In our Parish, the Pastor on Sundays just repeats what has been read from the Bible and makes just a few moralistic considerations. We need, and i think that we deserve, a more solid food for our minds and our hearts. ANNA.

-- Anna Law (thlemax@yahoo.com), May 30, 2000

Answers

It is hard to say without being a witness to what you have heard, Anna, but I think that you may very well be right.

During the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the bishops of the world issued their first of sixteen documents in 1963 -- the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. In it are found the following excerpts:

"Therefore the Church announces the good tidings of salvation to those who do not believe, so that all men may know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and may be converted from their ways, doing penance. To believers also the Church must ever preach faith and penance, she must prepare them for the sacraments, teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded, and invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate. For all these works make it clear that Christ's faithful, though not of this world, are to be the light of the world and to glorify the Father before men." [from #9]

"The sermon, moreover, should draw its content mainly from scriptural and liturgical sources, and its character should be that of a proclamation of God's wonderful works in the history of salvation, the mystery of Christ, ever made present and active within us, especially in the celebration of the liturgy." [from #35]

"52. By means of the homily the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text, during the course of the liturgical year; the homily, therefore, is to be highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself; in fact, at those Masses which are celebrated with the assistance of the people on Sundays and feasts of obligation, it should not be omitted except for a serious reason."


In the front of the Sacramentary (the large book on the altar), you can find a document called the "General Instruction of the Roman Missal." In it are found the following directives to us and to the priest:

"The readings must therefore be listened to by all with reverence; they make up a principal element of the liturgy. In the biblical readings, God's word addresses all people of every era and is understandable to them, but a living commentary on the word, that is, the homily, as an integral part of the liturgy, increases the word's effectiveness." [from #9]

"41. The homily is an integral part of the liturgy and is strongly recommended: it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should develop some point of the readings or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day, and take into account the mystery being celebrated and the needs proper to the listeners."
"42. There must be a homily on Sundays and holydays of obligation at all Masses that are celebrated with a congregation. It is recommended on other days, especially on the weekdays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter season, as well as on other feasts and occasions when the people come to church in large numbers. The homily should ordinarily be given by the priest celebrant."


Finally, the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the disciplinary rules by which we, the laity and clergy, are governed contains these prescriptions:

"Canon 762 -- The people of God are first united through the word of the living God, and are fully entitled to seek this word from their priests. For this reason sacred ministers are to consider the office of preaching as of great importance, since proclaiming the Gospel of God to all is among their principal duties."

"Canon 767 '1 -- The most important form of preaching is the homily, which is part of the liturgy, and is reserved to a priest or deacon. In the course of the liturgical year, the mysteries of faith and the rules of Christian living are to be expounded in the homily from the sacred text.
'2 At all Masses on Sundays and holydays of obligation, celebrated with a congregation, there is to be a homily and, except for a grave reason, this may not be omitted.
'3 It is strongly recommended that, if a sufficient number of people are present, there be a homily at weekday Masses also, especially during Advent and Lent, or on a feast day or an occasion of grief.
'4 It is the responsibility of the parish priest or the rector of a church to ensure that these provisions are carefully observed."
"Canon 768 '1 -- Those who announce the word of God to Christ's faithful are first and foremost to set out those things which it is necessary to believe and to practice for the glory of God and the salvation of all.
'2 They are also to explain to the faithful the teaching of the magisterium of the Church concerning the dignity and freedom of the human person; the unity, stability and duties of the family; people's social obligations and the ordering of temporal affairs according to the plan established by God.
"Canon 769 -- Christian teaching is to be explained in a manner that is suited to the condition of the hearers and adapted to the circumstances of the times.


