ePriest.com: Your Spanish Homily

Readings

Reading I: Joshua 5:9, 10-12
Psalm: Psalms 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Reading II: Second Corinthians 5:17-21
Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Preaching Tip

Addressing the Seven Core Desires in the Human Heart

 

Preaching is hard.  Our parishioners are often so diverse.  They have different needs and different preferences in just about everything.

 

For our preaching, not everyone in the pews wants to hear about biblical exegesis.  But for some, this is all they want. 

 

Not everyone in the pews cares much about apologetics.  But for some, this is all they want. 

 

Not everyone wants to hear about the “latest thing to happen to Fr. Bob on the way to the dentist”.  But for some, this is all they want.

 

However, there is a way to always touch the hearts of those who are paying attention.  We can do this by touching on one of the seven core desires in every human heart. 

 

These are:

 

  1. To be understood
  2. To be affirmed
  3. To be blessed
  4. To be safe
  5. To be touched
  6. To be chosen
  7. To be included

 

In today’s Gospel parable, the tender love of the Father bestows mercy on the Prodigal son.  This affirms, blesses, touches, saves, and includes the Prodigal Son. 

 

For example, consider starting a homily with: “Have you ever felt like you just wanted to be affirmed for who you are as a person?  Have you ever wanted someone to sincerely mean the words they say when they tell you that you are loved and important to them?

 

While some of the more obtuse and superficial people in the pews may not be moved or think too much about that opening line, the majority will admit and nod in agreement. 

 

This is because we can’t help but want these things. It is part of being human.

 

The amazing thing is that Jesus and our Catholic faith fulfill all these needs on the deepest possible levels.  By keeping these seven desires in mind while we preach, we can have an effective way to reach the hearts of our congregation.

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

                                                                     CUARESMA PARA SENTIRNOS PERDONADOS

Esta es la parábola de todos los que hemos dejado alguna vez la casa del Padre y nos hemos sumergido en la fantasía de caminar sobre las mismas huellas del hijo pródigo. No fue una coincidencia el que Cristo lo contara. Él lo hizo para hacernos ver que sabía de qué barro estamos hechos, que conocía de antemano nuestras caídas, para manifestar su misericordia perdonándonos aún antes de haberlo ofendido.

1. Esta es la parábola del inquieto y del iluso, de quien tiene una inquietud clavada en lo más profundo de su alma: "Ser feliz". Inquietud que Dios mismo ha puesto en nuestros corazones y de la que no nos debemos avergonzar. Inquietud por la que debemos luchar hasta saciar la sed de felicidad que parece consumir al hombre.

Es también la parábola del iluso que piensa que podrá apagar su sed en las aguas turbias de los placeres. Del iluso que busca con avidez  encerrar entre sus manos todo los goces terrenos y siente como se le escurren entre los dedos sin saciarlo, dejándolo sediento ante el árido desierto de sus pasiones. Es, pues, la parábola de cada uno de nosotros que buscamos nuestra felicidad y creemos que la encontraremos en los efímeros placeres que nos ofrece el mundo.

2. Para un Padre el mejor de todos siempre será su hijo. Para un Padre su felicidad es el bien del hijo. Para un Padre su mayor tristeza es contemplar a su hijo esclavizado en el pecado, en el vicio del alcohol o de las drogas, en el vicio de la mentira, de la infidelidad, del odio, de la tristeza o de la venganza... Para un Padre su mayor deseo es tener a su hijo a su lado, cercano a su pecho. Para un Padre su hijo es todo el mundo. Puede que para el mundo no seamos nada, mas para Dios, somos todo el mundo.

3. Es inútil que intentemos esconder esta palpable realidad. Todos somos hijos pródigos. Todos hemos exigido a nuestro Padre la herencia de nuestra libertad. Y él nos la ha dado. Todos hemos tomado nuestra libertad y nos hemos marchado a los remotos países del pecado para derrocharla y correr tras los fantasmas de una felicidad que se esfuma como niebla cuando intentamos atraparla.

Esta es la parábola de los que aprenden de sus errores. De aquellos que comprenden que en la casa de la que huyeron les espera un Padre amoroso más dispuesto a perdonar que a castigar. ¡No lo dudemos! Levantémonos y corramos hacia ese Padre.

Hermanos: Es mejor haber sido hijos pródigos y regresar arrepentidos a la casa del Padre y dispuestos a amarlo como él nos ama, que ser como el otro hijo de la parábola que a pesar de nunca haberse marchado, siempre permaneció alejado de su Padre.

English Translation

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

                                                                          LENT IS FOR US TO FEEL FORGIVEN

This parable is for all of us who have at some time left the Father's house to embark on the fantasy of walking in the footsteps of the Prodigal Son. It wasn't just a coincidence that Christ told it to us. He did it to show us that he knew the fragile clay we are made of, that he knew our sins beforehand.  He did it to show us his mercy by forgiving us even before we offended him.

1. This parable is for the restless and the dreamers, for those who have a desire rooted deep in their soul: to be happy. A desire that God himself placed in our hearts, a desire we should not be ashamed of. A desire that we fight for until we quench that thirst for happiness which seems to consume us.

This parable is also for the misguided soul that thinks it can satisfy its thirst in the muddy waters of pleasure. For the one who eagerly hopes to hold all earthly pleasures in his hands, and yet feels them running through his fingers without satisfying his thirst, but instead leaving him parched in the arid desert of his passions. This parable is therefore for each of us who seek our happiness, expecting to find it in the passing pleasures the world offers us.

2. For a Father, the best of all is his son. For a Father, happiness is the good of his son. For a Father, the greatest sorrow is seeing his son enslaved to sin, to the vice of alcohol, of drugs, to the vice of lying, of infidelity, of hatred, of sorrow, or of vengeance... For a Father, the greatest desire is to have his son at his side, close to his breast. For a Father, his son is the whole world to him. Maybe we are nothing in the eyes of the world, but in God's eyes, we are everything.

3. It's useless to try to hide this reality: we are all prodigal sons and daughters. We have all demanded of our Father the inheritance of our freedom. And he has given it to us. We have all taken our liberty and set off for the distant lands of sin, there to squander it and run after the shadows of a happiness that vanishes into thin air when we try to take hold of it.

This parable is for those who learn from their mistakes. For those who understand that in the house they ran away from, there waits a loving Father who is more willing to forgive than to punish. Let us not doubt, but arise and run to this Father!

Brothers and Sisters: it is better to have been like the Prodigal Son and come back repentant to the Father's house, willing to love him as he loves us, than to be like the other son in the parable who although he never went away, was always distant from his Father.