truth that saves - with futile discourses of pretentious know­ledge, whether human, profane, or frivolous, or perhaps even mundane and diabolical! Lord, Thou dost never deprive me of enlightenment, unless I wish otherwise, because the guiding lights shine in the Church's com­mands:

Canon 1344, 1: ". . . it is the duty of the parish priest to preach to the people the Word of 90d in the customary homily."

Canon 1345: "It is to be desired that in all churches and public oratories where people assist at Holy Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obli­gation a short explanation of the holy Gospel, or on any other point of Christian doctrine, be given to the people."

Canon 1349: "The Ordinaries should insist that the parish priests have a mission given to their parishioners at least once in ten years. The parish priests, not excluding those of Religious Orders, are held to obey the Ordinary's regulations concerning these missions."

Canon 1347: "In sacred sermons there should be explained above all else the things the faithful must believe and practice in order to save their souls. Preachers of the Word of God should abstain from profane arguments. . . not preaching them­selves, but Christ crucified."

As if this were not enough, the Council of Trent will help us out with more detailed explanations:

". . . teaching the things that all must know for salvation, and announcing to them with brevity and simplicity of speech the vices they must turn away from and the virtues they must pursue, in order to escape eternal punishment and be able to obtain heavenly glory."
-(Sess. V. de Reformat., c. ii.)

"During the celebration of Mass let them ex­pound something of what is read therein, and declare, among other things, some of the mysteries of this most holy Sacrifice."­
-(Sess. xii de Sacrif. Miss., c. viii.)

"Let them explain, and have explained, to the people the efficacy and use of the Sacraments, and also instill into the hearts of all both the Sacred Scriptures and salutary warnings, leaving aside questions which serve no useful purpose; and let them endeavour to instruct the people in the law of the Lord."
-(Sess. xxiv de Reformat., c. vii.)

And following the mind of the above-mentioned Council, the catechism of Pius V, called also the Council of Trent Catechism has this to say:

"Greater care and diligence will have to be shown so as to enable the faithful to know and grasp the meaning of the ceremonies accompanying the administration of each of the Sacraments." (Part II, I6)

III. This, then, is the sum of what I, as a priest, can and ought to preach to the people from the pulpit, from the altar, and from wherever else I exercise the ministry of the Word: the Gospel, Catholic dogma, vices to eschew, virtues to practise, the Mass and the Sacra­ments with their deep mysteries and attendant cere­monies.

This is what is contained in the words verbum Dei. And since the life histories of the Saints are but a practical confirmation of these truths, there is also a place for panegyrics; and the Fathers themselves, in the panegyrics they preached, took occasion to explain some point of faith or morals.

O Jesus, imprisoned in the Tabernacle of Thy churches, surely it is a torment to Thee to listen to those who call themselves divini verbi praecones, heralds of the divine Word; to listen to doctrine which is so different from, and perhaps even opposed to, Thine own! Couldst Thou not say to the people, gathered to­gether so eagerly very often, what the Prophet said in his Lamentations?

Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee: and they have not laid open thy iniquity, to excite thee to penance: but they have seen for thee false revelations and banishments. (Lam. ii, 14)

Have I been one of those false prophets? Have I been one of those who consider the Word of God not good enough for their flights of oratory, or of those who, while recognising its worth, wish to play to the gallery or win applause or line their pockets(*) by pandering to the fads and fashions of the hour, fearing otherwise to lose prestige?

IV. When must I preach? If piety were the very life of my life, and the salvation of souls my one ambition, I should have little difficulty in fulfilling St. Paul's stem command:

"I adjure thee in the sight of God, and of Jesus Christ, who is to be the judge of living and dead, in the name of his coming and of his kingdom: preach the word, dwelling upon it continually, wel­come or unwelcome; bring home wrongdoing, comfort the waverer, rebuke the sinner, with all the patience of a teacher." (II Timothy iv, 1-2.)

