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Preaching in the Roman Catholic Ecclesial Context

duncan macpherson

Preaching in the ecclesial context of the Roman Catholic Church falls into three broad categories already present in the early Church: proclamation, formation and instruction. In the modern context, preaching takes place most frequently within the context of the sacramental rites, including the Sunday Eucharist. Proclamation has become the primary aim of such preaching but formation and catechesis are also seen as important. Each of these three complements the others in the life of the Church and together all three seek to provide access to the truth by which the Christian can live and die.

Historical background

The sermons in the Acts of the Apostles provide examples of proclamation or kerygmatic preaching directed at the unbaptized but later directed sometimes at Church members needing to experience the conversion of life appropriate to their baptism. Formational or catechetical preaching in the early Church was concerned with preparing candidates for Baptism, Confirmation and first Holy Communion: the sacraments of initiation originally given together to mainly adult converts at the Easter liturgy. This formational preaching continued as ‘mystagogical preaching’ during the period after Easter when the newly baptized were instructed in the significance of the rites they had experienced. Overlapping with the third category of instructional preaching, mystagogical preaching included instruction on the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Commandments and the Sacraments.

From the fourth century onwards more and more Christians were baptized as infants with the result that mystagogical preaching largely disappeared. Meanwhile disputes about the nature of Christ necessitated a greater emphasis upon preaching as a safeguard for doctrinal orthodoxy. For this reason liturgical preaching became the prerogative of the bishop.1

During the early medieval period preaching largely fell into abeyance until it was revived in the eleventh century, first to promote the crusades and then to combat the Albigensian and other heretical movements. Preaching during Mass fell into decline and preaching outside of Mass became the business of the monastic orders and, more popularly, of itinerant preachers, often belonging to the new orders of Franciscan and Dominican friars. Some of this preaching took place not only outside the context of liturgy but also outside the church building itself, in the public square. In the first instance much of this preaching consisted in doctrinal and moral instruction, but it also involved evangelistic proclamation directed both at combating heresy and at bringing about a revival in religious commitment among the populace.

The Protestant Reformation proved the catalyst for a greater emphasis on preaching in the Catholic Church as part of the ‘Catholic Reformation’, sometimes called ‘the Counter Reformation’. From the sixteenth century onwards reforms associated with the Catholic Reformation included the education of the clergy, a new catechetical movement and the requirement that a sermon should be given at every Sunday Mass. Consequent upon new geographical discoveries, the Catholic Reformation also involved massive missionary expansion. New active religious orders, such as the Jesuits, engaged in preaching. This embraced catechetical instruction (often polemically anti-Protestant) as well as preaching for primary evangelization in newly discovered lands. In both kinds of preaching there was a new emphasis on moving the will of the hearers to accept God’s grace offered in the sacraments of the Church and to embrace the Christian virtues.

In the centuries that followed we find a similar pattern of preaching by the religious orders, combining an emphasis on instruction in faith and morals with affective proclamatory preaching not only in the new areas of missionary expansion in Africa and Asia but also, in the Catholic equivalent of revivalist preaching, in parish missions preached against the background of the rising tide of anti-clerical secularism in Europe. At the parish Sunday Mass, however, the sermon would be primarily doctrinal and moral, with systematic instruction on the creed, the sacraments and the commandments. Such sermons were usually quite unrelated to the biblical readings provided for each Sunday, which were in any case only accessible to the minority who used missals giving the translation of the Latin texts of the Mass.2

Proclamation – the liturgical homily

The Second Vatican Council (1962–5) introduced liturgical reforms directed at bringing about a greater emphasis on Scripture and increased lay participation in the liturgy. In this new climate, the biblical homily was seen as ‘a living commentary on the word’ and as an integral part of the liturgical action (SC 56, 7, 33 and 52). Far from being an interruption in the celebration of Mass, the homily was now seen as a bridge between the liturgy of the word and the eucharistic liturgy, a Breaking of the Word that prepares the congregation to participate in the Breaking of Bread. Since Christ is both the living Word and the living Bread come down from heaven, the homily was now seen as the proclamation of the Word made flesh. In the Scripture readings, proclaimed by the preacher in the homily, God is speaking to his people, ‘opening up to them the mystery of redemption and salvation, and nourishing their spirit’ and ‘Christ himself is present in the midst of the faithful through his word’ (GI 55) and the homily ‘must always lead the community of the faithful to celebrate the Eucharist wholeheartedly so that they may hold fast in their lives to what they have grasped by their faith’ (LM 26).

