Brevity is the Soul of Wit

               There is a priest that occasionally celebrates mass here. He has a maxim concerning preaching: Be brilliant and brief, and if not brilliant, then be brief. This seems to be a dictum of American Catholic preaching. And although, the attempt to be concise is a pastoral effort, I think that it often does a great disservice to the people of God.

               There is a guideline here at the abbey that during the week, a homily should not exceed three minutes in duration. Do not get me wrong, I appreciate these time constraints as much as anyone, but I find it interesting that a Catholic priest runs the risk of being flayed alive if the mass runs over an hour. I think this is a rather interesting phenomena of our culture.

               I do not mean to imply that short homilies should not be given; on the contrary, I have experienced a number of one minute reflections that have struck me like bolts of lightning. I only think that time expectations are petty and trivial. For example, when a guest bishop or archbishop speaks, one can expect at least fifteen minutes of oration. But this extra time does not mean that the bishop has anything more to say.

               Chief amongst my complaints is that priests often try to sound intelligent. There seems to exist an unspoken requirement to use high-sounding theological and liturgical wording. What the people need is not a exegesis concerning the transcendence of the eschatological man. We need someone to simply talk to us. The best sermons I have experienced here are when the priest puts away his notes, steps away from the ambo, and talks to the congregation as a friend.

               If I imagine myself as a priest, I do not think that my messages would be delivered more professionally, have better content, , or in any way be more effective than the very sermons that I critique. Much like this blog, I doubt that I will ever be ‘consistently brilliant’. Like my future homilies, I hope and pray that my condensed blogs do not do a disservice to my audience. I hope that I do not leave you hanging by not fully developing my thesis.

…or by providing an adequate conclusion…