The Art of Preaching
One of the key features of the pontificate of Francis is the daily homily he delivers at Mass at the Casa Sancta Marta. If you follow the Vatican Radio Facebook page, as I do, you will get little snippets each day from these homilies. Preaching, for the Holy Father, is clearly of fundamental importance; it is not necessarily an event restricted to Sundays. He has his own particular style of preaching, as did Benedict XVI before him, and undoubtedly all the Popes before have had, and in the future will have.
One of the fruits to come from the Synod on the Word of God during Pope Benedict’s pontificate–and perhaps one of many fruits to come from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium–has been the recent approval and publication by Pope Francis of the so-called ‘Homiletic Directory’. The document seeks to emphasise not only the importance of the homily given by the priest or deacon at Mass and at other liturgies, but also some guidelines to help pastors preach effectively. According to the Holy See Press Office, the document is split into two parts: the first devotes attention to the liturgical setting of the homily, and its nature and function; the second focuses its attention on the ‘ars praedicandi’–the ‘art of preaching’–which aims to give pastors some guidelines on how to prepare and deliver a homily in different contexts. The Holy Father, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelli Gaudium, also raised the importance of the homily ‘which calls for serious attention by pastors’.
Any Dominican will tell you that the homily is only one instance of preaching. A key component of our lives as Dominicans is the desire to study and to pray, and to share the fruits of those exercises with the world through preaching. This takes place, of course, at Mass, but also in many other contexts. For example, there are brothers who have written books covering a wider range of theological topics, aimed at reaching different audiences. We also have blogs, like Godzdogz and Torch, where we try to reach a vast number of people through the Internet. These are only two examples of the way we preach as English Dominicans. Preaching is serious business. Our Blessed Lord said of Himself: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” We inherit the commission given by Him to His disciples to preach the Good News to the ends of the earth. The world is thirsting for Truth, but more often than not is seeking it in the wrong places.
Preaching must always be about Our Lord. It is not an opportunity to flaunt one’s rhetorical skills, or to advance or propound one’s political or social views. The Good News is that through Christ salvation has been made possible for all: no exceptions! This needs to be communicated to people in a way that may be truly heard, accepted, and followed. There is no room for diluting or distorting the truth: what is the point? It is the Truth that people ultimately desire.
The Dominicans of the Province of St Joseph (USA) have put together a fine video entitled, The Art of Preaching, which I recommend to you. It makes use of previously unseen video footage of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen talking about preaching, and the need for good preachers. From the video it is clear he was distressed by the quality of preaching he had encountered. No doubt we have all had that experience.
We should remember that whilst the homily is the appropriate place set aside in the Liturgy for preaching, we–all of us as members of the Body of Christ, the Church–are called to preach wherever we find ourselves in life. The Dominicans take this particularly to heart, and through our preaching in its varied forms, seek to help you in this shared endeavour.
