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Frank: When you hear the word "New Evangelization" it can even be more of a problem and a complication.
Particularly because evangelization is like a Rorshach test where people dump into it
their own personal agenda and new evangelization can be even more perverse. Pope Francis has
helped us quite a bit with his Apostolic Exhortation and yet that were broad brush strokes in how
this translates to actual every day priestly activity is not entirely clear let alone activity
on the part of catechists and eucharistic ministers of all sorts. So when we talk about
an evangelizing homily it's a way to talk about evangelization but also a way to help
preachers of what ever type--whether priests deacons or lay people--try and clarify the
element of what is evangelizing about a homily and how a homily can be more evangelizing
or more effective because it's evangelizing. So Bruce and I are going to explore this in
the time that we have. Then we'll take a break and then we'll be looking at our own Sunday
homily activities. And what I'd like to do as I explore this idea is to relate the homily--continuing
Tom's presentation--in the context of the Mass. And then look at all of that with a
specific reference towards conversion. I think that's a distinct link in terms of our own
Paulist charism to try and retrieve and revive and renew aspects of conversion not entirely
as they apply to people who might want to join the Church but as conversion applies
to all of us.
Frank: So if we begin with Emmaus Jesus in this encounter opens up the scripture and
breaks the bread. And in doing that in that Luken account Jesus really is giving us the
two seminal points behind every Eucharist. Every Eucharist is a way of continuing the
walk of Emmaus. And as the second eucharistic prayer for various occasions beautifully puts
it--in the prayer itself--Jesus opens the scripture and breaks the bread for his disciples.
So he continues to do that for us. And so we have the two major components of our liturgical
celebration--the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist or the liturgy of
the table. The liturgy of the Word as most of us who are old and grey know was enormously
truncated in the practice of the Church before the Second Vatican Council. It was of course--if
you missed Mass on Sunday--a mortal sin. But if you got to Mass in time for the offertory
and stayed until the priest gave communion it was only a venial sin. And so it was possible
to think you were celebrating the Eucharist without the Word at all. And so Vatican II
has given us a tremendous achievement in restoring the place of the Word and in effect making
us a people of the Word in a very active and dynamic way. Both Word and Eucharist are inherent
parts of the Eucharist. Each reflects of the importance of the other and each is giving
meaning to the other.
Frank: The Mass is an interactive experience. We as presiders as ministers as lectors or
what have you are guiding people in the process of call and response. The purpose of the Mass
is identity with Jesus Christ in his death and his resurrection. It is a paschal event
and in celebrating the Eucharist through the process of call and response we become identified
once again with the dying and the rising of Jesus and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit
as the whole paschal output of the Mass. The whole Mass is the work of the Spirit acting
in us today. It's interesting to point out to priests and deacons how often we refer
to the Holy Spirit during the Eucharist. Because we have become so primarily Christocentric
that the work of the Holy Spirit is hardly ever consciously alluded to. But the Mass
can be understood as much the work of the Spirit as the work of Jesus.
Frank: From Preaching the Mystery--the US Bishops document--It is Jesus Christ the Word
Incarnate who saves the world through his Death and Resurrection and gives new life
to the world by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit and the homily taking place within
the Mass is furthering exactly this process.
Frank: The Word of God which we proclaim presents Jesus in the context of the Hebrew scriptures.
It presents an initial response of Christ in the Psalm. And as St. Augustine's reflections
show us so often--the Psalms are the words of Christ and also the words of the Church.
They present the impact of Jesus Christ in the earliest followers of Christians which
is usually in the second reading and then present Christ in the gospel. And when we
proclaim Christ in the gospel we do that standing up. Alert. Ready to hear. Almost in the imagery
of Exodus--our loins are girded. Hearing the gospel we are now ready to go.