If, after reading the above, Anna, you believe that your pastor is failing to comply with what is required of him, you have the right and duty to speak up (orally or in writing) for the benefit of your soul and your fellow parishioners. Please consider these words, also from the Code of Canon Law, which is not "optional stuff," but rather places a solemn obligation on you and your pastor:
Canon 212 '1 -- Christ's faithful, conscious of their own responsibility, are bound to show Christian obedience to what the sacred Pastors, who represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith and prescribe as rulers of the Church.
'2 Christ's faithful are at liberty to make known their needs, especially their spiritual needs, and their wishes to the Pastors of the Church.
'3 They have the right, indeed at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence and position, to manifest to the sacred Pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church. They have the right also to make their views known to others of Christ's faithful, but in doing so they must always respect the integrity of faith and morals, show due reverence to the Pastors and take into account both the common good and the dignity of individuals.
Canon 213 -- Christ's faithful have the right to be assisted by their Pastors from the spiritual riches of the Church, especially by the word of God and the sacraments.


It seems that the situation with your pastor may involve any one of several possibilities: (1) You have been expecting more of him than you should.
or (2) He is not a man of high intelligence, and he is doing the best that he possibly can. (If true, it is a cross that both he and you must bear.)
or (3) He is bright and could do better, but he was poorly schooled and is unaware of what the Church expects of him. After you contact him and explain his obligations (quoting the above passages), we hope that he will promise to make serious efforts to improve.
or (4) He knows what is expected and could do better, but out of laziness or malice has chosen to do poorly. (I certainly hope that this is not the case.)

Following the principles laid down in Matthew 18:15-17, you should contact your pastor alone, then (if necessary) with one or more fellow parishioners. Next, if the priest rejects you, you can contact your bishop in search of a remedy to the bad situation.

Now, having said all of the above, I must say that it is necessary for Catholics to keep in mind the following -- and it may influence whether or how you proceed in the future:
For Christians in certain (perhaps nearly all) Protestant denominations, the reading of Scripture and the sermon/homily that follow are the focal point of a worship service. They may make up 75% or more of the service's time. This is not true of the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Mass or Divine Liturgy. Each Mass is infinitely more efficacious than any other Catholic or non-Catholic service, even if it has no homily/sermon at all! The "Liturgy of the Eucharist," which comes after the "Liturgy of the Word" (including the homily), is the focal point of the Mass.

In the consecration of the offered bread and wine, we become mystically present at the sacrifice on Calvary, and Jesus becomes present to us, so that we may consume him. The feeding of our bodies and souls on the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus in Holy Communion is even more important than the feeding of our minds and souls in a homily. We may obtain instruction on faith and morality through MANY different sources (e.g., in things we can read or tapes to which we can listen), but only in the Mass can we witness the sacrifice of Calvary and receive Jesus in the most perfect form ("par excellence," the Church says), Holy Communion.

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Cure

-- Cure of Ars (jmvianney@ars.org), May 30, 2000.

In the sixties I lived in a parish where a new priest came to take care of our spiritual needs. I attended Mass everyday in Lent, as a means of a better preparation for Easter. The new priest gave a short homily (5 to 7 minutes) everyday explaining the different rites and practices of Lent ( color of vestments, the ashes, fast and abstinence, prayer and meditation, alms giving, etc.) as well as the ceremonies of Holy Week and how to get the greatest spiritual gain from them. Before this daily homily the usual attendance to Mass was of about 20 or 30 people. By the third week of Lent the church was almost full everyday. That showed that the people of God is hungry for knowledge and spiritual formation. This went on in the next years and eventually became a practice throught the whole year. The attendance to Mass never went back to the low level it had before. Wish all our priests were aware of this need!!!

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), May 31, 2000.

A noteworthy example of what is possible, Mr. Ortiz!
I intended (but forgot) to mention that the history of the Catholic Church shows how highly she treasures great preaching. Most people are aware of how terribly difficult, expensive, and time-consuming it was for monks and others to hand-copy Bibles for the first 14 centuries of Christendom. That same loving labor was expended on preserving and handing down the great homilies/sermons of the ages -- including those of the popes (especially Leo and Gregory the Great) and saints like Augustine, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, and many others. Even in our own day, we frequently can witness how hard Pope John Paul II and other bishops work on the homilies they deliver.

