- THE PREACHER TODAY (A)
Chapter VI develops four points: (1) Jesus, Teacher and Preacher; (2) Attitude and Qualities of a Preacher; (3) Dominican Preachers; (4) What Lay Faithful Expect from Preachers
- ALL PREACHERS
Jesus Christ inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News” (CCC 763). He was sent by the Father, and He sent his apostles to preach. The apostles sent other disciples and so forth and so on. Until today. Today preachers are sent to proclaim the Good News after Christ.
- JESUS IS THE TEACHER AND PREACHER.
Christ taught with authority, with power. His doctrine is “the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom 8:2), written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but in the tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3). Aquinas goes on to say that the fact that Jesus did not write any book means that He has less power than those who write. Quite the contrary: “It is a sign, not of lesser, but of greater power, to do something by means of others rather than by oneself.” Thus, Jesus gave his sublime doctrine to his close disciples, and these to others (STh, III, 42, 4 ad 2).
St Thomas writes that for a person with great dignity it is more excellent to talk to his disciples and not to leave anything in writing. Like Pythagoras and Socrates did. Like Saint Dominic did. St. Thomas put forward three enchanting reasons to prove why the Lord did not leave any writing. First reason: due to his dignity as the most excellent teacher: “He was teaching them as one having power” (Mt 7:29). Second reason: due to the sublimity of Christ’s doctrine, which cannot be expressed in writing (cf. Jn 21:25); his sublime teaching “could not be comprehended” (St. Augustine). Third reason: Jesus wanted to reach all “in an orderly manner: Jesus teaches the disciples and subsequently the disciples teach his doctrine to others: from the apostles onward to today. Jesus did not leave anything written by himself but through the disciples who knew his doctrine (III, 42, 4 ad 1). Unamuno advanced a simple and marvelous reason: Christ did not leave us any writing, but He gave us something much better: living words! (palabras vivas).
As preachers, we are “sent” by Jesus to proclaim the Good News. The Risen Lord appears to the apostles and tells them: “As the Father sent me so I send you” (Jn 20:21). During his public life Jesus had told his disciples: “Whoever listens to you listens to me “(Lk 19:16). Following the apostles, the preachers give themselves completely to prayer and the ministry of the word (cf. Acts, 6:2-4). St Paul’s words keep ringing in the heart of the preacher: Wow to me if I do not preach the Gospel (1 Cor 9:16). The Word of God is like “a strong wine, and it does intoxicate.” “The one who makes his hearers drunk with the words of God will himself be made drunk with a draft of manifold blessings” (Humbert of Romans; quoted by Paul Murray OP, The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality. London: Burns & Oates, 2006, 134-135).
- THE DIGNITY OF THE PREACHER
Cardinal John Henry Newman writes: People are drawn and moved, not simply by what is said, but by how it is said, and who says it (Quoted by Cameron Why Preach? 168). His dignity is surprisingly great, if the speaker is “vir bonus arti dicendi peritus, if the preacher is ‘a good man and a skillful person’ in bringing good news to people. He is a person who lends his tongue to Christ: he is not talking about himself, or selling his personal opinions; he is speaking of the mystery of the Kingdom, of things of God… Hence, professors of rhetoric underline three processes in preaching: from mind to mind; from mouth to ear, and from heart to heart. The efficacious word is based on three loves: the love of the speaker, the love of the recipient, and the love of the message (A. I. Lafuente, in Valero’s, 42). A classical saying: Say what you feel; feel what you say (di lo que sientes; siente lo que dices) (Ib. 44).
The preacher is a “message-man,” a man with a message, an old and living message for today. He himself becomes the word of God living in him. A good method to deepen our knowledge: comprehension, contemplation of and commitment to the Word of God - lectio divina.
The preacher is a “message-man” who knows, translates and comments the Word of God for a particular audience today. A servant of the Word, he applies the Word of God to today’s life. “Things exist because God speaks them” (Cameron, 68). “The Bible is more than a book: it is a presence, a person. It is the eternal Word” (Maurie Zundel, in Cameron, 68). It heals. It saves. The Word of God is an encounter with a person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. “No matter how doctrinally perfect or brilliantly insightful it may be, it misses the point. For only an encounter turn people into Christians. The Truth we are looking for has to be a person, not a message” (Cameron, 55). Indeed, the essence of Christianity is not an idea but a Person (Romano Guardini, in Cameron, 52).
The preacher is a disciple of Christ, and follows him. He is poor in spirit and realizes his unworthiness and sinfulness and God’s love and compassion. The preacher listens to Christ in the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit. He discovers the face of Christ at the table of the Word and at the table of the Eucharist. (Cf. José Ramos Domingo, in Valero’s 159-163). The preacher is a member of the Christian community, of a religious community. The community of faith sustains him in his preaching.
Motivated by charity and compassion, the preacher listens to the community, to their needs and problems, and gives with humility and love a word of hope. He is an administrator, a servant of the Word addressed to these concrete people (Cf. Manuel Ramos, El arte de la homilía, 25-26). He proclaims God’s Kingdom and the human and religious values of justice, solidarity, fraternity and peace (cf. EN 31). The great Dominican preacher Vincent McNabb (20th century) remarked to his brethren: The world is waiting for those who love it… If you don’t love men don’t preach to them – preach to yourself (Quoted by P. Murray, 149). The preacher loves his audience. He usually begins his sermon or homily, “My dear brothers and sisters.”