Frank: So the Word has power in itself. This is enormously important for those of us who
grew up before the Second Vatican Council--very often the power of Catholic preaching was
done through saints. And we sometimes talked about a gospel passage. But mostly we talked
about St. Francis or St. Benedict or---who's the one with the thorn in her head? St. Angela
of this or that...and so we kind of picked up evangelical---Did you know which one that
is Bruce? It's an Italian lady--
Bruce: Angela Merici
Frank: I think it might be Merici
Frank: So we basically picked up evangelical qualities indirectly. What has happened since
the second Vatican Council is that we have direct proclamation of the scriptures in the
vernacular which is engendering in us a whole set of images a whole set of imagination and
a whole set of questions. So just reading the Word of God and reading the Word effectively
is already engaging people in the conversion process.
Frank: People through the reading of the Scripture Sunday by Sunday are being formed with the
mind of Christ. The power of the Scriptures that is already there is enhanced by the homily.
So the homily is a part of the conversion process that begins with the very proclamation
itself. When the Magi come they fall down in adoration at the wonder of the child. This
is evoking in the congregation who am I adoring? What wonder do I see in this child? Jesus
approaches John and John says I should be baptized by you! Jesus says no let it happen
for the sake of righteousness and then the words come down from heaven. What are the
words coming into our lives today? What are the signs of the Holy Spirit today? What is
it that is pleasing the Father today? How are we continuing the baptism of Jesus--those
images are right there in the congregation as soon as the gospel is being read.
Frank: So a key thing about the homily is it's part of the Mass. As Tom was elaborating
yesterday--the homily is an intricate connection in the proclamation of the Word of God and
how the Mass is --- the liturgy of the Word is connecting with the liturgy of the table.
It has an essential part in the whole call and response dynamic. It is bringing home
dimensions of the dying and the rising that is part of the paschal mystery. It is calling
people to decision and commitment or re-decision and recommitment. It is part of an evoking
of the mystery of conversion as that is expressing the death and resurrection of Christ.
Here's from the USCCB bishops' document--- As part of the entire liturgical act the homily
is meant to set hearts on fire with praise and thanksgiving. It is to be a feature of
the intense and privileged encounter with Jesus Christ that takes place in the liturgy.
One might even say that the homilist connects the two parts of the Eucharistic liturgy as
he looks back at the sacred Scriptures and forward to the sacrificial meal.
Frank: This is the document that was mostly written by--- systematic theologians. But
you know--think about this: If you ask people coming out of church on Sunday have you had
a personal encounter with Christ how many would say they had? Has your heart been set
on fire? Have you had an experience of recommitment and conversion? And yet these are exactly
the elements we need to pull out of Sunday and weekday worship in order to understand
the evangelizing impact of what we as Catholics are doing all the time.
Frank: So this call and response--this invitation--this proclamation--this dialogue--and the homily
is helping this conversation move forward. So as Catholics we're blessed---and also other
mainline churches---to have a coherent lectionary. We don't have the preacher kind of open up
his or her favorite section of the scripture and kind of grind the same axe Sunday by Sunday.
The lectionary allows us to address the basic mysteries of Christ's life over three years
in the context of the Hebrew scriptures and the early Christian experience. And it allows
us to think about how we are applying the reading in our lives personally and as a community.
Frank: So the proclamation of the Word of God is already involving us in this dialogue
with Christ. When we look at the Word there are usually two dimensions--interpretation
and application. We are training our seminarians almost entirely in interpretation. Hermeneutics,
exegesis---what is the text saying? What is the text saying in this particular context?
Your form geschikte and your other geschiktes, and your zips and leibens and all this other
stuff. People want to know about application. What is this text saying in relation to the
reality that is our lives today? And to stay on the level of interpretation without moving
to the level of application is--in a way--to frustrate and cheat that assembly. People
are looking for application more than interpretation and often we are only giving them interpretation--exegesis.
Frank: Interesting how our evangelical churches; Pentecostal churches---really focus on application.
They do very little oh this passage means this or this word means that or Isaiah uses
this word in this context----They do very little of that. They're talking about daily
life and then going from daily life very often into the Word of God.
