How many of you have complained about a homily? Okay, has anyone not complained about a homily? Too long, too boring, it had no point, it had too many points, it was too abstract, it didn’t reflect the readings, it only reflected the readings – yah, there’s plenty of back seat homilists out there. My question is have you every tried it? I hope I don’t come across at trying to be self-righteous because I really haven’t tried preparing my own homily and have been critical of homilies in general. So I am throwing it out there. Read the readings here:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/101208.shtml
Post your insights/homily in the comments section. I think having a background in theology would help in preparing a good homily, but I don’t think it’s required by any means. If a person is sufficiently ambitious you could certainly unearth context on the readings without too much trouble.
I wonder if our expectation to have a meaningful message given to us each and every Sunday might potentially be a troubling sign. Has the church become something like a dry cleaner where we bring our dirty souls and in exchange for making a financial contribution expect the priest to clean us up without making a personal contribution to the process?
I would estimate that 65% of registered parishioners do not attend Holy Name on any given weekend. Some are undoubtedly travelling, but there has got to be a bunch of people who assess whether attending Mass is a good investment of their time or not and the majority conclude it’s not a good investment. I suspect that many of those people who don’t attend regularly would say they don’t get anything out of it. Why should they get dressed up and make the trip to church if they leave no different then when they came?
For those who do attend regularly, what would you tell them you get out of it? Are you a somewhat different person leaving the parking lot? How would you describe the difference without being overly abstract (Would saying something like, ‘I have a renewed sense of faith’ mean much to someone else?)?
I would contend that those who get the most out of coming to mass come without expectations that someone else is going to bring about any sort of transformation. They know that they must invest themselves to experience a sense of conversion. Those who come expecting a drying cleaning of their souls by what others do, don’t come as often because they probably feel any different when they leave.
So as our parish endeavors to increase mass attendance, what would you recommend we do? Make mass more exciting or meaningful or pertinent to their lives? Better music? refreshments? Guest speakers? What do you think it will take to get people to come more regularly?