A priest who preaches poorly is constantly being reminded of the great preaching of the past whenever he prays the "Office of Readings" in the daily Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office). Every day, this Office has an extended reading from the Bible, followed by an extended reading from an old homily or other noted spiritual work. All of this should act as an instrument to encourage our priests to work hard on their preaching.
Cure

-- Cure of Ars (jmvianney@ars.org), May 31, 2000.

Le pedm a un buen amigo que me tradujera las aportaciones en este tema ya que mi inglis es pobre. A propssito de lo expuesto quiero dar mi parecer que quiza pueda ayudar en algo a los amigos hispano parlantes.

I-- Desafortunadamente no todos los sacerdotes nacieron para predicadores, ni se hicieron oradores en el Seminario. Otros no se preparan; y eso que Cristo los manda a predicar. El ejemplo del Seqor Jeszs es enorme: predics 3 aqos y sslo hizo una celebracisn Eucarmstica. La predicacisn, sobre todo dominical tiene que ser centro y guma de cristianismo. Veamos algunos casos de sacerdotes que ustedes habran experimentado:

A-- Ya muris. No sabma ni leer bien, repetma el Evangelio, lemdo y mal, a veces llevaba un folleto de predicaciones que tambiin lo lema sin aportar nada extra, cuando nos dabamos cuenta ya iba en el Credo!! Ahora me pregunto si asm era el Cura de Ars. No olvidemos que Dios escribe deerecho con reglones torcidos.

B-- Al terminar de leer el Evangelio -ni siquiera como proclamacisn jubilosa- sin mas ni 4mas se seguma con el Ofertorio, sobre todo entre semana.

C-- Este ocupa el tiempo de predicacisn para regaqar, humillar, hostigar a tal o cual persona, seqalandola; luego se ve que no le cae bien porque la ridiculiza, exponiindose a que algzn familiar le diga una majaderma. Inclusive alguien debe protestar.

D-- Alguno, cuando una persona entraba a media Misa, le ordenaba salirse. ?Por qui? Porque a Misa se debe llegar completa. Yo sslo vengo a hacer una visita al Santmsimo.

E-- Este otro preguntaba: cuantos Concilios ha habido en la Iglesia? Como nadie respondma, su znico comentario: "Ustedes no saben nada".

F-- A este no se le entiende lo que dice. Habla con monosmlabos guturales, con sonsonete casi cantado y con cara de cnasado o aburrido.

G-- Este parece retrato de pueblo. No se mueve, no hace ningzn ademan, sslo se le ve mover la boca y su voz en monstona, su rsotro impavido.

H-- Los hay que se les olvida que estan en Misa y hablan, hablan y hablan repitiendose, y ni quien los pare; su perorata va mas alla de los 40 minutos, no les importan los gestos de aburricisn, la gente oye, pero no escucha.

I-- Hay los "sermoneros": antes de comenzar la Celebracisn, uno por cada parte de la Liturgia y otro despuis de la bendicisn. La Misa y la predicacisn deben ser agiles, claras, vivas.... no pedimos diversisn, sslo que provoque asistencia y de gusto por participar. Una celebracisn se les cae por una homilma mal preparada, la gente se ausenta y ojala que buscaran otros templos.

J-- Otros hay que tienen muchas celebraciones en un dma y nunca predican.

PRONTO COANTINUARI CON EL TEMA. Joshua

-- Joshua Zuniga (joshuazuniga@usa.net), June 11, 2000.

In a previous post something was said that could very well apply to the topic in question. That's why I'm copying it:

I ask what of the illiterate throngs among us who understand only the interpretation of the priest who maybe off centre and despotic.

-- jean bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), December 08, 1999.

