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UnityofTrinity
Guest
Since the sermon often comes with the passages, what freedom do Catholic priests have to preach?
Do priests have the freedom to choose which messages to be preached?
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DianaCC
Guest
Given some of the sermon’s I’ve heard, they probably have total freedom to say anything they want.
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Corki
Guest
The homily is supposed to be about the Scripture of the day. For a Sunday Mass, the first reading and the Gospel are theologically linked. The second reading is not necessarily linked to the other two. A priest may choose to preach about the 1st Reading and the Gospel or about the second reading. If he is really ambitious, he may chose to tie them all together. He can give his homily primarily as a commentary on the Scripture itself or on its application to our lives.
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TheMc
Guest
The Homily
65. The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended, for it is necessary for
the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.
or a priest who is present at the celebration but cannot concelebrate. There is to be a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation at all Masses that are celebrated with the participation of a congregation; it may not be omitted without a serious reason. It is recommended on other days, especially on the weekdays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter Season, as well as on other festive days and occasions when the people come to church in greater numbers.
After the homily a brief period of silence is appropriately observed.
65. The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended, for it is necessary for
the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.
- The Homily should ordinarily be given by the priest celebrant himself. He may entrust it
to a concelebrating priest or occasionally, according to circumstances, to the deacon, but never to a lay person.
or a priest who is present at the celebration but cannot concelebrate. There is to be a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation at all Masses that are celebrated with the participation of a congregation; it may not be omitted without a serious reason. It is recommended on other days, especially on the weekdays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter Season, as well as on other festive days and occasions when the people come to church in greater numbers.
After the homily a brief period of silence is appropriately observed.
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UnityofTrinity
Guest
then how do priests preach on things like sins, hell, rosary, abortion, gay marriages… because most often the passages don’t fit with these messages
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Joannm
Guest
A good homilist can work those into many of the readings if he tried.
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Love_Divine
Guest
Isn’t this one of the reasons why priests study so much theology? So that they understand the Bible and its passages, and are able to make them reflect modern day issues?
I know I’ve listened to readings and Gospels thinking to myself, “Finally, Father’s going to talk about sinning today. There’s no way he can avoid it with today’s Gospel” then getting a homily on nothing to do with sinning. If they can do it to avoid issues, I’m sure they can do it so it does deal with issues.
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DianaCC
Guest
Funny how we have this rich, three-year cycle of Sunday readings, and two-year cycle of weekday readings, but all the “hard” passages missed the cut. But it’s easy enough to make a link.
For example, Sunday 22 January 2012 will be the 39th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
The readings will be for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20.
- The first reading is about Jonah’s mission to confront Nineveh about its sins. Making a link to abortion in the USA is pretty easy.
- The Psalm is about God’s guidance of sinners to the right path. Again, easy.
- The second reading is about how we should act now that we are living in the end times. Again, easy.
- The gospel is about Jesus announcing that the time of repentance and the arrival of the Kingdom of God is near, and about the calls of Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John, who all up and left their jobs immediately. Again, easy.
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TrueLight
Guest
Very well put.
And that’s what makes a good homily/sermon. Instead of just summarizing the readings, one can link them to every day life and to other scripture that further elucidates the reading.
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TimothyH
Guest
I don’t understand this comment. Not trying to challeng, just understand what you mean.
Are you saying that certain passages are intentionally not placed in the lectionary cycle for some reason? What “Hard” passages missed the cut?
Perhaps I am taking your comment the wrong way and I don’t mean to be uncharitable.
-Tim-
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Love_Divine
Guest
You know, a few years ago my priest did his Christmas Eve homily about cooking his turkey, after he asked the congregation who was “at Mass only because someone made them come” and who “couldn’t wait to go home and dip into the sauce afterwards”.
Number of times he reminded the congregation only those properly disposed to receive communion may receive- 0.
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DianaCC
Guest
Yes, and that is hinted at in the introductory material in the lectionary itself (cf. GIL 76-77). Some notable “hard” passages omitted are the whole of 1 Corinthians 14, the whole of Revelation 13, the story of Onan, and the Circumcision of the Philistines. Of course different passages are left out for different reasons including redundancy and overall “boringness” like much of 1-2 Chronicles and Leviticus.
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Digitonomy
Guest
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Love_Divine
Guest
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DianaCC
Guest
It would offend Amalekites.
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FAB
Guest
As a deacon I preached on serveral of these topics this past Sunday. They fit very well into the Gospel of the sower and the seed.
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UnityofTrinity
Guest
There are several challenging passages that require hard works and abundance understandings in both the culture, moral theology, or at least, the context of the book. Since the readings are often just passages, reading these hard passages would be totally out of place, congregationers would not understand what’s going on and so forth.
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DSJJ
Guest
Some readings are harder than others to match up to a particular topic you may want to talk about on a certain Sunday but it can be done. Example…This Sundays readings are about forgiveness and the Gospel was about the wheat and weeds growing together and at harvest time the weeds being pullled and burned up. A homilist could easily link this up many ways. He could talk about harvest time is judgment day and being burned up is hell so he could talk about hell and how bad it is to go there, What kind of sins may lead us to hell. Missing Mass, Contraception, murder, stealing, homosexual acts. etc. etc… then talk about each one of these sins on an individual basis. My point being is if a homilist wants to he can find a way to lead into any particular subject matter he wants on a particular Sundays reading. The key words here are “does he want to do it”.
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