Readings
Reading I: Isaiah 53:10-11 |
Preaching TipPreaching Tip for the 29th Sunday in OT - Avoiding Insider Language to Welcome New Parishioners
It has been said that the most important people in our parish are “those that are not members yet”.
If we take this to heart, our preaching should adapt itself in subtle ways to be more welcoming. We can’t just preach to the choir.
A great pre-homily exercise is to put ourselves for a moment in the shoes of a person who is brand new to the faith and who is trying out our parish for the very first time.
These “first-timers” may experience many things, such as:
· Feeling out of place. They have not been a “church person” before, and they don’t really know what happens in a church. This church building is “not their home” and the people of the parish around them are “not their people”. · Feeling uneasy. Catholic churches can be a bit imposing with our statues. For example, it is entirely normal for us to have large statues of people who are covered in blood (think St. Sebastian). · Feeling awkward or judged. Everyone else in the church building will know exactly what they are doing. All the sitting, standing, and kneeling will confuse a newbie and make them very self-conscious. · Feeling lost. There is a Catholic vocabulary that is foreign to them. Words such as Eucharist, sacrifice, crucifix, thurible, offering, consecration, transubstantiation, sacrament, monsignor, ordination, heresy, Tradition, Magisterium are usually arcane sounding words.
If they feel uneasy, awkward and lost, we should not be surprised when they leave to search elsewhere to find “their people”.
Our preaching tip for today is to strive to avoid insider language.
On the one hand, we may wish to preserve all the Catholic words that keep alive our authentic traditions from the past. As well, we should wish that the sacred liturgy of the Church holds some ability to provoke awe and wonder and “otherness”.
On the other hand, we need to evangelize and welcome people into the mysteries.
So, practice the technique of short spontaneous explanations that accompany the words in question.
For example, try adding the words in italics to your preaching:
“When we come forward to receive the Eucharist, which is the Bread of Life, let us remember to do so with reverence.”
Or,
“The Magisterium of the Church, that is, what we call the teachings of the Church, has defined that…..
Letting someone who is new to our parish know directly and indirectly that they are being thought of and spoken to will give a feeling of welcome that may just be what they need to become a believer. |
B To 29
SERVIR Y DAR LA VIDA
La humanidad sufre en cientos de millones de sus hijos y no siempre es un sufrimiento redentor. Cristo quiere que sus seguidores asuman la parte que a cada uno le corresponde para mejorar las condiciones de vida de sus hermanos que sufren. Él va delante de nosotros "no para que le sirvan sino para servir y dar la vida en rescate por todos".
Hermanas y hermanos:
1. El ansia de poder es tan antigua como el mundo. Nosotros mismos lo experimentamos a diario en las situaciones más banales como el querer ocupar el mejor lugar, elegir a los mejores compañeros, escalar un puesto en el trabajo hasta llegar a luchar por el poder político sin escrúpulos, aún aniquilando al adversario. En la raíz del problema está siempre este maldito binomio: el instinto de dominio y la ridícula vanidad.
Se nos ha infiltrado el prejuicio de que somos alguien y de que valemos solamente si dominamos a los demás; ¡Y si el otro se convirtiera en mi hermano! ¿No es esta la cuestión que hay que plantearse? Si el otro se convirtiera realmente en mi hermano, ¿podría yo rechazarle con prepotencia contra su persona o sus bienes? Si el otro se convirtiera realmente en mi hermano, ¿Podría yo hablar mal de él a sus espaldas? ¿Podría permitirme destruir su intimidad?
2. Para Cristo, en cambio, es grande el que renuncia a su deseo de dominar a los demás y aprende a servir con amor fraterno. ¡Hay tantos hombres a nuestro alrededor que nos atraen por su generosidad y nobleza de vida! Su autoridad moral nace desde dentro del corazón que es solidario, generoso, servicial. Irradian una autoridad especial; no necesitan amenazar, sobornar ni adular. Tal vez éste sea el secreto más importante de la vida y el más ignorado. Vivimos intensamente la vida sólo cuando la regalamos. Sólo se puede vivir cuando se hace vivir a otros.
3. ¿Qué nos está pidiendo a nosotros? El servicio que Cristo pide es exigente pero inmensamente fecundo. Implica una lucha a muerte contra el egoísmo y un ejercicio de humildad; es la parte dura. Pero es también un servicio fecundo porque es fuente de salvación. Es muy fácil dar algo; y esto nos sucede también cuando no cuesta y cuando nos sobra. Pero sinceramente ¿Quién se atreve a darlo todo y a darse a sí mismo a los demás, hasta que duela?
Hermanos: La sola idea de servir a los demás, a muchos les asusta. A otros sólo les atrae el colocarse en el escaparate. Es una obligación de conciencia asumir un compromiso de servicio. Tenemos que dar lo que está vivo en nosotros: nuestra alegría, nuestra fe, nuestra ternura, nuestra confianza, la esperanza que nos sostiene y nos anima desde dentro. Dar así la vida es siempre un gesto que enriquece, que ayuda a vivir, que crea vida en los demás, que rescata, que libera y salva a las personas. Que así sea.
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
To Serve & Give One's Life
Humanity suffers through the lives of hundreds of millions of children, yet not always in terms of redemption suffering. Christ wants his followers to assume the responsibilities that correspond to each one of us, so as to improve the conditions of life for our suffering brothers. He goes before us, "not that we may serve Him, but that He may serve and give His life to save all of us ".
Sisters and brothers:
1. The longing to be powerful is as ancient as the world. We ourselves experience it every day in the most commonplace situations, as in wanting to occupy the best or first place, in choosing the best of partners, in climbing up the ladder to a higher position at work - till we go so far as to fight for political power without a conscience, even destroying the adversary. At the root of the problem, there is always the terrible duality: an instinct for dominance and one's ridiculous vanity.
Our own self-centeredness can infiltrate to such a point that we think we are someone special, and that we are of even more worth if we dominate other people; and if only the other person could be more brotherly! Isn't this the question that is planted in one's mind? If the other person would really change into being my brother: then I could overwhelm him with my dominance, even against his own person or his own goods? Couldn't I also then speak poorly about him behind his back? Would he allow me to destroy his privacy?
2. For Christ, on the other hand, one is greater when he/she resigns their will to dominate others and learns to serve with a fraternal love. There are so many people around us that attract us, due to their generosity and their noble lives! One's moral authority is born from within a heart that is in solidarity, is generous, and serves. They radiate a special authority; they need neither to threaten, to bribe, nor to flatter. Perhaps this is the most important secret of life and yet the most ignored. We live life more intensely, only when we give it away. One can only live when that person helps others to live.
3. What is He asking of us? The service that Christ asks of us is demanding, however it is immensely fruitful. This service implies a struggle to the death against one's egoism and it is an exercise in humility; this is the hard part. Yet, it is also a productive service because it is our source of salvation. It is very easy for one to give something; and this happens to us also when it does not cost us anything, especially when we have an abundance. But honestly: who dares to give everything, and then to give one's all to the others, until it hurts?
Brothers: The idea alone of serving others, may scare many away. For others, it may attract them only to place themselves at the center of attention. It is an obligation of one's conscience to assume a commitment of service. We have to give what is alive in us: our happiness, our faith, our tenderness, our confidence, and the hope that sustains us and animates us up from within. To give one's life in this way - is always a gesture that enriches, that helps us to live, that gives life to others, that redeems souls, and that liberates and saves people. May it be - Amen.