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Jean, after the good answers from David and Br Rich I have this to say: The illiterate who follow what an ignorant or despotic priest tells them,will be asked from God no more than what they are getting. After all, if what they hear from their priest is all that is availabe to them, that is all that will be required from them to get salvation. That doesn't mean that if any of us is conscious of this situation , we ignore it and do nothing about it. We a have as christians, a message to give, so let's give it. Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), December 08, 1999.

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<< I ask what of the illiterate throngs among us who understand only the interpretation of the priest >> Tell them to quit listening to that priest and just read their Bibles!! Sorry, I couldn't resist (;-D).

Enrique had a very good answer. Of course the Catholic faith is for everyone, peasant or king, imbecile or scholar. That is one of its greatest beauties.

The danger for someone like me is always to make the Faith too much a thing of my head and not enough in my heart; this is a constant struggle for me. But there are a great many well-meaning Christians (as we see here in this forum) who have gone to the opposite extreme. They unwittingly buy into our modern culture's relativism, its abandonment of reason and logic. "Oh, as long as you love Jesus all these other things don't matter," they assure us, "Quit quibbling over such unimportant things." (You can just hear the modern equivalent substituted into this sentence, "Oh, as long as we love each other it doesn't matter if you have sex. Stop being so legalistic.")

This is an equally dangerous extreme for, as the Fathers of the Church saw very clearly, a faith that is not carefully guarded from distortions and errors quickly degenerates into all sorts of heresies and then ultimately into no faith at all. At the Council of Nicea and its aftermath they were willing to quibble to the death over the difference a single Greek letter makes--the difference in Greek between homoousios and homoiousios, between "same substance" and "like substance"--because the difference of that one letter makes the difference between Jesus Christ being our Savior, Lord, and God or him being just a highly exalted creature, unable to save us from our sins. The illiterate masses don't follow all these technical niceties, but history shows that the Catholic Church has guarded the Christian faith for them so that they may believe what Jesus and the Apostles taught, without distortion and error.

-- David Palm (djpalm64@yahoo.com), December 08, 1999.

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-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), June 11, 2000.

Aqum esta la segunda parte de mi respuesta:

II-- Afortunadamente hay magnmficos oradores, predicadores natos que preparan su homilma, que estudian, son amenos, claros; provocan risas, lagrimas, aplausos... y no pasan de 20 minutos, al grado de ir a felicitarlos y comentar tal o cual idea. Mi Parroco invits a la feligresma a manifestar por escrito sus opiniones sobre su ministerio y personalidad. No tuve nada que opinar; a mi juicio era un buen ministro. Con el cambio ortro sacerdote a las pocas semanas hiso una cartita parroquial pidiendo lo mismo. Contesti que el monitorno hablara mucho ni tantas veces -il obedece,claro- : una antes de empezar, una antes de cada lectura, y aveces por tener el micrsfono se apropia de la oracisn universal. A veces pregunta si recordamos la idea central del domingo pasado... nadie!! El la trae al recuerdo, la relaciona, produciendo la reflexisn. Muchas veces una homilma sirve de direccisn espiritual. ?Qui porcentaje de buenos predicadores hay? Muy bajo. Libros sobre el arte de predicar los hay; hay uno muy ameno: Manual de la imperfecta homilma, de Don Joaqumn Antonio Peqaloza, que lo lean. La predicacisn es una orden de Cristo, no debe ser una pesadilla porque no la preparen o no les interese o no puedan.

III-- ?Qui debemos hacer? Nada. Si un laico va y le dice a su Parroco algo de los primeros puntos expuestos, corre el riesgo que lo eche de enemigo, la verdad incomoda. Este debemos hacer es asunto del Obispo. El debe resolver esta siutacisn que aleja a la gente, pero para que no suene a chisme, que il invite a que los fieles manifiesten lo que sienten de su Parroco, y que la llave del buzsn sslo la tenga il y que todo quede en el sigilo. Joshua

-- Joshua Zuniga (joshuazuniga@usa.net), June 12, 2000.