Congregation, preacher and text

In this renewed understanding of liturgical preaching the preacher became a ‘mediator of meaning’ making effective links between the message of the text and the experience of the congregation, building up the faith of those present at the Sunday assembly, the people of God united by their faith and baptism. An important document on preaching from the American Catholic Bishops Conference stressed that, to be such a mediator, the preacher needs ‘to be a listener before he is a speaker’ (FIYH 10). Preachers were instructed to study the congregation as well as the text. This document identified three essential elements: the assembly, the preacher and the message itself, but it is the assembly which is given pride of place since ‘only when preachers know what a congregation needs to hear will they be able to communicate what a congregation needs to hear’ (FIYH 4). The same message was stressed 26 years later by the president of the US episcopal conference, urging that priests and deacons with their bishop should ‘meet with the laity to listen to their struggles and to understand better how they might preach the Word in ways that relate to those struggles’.3

The understanding of the preacher moved from that of teacher of the doctrines of the faith to that of a herald, proclaiming the good news that in Christ God has entered history in a new and decisive way, reconciling humanity to himself. This model of the preacher as herald does not exclude catechetical instruction, but this becomes a secondary objective rather than the primary aim of the homily.

Desirable qualities for the preacher include competence in biblical and theological studies, a background in both classical and popular culture, and an understanding of the ‘complex social, political and economic forces’ shaping events. However preachers do not need to have all the answers to all the questions, and what was most required ‘was simply to hear a person of faith preaching . . . As long as we carry the Word of God with us, a Word that we have allowed to touch on our lives in prayer and reflection, and as long as we speak that word in language and images that are familiar to the dwellers of the particular avenue we are travelling, the Word of God will be preached, and the possibility of faith and conversion will be present’ (FIYH 14 and 15).

The content of this transforming message is always the Living Word of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity revealing the Father and reconciling the world to God, and in the preaching of the message contained in the Scripture, ‘Christ himself is present in the midst of the faithful through his word’ (GI 55). Theology and biblical studies are crucial to the interpretation of the texts, but the preacher is less concerned with explaining the texts than with interpreting them as ‘real words addressed to real people’ (FIYH 21).

Formation – Christian initiation of adults

We have seen that in the renewed understanding of the function of the liturgical homily the proclamation of the good news is directed primarily to deepening the commitment of those who are already baptized members of the community. The post-Vatican II Church has also placed a new emphasis on formation, not only as a secondary objective of the Sunday homily but also in the revival of mystagogy.4 Reflecting the wish to provide instruction for the adult convert within the framework of the Christian community, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) was revived in 1962. This was done both in response to the large numbers of adult converts in Africa and elsewhere and partly because of the need for a new evangelization in de-christianized parts of Europe where growing numbers of people had not been baptized as children. During a series of brief ceremonies candidates first express their desire to become Christians, are enrolled as catechumens and begin their instruction, usually coinciding with Lent. Baptism, Confirmation and first Holy Communion take place at Easter, followed by a period of mystagogy taking place between Easter and Pentecost. This provides the opportunity for the developing formation of new Christians, enabling them to learn more about the sacraments that they have received within the framework of the eucharistic community. Mystagogical preaching accompanies these rites and can also serve to refer other members of the congregation back to their own Christian initiation.

Instruction – catechetical fruits

The usefulness of such reference back is evident from the fact that, for the majority of Catholics, involvement in the Church is limited to weekly – or sometimes less frequent – attendance at Mass. For these Catholics the Sunday homily becomes the only channel for adult religious education. This has led to demands that the teaching objective of preaching should come more to the fore. Pope John Paul II stressed the importance of the homily not only as liturgical and biblical and tailored to the needs of the congregation (the description favoured by Pope Paul VI) (EN 43) but also as bringing ‘catechetical fruits’ (CT 48). The Catechism, too, stresses the instructional value of the homily (1074), while at the same time defining the homily as an exhortation to accept the Word ‘as what it truly is, the Word of God as put into practice’ (CCC 1349).