Frank: Interpretation.......We train our people---I hear it among the young guys---I'm getting
ready for the homily. I'm going to look at the commentaries. So we go to the shelf and
we're looking at this or that commentary on the text or what have you. Interpretation
(exegesis) is the guide but not the content for our exposition of the scriptures. Tradition
gives us examples of how the Scriptures can be applied. And even though they're different
then what we do rhetorically today the liturgy of the readings we do so often are brilliant
examples of how these images from the scriptures are applied to the lives of people. What we
read from Augustine-- What we read from the Cappadocians-- some of the readings---particularly
during Holy Week are just astonishing in their ability to help us apply the scriptures. So
I think it's important for us not to be overwhelmed by scholarship. Biblical theories are always
there and every 5 years there's a new interpretation of what the Letter to the Romans means and
that will continue on again and again. So we use scholarship defensively to help us
not distort the scriptures but it is not giving us the content of our preaching.
Frank: Our Catholic tradition gives us a rhetorical background for viewing these texts that we're
reading. It gives us a guide about how texts might be applied in our own daily lives and
provides for a spiritual reading--namely what the texts are telling us in terms of our relationship
with God.
Frank: So what makes the reading of scripture spiritual? It opens up what the text says
about God's relationship to us. It opens up what the text says about our relationship
to God and to each other with reference to God. It helps us see how the text are inviting
us into the Kingdom. And the text help us see the implication of this dying and rising---this
paschal process.
Frank: A homily is evangelizing when it is calling us to conversion. And to conversion precisely in the sense of the paschal mystery.
A homily evangelizes when it invites people to renew their experience of dying and rising.
A homily evangelizes when it brings people to a decisive question and calls for a response.
Frank: So I think this dimension of conversion is a very key part of what we mean when we
talk about an evangelizing homily. That in some way if I can find out in my own life
what the gospel is calling to change--find out through my experience in the parish in
the local church---in my every day life---in the struggles going on all around us--- how
the scriptures are calling for change. Then I begin to sharpen the point of what I am
going to interact with the congregation about on Sunday. How I am going to be an instrument
because of how the gospel has challenged me. How I'm going to be an instrument to bring
about the issue of conversion to my congregation.
Frank: This is the Pope talking about trying to write a homily---
Frank: That's interesting. You read a text and it doesn't move us. WHY doesn't it move
us?
Frank: You can see years of doing the Ignatian Method as he's kind of churning around the
Word of God and what that is evoking in my life. And in my own work in homilizing I'm
often surprised at the kinds of things that emerge during a reading when you're looking
at this---you say gee that never dawned on me before or gee this is a whole other way
to understand this---or this is a whole other thing I'm being called to. Again from the
US bishops----
Frank: So the issue of conversion is a crucial issue for the homilizer just as it is a crucial
issue for the congregation. And this happens through the very human process of rhetoric---which
John Gainey was one of several Paulists who helped us work out ideas of rhetoric.
Frank: Rhetoric---out ability to bring about a realization in the listener. The art and
the skill by which we reach people. The need to engage and to keep people engaged. And
the need to create a bond between the speaker and the listener.
This I think is sometimes hard for preachers to think about. Often when I'm presenting
to priests and deacons---this is a part they DONT want to talk about because you know---how
does that happen?---it happens by working at it! These are human skills. You know---I
often see the younger clergy kinda looking at me---especially when I'm talking about----You
don't have a robot saying the Mass. Everyone who says a Mass is bringing his or her.....well
not her yet.....
Sr. Sarah: A prophetic statement!
Fr. Frank: Thank you.
Frank: Is bringing his experience---his rhetoric, his ability to make a word come alive, what
it means in his life. John Collins gave us a great example of bringing words alive and
how to do that in the way he celebrated Mass yesterday. We all do that. And the same with
our preaching. Our preaching has key rhetorical factors that are very essential. It's not
our job to entertain people but we can't be boring people either. And that is a false
dichotomy. I know Catholic priests very often dismiss all evangelical and kind of free-churches---non
mainline churches as it's just entertainment. We don't entertain people. We give them whatever
it is we're giving them---No, we are often boring people to death because rhetorically
we have not worked on the things you need to work on to effectively present.