"Welcome or unwelcome" - opportune, importune - ­an expression used nowhere else in Holy Writ, and a reminder that when it is a question of announcing the Word of God human expediency is not to govern us; it is always in season.

Would you say this was an exaggeration? If you have ever allowed politics, patriotism, or any other passionate cause, to grip you, you know what little you thought of "opportuneness" when it was a matter of commun­icating your ideas.

But there are certain times when the Church im­poses on Her priests the duty of preaching, a duty sub gravi in se, and sub levi ex parvitate materiae:

Canon 1344, 1: "On Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation throughout the year it is the duty of the parish priest to preach to the people the Word of God in the customary homily, especially during the Holy Mass in which the attendance of the people is usually more numerous."

Canon 1346: "Local Ordinaries shall attend to it that during the Lenten season, and also, if they judge it useful, during Advent, sermons are more frequently given in the Cathedral and parochial churches. "

To which must be added the preaching of missions at least every ten years, and the Church's desire that there should be a brief explanation of the Gospel or some doctrinal point in all churches and public oratories where Mass is said on Sundays and Days of Obliga­tion.

Have I by any chance incurred God's grievous Anger by omitting one or other of those official duties of mine during a considerable period? Have I sinned venially by omitting them occasionally without an adequate excuse? And even though neither office nor benefice obliged me, could I not have easily, and dozens of times, fallen in with the Church's motherly desire that during every Mass of Obligation the faithful hear the Gospel or Christian doctrine? Could I not at least have preached while another priest said the Mass? Why should the people, in their eagerness to hear the Word of God, have to run off to novenas and triduums where, very often, they get little more than sound and fury?

V. How must I preach? In the pulpit I can be elegant, most elegant, like an Augustine or a Chrysostom, so long as I adhere to the beautiful and terse rule given to preachers by Pius XI.

"Don't reel things off from memory; don't read; don't declaim - speak!"

And when one speaks he tries, if he is in his sane mind, to make himself understood and to draw his listeners' attention.

Above all, I must strictly observe, when in front of a congregation, canon 1347-2; which is full of heavenly wisdom:

"Preachers of the Word of God should abstain from profane arguments or arguments so deep as to exceed the common understanding of their hearers; and they should not exercise the evan­gelical ministry with skilled words of human wisdom, nor with a profane demonsttation of vain and ambitious eloquence, but in the power and strength of the Spirit of God, not preaching them­selves, but Christ crucified."

When God and men were expecting to hear eternal truths from my lips, and to see me taking the part of "herald" of the great King and announcer of Christ crucified, have I in the pulpit descended to the low category of a pander or a kind of spiritual procurer? If so, the curse uttered by Ezechiel would be most appropriate:

Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow and make pillows for the heads of persons of every age to catch souls: and when they caught the souls of my people, they gave life to their souls! (Ez. xiii,18)

Sew cushions under every elbow with my soothing words of flattery! Soft pillows for every head! I would allow souls to slumber in their sins, cradled by my soft-caressing "eloquence"! I would cast a net round souls for their destruction, in order to nourish my own shadowy reputation of a popular preacher!

Dear Lord! Would it not be better to be struck dumb or to tear my tongue out?

Resolution
Besides observing in every point the above-quoted canons of the Code and of common sense, I shall earnestly apply myself to the study of Religion exactly as I have to preach it to the people, until I have a thorough grasp of it, sorted out ideas, given them definite shape in my own mind, and have become com­petent in the art of concise, lively, and energetic expos­ition.

O Jesus, Model of sacred preachers! Add to my efforts what it is Thine alone to give, because only from Thy Heart does it flow: that divine quality which no secular orator ever knew, that evangelical unction deriv­ing from the Unction for which Thou art named "The Christ," "The Anointed." The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore He hath anointed me." (Luke iv, 18)

(*) In English-speaking countries circumstances are usually
different, (Trans.)
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!