In 2007, Pope Benedict emphasized the need for an improvement in the quality of preaching, stressing that the homily is ‘part of the liturgical action’. It is meant to foster a deeper understanding of the word of God, so that it can bear fruit in the lives of the faithful and should be preached in such a way that it ‘closely relates the proclamation of the word of God to the sacramental celebration and the life of the community, so that the word of God truly becomes the Church’s vital nourishment and support’. He then goes on to urge that ‘the catechetical and paraenetic aim of the homily should not be forgotten. During the course of the liturgical year it is appropriate to offer the faithful, prudently and on the basis of the three-year lectionary, “thematic” homilies treating the great themes of the Christian faith, on the basis of what has been authoritatively proposed by the Magisterium in the Catechism . . . four pillars namely the profession of faith, the celebration of the Christian mystery, life in Christ and Christian prayer’ (SAC 138–42).

The future of preaching in the Roman Catholic Church will always involve seeking to find a balance between the three elements of proclamation, instruction and formation, with varying emphasis on each according to the changing circumstances of the times. Setting the direction for the immediate future Pope Benedict, like his predecessor, follows a path of recommending all three of the elements in the role of the preacher but restores emphasis on the need for doctrinal instruction. Before becoming pope, Cardinal Ratzinger spoke eloquently that the aim of preaching was ‘to tell man who he is and what he must do to be himself. Its intention is to disclose to him the truth about himself, that is, what he can base his life on and what he can die for’ (Ratzinger, 1995, pp. 62–3). It would be hard to think of a better aim for preaching in any ecclesial context!

Notes

1. In 529, Saint Caesarius of Arles persuaded the Council of Vaison to allow priests to preach at Mass and, in their absence, to allow deacons to read the homilies of the Fathers. Hendrie, 2005, p. 45. Today canon law restricts preaching to bishops, priests and deacons (Code of Canon Law 767). Suitably qualified laypersons can be asked to preach at Word services, at services of Holy Communion from the reserved Sacrament outside of Mass and at funeral services where there is no ordained minister to officiate. Pastors sometimes get around the restriction by inviting laypeople to offer ‘reflections’ rather than homilies, often after Communion.

2. From the sixteenth century onwards the Gospel (and sometimes the Epistle) texts were read in the vernacular after they had been read in Latin. This practice became widespread during the years leading up to the Second Vatican Council (1962–5).

3. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, at the 2008 synod of bishops, ‘Ideas for Better Sermons Emerge at Synod: Guidelines and Year of the Homily Proposed’ http://www.zenit.org/article-23849?l=english.

4. Mystagogy, or teaching about Christian sacraments and liturgical rites, comes from the Greek mystagogia, or ‘interpreting of mystery’, literally ‘the leading of the initiated’.

References and further reading

Church documents with abbreviations used in this chapter

CCC	The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edn, English translation includes corrections promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 8 September 1997. http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm
CT	Apostolic Exhortation, Catechesi Tradendae of Pope John Paul II on ‘Catechesis in Our Time’ at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_16101979_catechesi-tradendae_en.html, para. 48.
EN	Evangelii Nuntiandi, ‘On Evangelization in the Modern World’, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VI promulgated on 8 December 1975. http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6evan.htm
FIYH	Bishops Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, Fulfilled in Your Hearing: The Homily in the Sunday Assembly, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington DC, 1982.
GI	General Instruction on the Roman Missal, http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/revmissalisromanien.shtml
LM	Lectionary for Mass, London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1981.
SAC	Sacramentum Caritatis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GFRD_enGB212GB214&q=sacramentum+caritatis
SC	Sacrosanctum Concilium (Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/v2litur.htm

Other texts referred to in this chapter

Hendrie, Robert, 2005, Go Tell Them: Towards a Theology of Preaching, London: Saint Paul’s.

Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, 1995, The Nature and Mission of Theology, trans. Adrian Walker, San Francisco: Ignatius Press.