Frank: Hmmm! What if we thought about your average Sunday homily out there as a product
of poor quality. As John was saying last night---if I'm not working on the creativity and the
talent and the presentation side---am I not cheating my congregation? And I think we Paulists
kind of rank ourselves fairly high when it comes to creativity and talent etc. We certainly
don't sluff around when it comes to the homily but all of us have got to constantly be working
on those human qualities that allow us to more effectively engage that congregation
during the homiletic period.
Frank: Death and resurrection involve a rhetoric---a rhetoric of reversal. Tom was talking about
this yesterday---Tom Holahan---what he preaches in our little group---it's all about the surprise.
There's a surprise in the text. Death and resurrection are all about surprise. He was
dead. He was murdered. He was crucified in this awful terrible way but now He is risen!
He has appeared to Mary. He has appeared to the apostles. Where's the surprise? And how
do we pull that surprise---how do we pull that reversal out as part of our rhetoric.
There is always a paradox always some crucial point that the gospel is trying to evoke.
And how do we dig that out? How do we see death and resurrection---this great paradox
happening in a rhetoric that we develop. Again from Preaching the Mystery----
Fr. Frank: Again John Collins yesterday---the whole point of preaching is to lead people
into this act of praise and thanksgiving that is the Mass. To lead people to that great
"AMEN". That affirmation of the doxology. Where we commit ourselves with Jesus Christ
completely to the following of the Father.
Frank: And so our preparation for the homily begins in obedience to the text. We have that
great phrase that Paul uses at the beginning of Romans----The obedience of faith---and
obedience both in its Greek hupakoƩ and it's Latin ob-audire----akoƩ---audire---it's a
different form of listening. And that's that contemplative preparation that we do when
we let that text address us. Our reflection has to lead us to the point where the gospel
is calling us to change, to transformation, to dying and rising.
Frank: So do we let that text get to us? Do we let that text be the context of our meditation
throughout the week. If I'm preparing for the Baptism of the Lord how am I seeing the
drama of that moment occurring again and again as a preacher---as a catechist---as a lector---throughout
the week? How am I seeing those dramatic words of Isaiah "people have lived in darkness but
now there is glory all around us" How am I seeing that? How is that text shaping the
way I look at the week? Do we let the text raise basic questions for us? And do we let
the text bring us to a point of response?
Frank: And so this is very much the drama that we have to go through when we are preparing
for a homily that is going to be evangelizing. Are we willing to let
the text convert us?
Obviously quoting from Hebrews---this power of the Word of God to split us in half. To
expose my own hypocrisy and deceit. To talk about once again about how I am not completely
converted or how I have whole dimensions that are unconverted. And to do this vicariously
in my own life as a service to that congregation so that I can help them be pierced by the
Word of God. Because that piercing is not pain---that piercing is freedom and joy and
resurrection through death.
Preaching the Mystery. Again the bishops----
Frank: So from our own Paulist angle---the two poles of Paulist life.... Hecker. Personal
Perfection. Zeal for souls. My own conversion is connected with my ability to be an instrument
for the conversion of others. That these are part of the very same mysteries of conversion
that goes back to Hecker's following of the Holy Spirit. So there is a vicarious role
that preachers have.
Frank: If these questions are not arising in us---if the gospel is not provoking us---we
can hardly expect them to arise in our people. We serve people by vicariously probing the
depths of the word of God in our own hearts and by letting our probing open up their probing.
We also serve them by letting their questions and their pain become ours.
Those of us who have been ordained for awhile---we know what it's like to go to a parish---and
you know, hi, who's this, who's that....etc. After you're in a parish for six months or
a year---you're celebrating the Eucharist differently. Because you're looking at a congregation
whose pain and brokenness---whose struggles and achievements---- you now know. And when
you're looking at that congregation their experience is part of the prayer that you're
making. The same is also true in preaching.
When I see the person whose son was murdered. When I see the man who lost his job. When
I see the mother who can't control her teenager. When I see someone who has just had the birth
of a grandchild. When I see someone whose had---- All these images are floating around
in our heads and become part of our prayer and part of our preaching. So one way to think
about accessing the Word of God--- and I think this also works with small groups--- 4 questions
we can ask ourselves. What's the Word saying in itself---in the passage. In the historical
setting. What's the Word saying to ME personally? What's the Word saying to the Church both
as parish and as universal Church. And what is the Word saying to the world? And by asking
these kinds of questions we can begin to engage the text for precisely the point of its conversion.
