Making a good homily

RIGHTLY or wrongly, people often gauge the value of the

Holy Mass by the quality of the homily they hear during that

celebration. Of course, this is a very subjective way of valuing the

Mass, and therefore should somehow be taken with a grain of salt. But

it should be reason enough for all priests to prepare and deliver

their homilies as best as they can.

            I have heard of people saying that they were willing to

make long trips just to hear the Mass of Fr. So-and-So who, to them,

gives good homilies. They consider the effort all worthwhile.

            There are many things that can go into what can be

considered a good homily. One is that it has to be short. It should

not be longer than the attention span of the people. A priest-friend

of mine mischievously told me once that he makes sure he would already

be done with his homily before the people start to sleep.

            A homily is not a speech, a lecture or a class. It should

have a friendly and serene tone that fosters the encounter between the

people and Christ. It is not showtime, with some sing-and-dance

sequence, or drama time with crying moments. But it should somehow be

something that feeds the mind and heart of the people. In short, their

soul.

            For this, they have to make sure that the homily is

immediately relevant to people’s lives. This will require a lot of

study and meditation of God’s word whose relevance never fades. This

will also require that we learn how to relate God’s word to our lives.

We really have to know as much as we can the lives and concerns of the

people.

            With regard to this point, let’s remember what the Letter

to the Hebrews said: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper

than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and

spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the

heart.” (4,12)

            In other words, God’s word will always be relevant and

effective in our needs. It is the most important word that we need to

be familiar with and, in fact, to make also as our own. It is

definitely much more important than what our philosophies, ideologies,

sciences and technologies can offer us.

            We should know how to make it alive in the homilies. This

is where the true mettle of the priests is truly tested. This is where

it can be shown whether the priest is truly close to both God and to

the people.

            The other thing that help priests make a good homily is

for them to get regular feedback from different kinds of people—the

young and the old, the classes A & B and the C and D, the

professionals, intellectuals and manual workers. Priests should

encourage people to make feedback.

            The feedback can be on the content of the homily, its

relevance, the manner and tone of the delivery, etc. Priests should be

humble enough to consider the feedback seriously.