Frank: We can never exhaust the Word of God. The Word of God is always evoking more and
more from our lives. Here I probably preached on the three-year cycle--- Let's see. What's
forty divided by three?
>>>Thirteen
Frank: Yeah thirteen times and it's still----I'm still discovering you never read the same
passage. You can't pull out what you had in the drawer three years ago. Because you're
not the same----the congregation is not the same---therefore the Word is not the same!
We never hear the word the same each time we listen. And discipleship is growth on the
journey we are taking in listening to the Word of God. And this is part of standing
in obedience to the text. So a homily is a hinge in the liturgy. It links the Word of
God in that overall pattern of call and response. And it begins to evoke the responses of the
people that will come to the climax in the Eucharistic prayer and in the reception of
communion and in the dismissal. Our homily is advancing the dynamic of the Mass as an
inherent act of call and response. As an inherent act of conversion. And so the hinge between
Word and table is very key to have in our head when we are preparing our homily.
Frank: We all have different styles. And I developed this slide by thinking of different
ones of you as I went down. Some of us are natural story tellers--you know the jokes
just come out the this comes out and the that comes out and we're just very involving. I'm
not a natural story teller. Some of us are natural philosophers and questioners and we
ask this and we ask that---biggest thing in our head is WHY. Some of us are natural moralizers.
When we hear or see something we move right away to the "therefore we SHOULD" and that's
the way our minds organize. Some of us are naturally contemplative. I think Pope Benedict
XVI--- his homilies were basically expressions of contemplation--- namely what is the Word
saying to my soul inside of me so I can grow closer on this journey to God. Some of us
are naturally explosive and provocative. We begin our homily by throwing a hand grenade
and then---watch what happens. And some of us naturally think in terms of social categories.
What's happening in the world, how do we help people, what does this mean in terms of our
outreach to the poor, the neglected, to the sick and what have you.
We all have different strengths that we work from as Tom was talking about and showing
us yesterday. And in a way we naturally default to that strength. But at the same time all
these styles can accomplish the purpose of the liturgy but we can also expand our repertoire.
We can also expand the way we can move from being more thoughtful to being funnier. From
being funnier to being more contemplative. From being more contemplative to being more
social minded.
Frank: And this I think is very very key in terms of the preacher as a membrane--- as
a mirror reflecting back to the congregation their own experience. And so often I think
priests see the rhetorical pattern as here's the preacher. Here's the Church. We have the
culture and we impose it on the assembly. Like there they are and we're giving it to
them. And I think much closer is this interactive process between preacher and assembly so that
the culture, their cultural reality and our proclaiming of the scriptures are intermingling
in the presentation of the homily. I have to be comfortable with my own gifts. I have
to stretch my own gifts. I have to vary my repertoire using a combination of methods
and I have to plumb the outlines of modern culture for links to my congregation. This
I think is very Heckerian that the Spirit is working in the culture---what is the Spirit
saying in terms of the things we have in common as a culture--- movies, sports, songs, our
commonly shared vocabulary, the things that are concerning us--- what's happening in the
news, etc. So as a preacher my agenda--- to be emblematic of my congregation. To open
myself to the Word of God. To let the Word of God ask me its deepest questions. To be
willing to let that Word change me. And to help my congregation experience and celebrate
change in their own lives. To make conversion what I am most aware about and to help my
congregation be aware of conversion in their own lives.
Frank: What is the beauty that I can evoke? Through my language, through my rhetoric,
through my reference of what's happening in the culture---through the beauty that I see
in my congregation that I can reflect back to them. What is the reality that I can do
in service to my congregation. So as preacher I am helping the congregation be a part of
the Eucharist Assembly on helping them be themselves because the Word of God will ask
of people ever deeper responses of faith.
And with that my time is ended and I'm gonna let Bruce come up.