- THE FRUITS OF PREACHING
Preaching is fruitful when it produces good fruits, like the good tree. What fruits? Humbert of Romans and other great Dominican preachers speak of the following fruits: Conversion and humiliatio mundanorum (despising worldly things); people going to confession (e. g., with St. Vincent Ferrer); receiving the Holy Spirit, sanctificatio a peccatis; increase of the mystical Body of Christ. These and other fruits happened when listeners respond to God’s grace, not just or mainly to the preacher’s ability to deliver a good semen or homily; this may just be human eloquence, entertainment, etc. It may be a good lecture but not necessarily a good sermon. A preacher may be graceful (gratiosus), but not graced (with gratia praedicationis). (Cf. Simon Tugwell, The Way of the Preacher, 64-73)
The success of a sermon depends first of the grace of the Holy Spirit – in preacher and listeners -; second, on the hearers’ response, and third, on the preacher’s work. There are preachers who do not take preaching seriously, and there are listeners who do not listen. A sermon may be ineffective because of the preacher: he is not really a preacher, there is absence of grace in his heart. Or he preaches a bad sermon because he did not prepare properly: he did not organize his thoughts and comments well; his voice could not be heard; he preaches himself, his opinions, his life and yokes; is vain - “vanity of vanities. (cf. Tugwell, 68-71). Every preacher knows that the fruits come from God’s grace. Hence, he must do his part and pray to God that his words may convert him and his listeners - more.
A sermon may be ineffective because the listeners are hard-headed, or not interested in God’s Word. God’s grace does not fail but the preacher and/or his audience may fail: God gives us his grace but we may not receive it. For sure, God does not force our freedom, and we can and - unfortunately do - say no to him.
- ATTITUDE AND QUALITIES OF A PREACHER
The preacher is “sent” by God to preach. He is not a preacher because he likes it, but because he is “sent”. His preaching, then, is an unavoidable responsibility. If one is called like that, he cannot escape like Moses who wanted to escape because he was not a good speaker; like Jonas, who could not (cf. Jon 1:2); like Jeremiah, who could not escape either (Jer 1:6). Elijah, too, wanted to stop preaching and wished his death (1 Kg 19:4). God told his prophets: You go, and they went at times reluctantly but went and suffer a lot for doing so!
- SENT FOR A MISSION
Therefore, the preacher is sent by God, by the Church to proclaim the Kingdom of God faithfully, as a faithful administrator of God’s Word (cf. 1 Cor 4:2). He is called to proclaim the Word of God humbly (cf. Mt 11:29). The preacher is sent by the Church from his priestly ordination to preach the Good News of God: we are sent for a mission. We are missionaries. We are “prolongation of Christ, just as the prophets were his anticipation… Therefore, the humble Catholic preacher must feel himself supported by the universal Church, as a wave feels pushed by the whole sea” (D. Sertillanges, El orador sagrado, 19).
The preacher is a witness of the message he preaches. There should not be “contradiction between his life and his preaching” (Calvo, 77). How may one preach the Good News if these are not good news for himself? Certainly, the preacher is also a sinner and should always preach from humility, but also with authority: “One preaches with authority when he previously does what he says” (St. Gregory the Great, quoted by Calvo, 79). Moreover, as St. Thomas Aquinas remarks, in preaching the Gospel, the wisdom or the virtue of the preacher contributes much to its success (in Calvo, 80). The preacher’s words are not just words he learned but “expression of living faith” (Ib.). To preach one thing and live another is a contradiction (cf. José Ramos Domingo, “Homilética: teoría y praxis,” in Valero, Servidores de la palabra, 159-176). Still the preacher is also a sinner and obliged to preach, although he knows that he is a sinner – but not a notorious sinner! (Humbert of Romans; by Tugwell, 51). If he is humble and tries hard to convert others, God will convert him (cf. Jer chapter 15, in Tugwell, 51).
The preacher is a translator. K. Rahner: “The structure of preaching of an era must be ’translated’ into another while maintaining the core.” The words of God were pronounced in a different cultural environment and in different historical time and are to be given to a very distinct audience. The preacher tries to be a faithful translator and do equivalent translation (Calvo, 80). The preacher actualizes the biblical text by (1) showing its significance to the listeners today; (2) by applying it to our situation, the circumstances of the audience, and (3) by using simple modern language (cf. Cameron, 86).
The preacher is a commentator. He does not merely translate, that is, tells others literally the Word of God (fundamentalism) but interprets it and explains it. He has to present yesterday’s Word to today’s audience. (Calvo, 81). The Bible was not written for biblical scholars and our interpretations are always limited: the inspired and living text tells much more than what we grasp, and the Holy Spirit keeps unfolding for us new meanings, never opposed to the core meaning. A sermon, a homily is peached in the chapel, in the Church. Liturgical celebrations are ordered to worship God, not to study the Bible or Theology.
- ATTITUDE OF A PREACHER
It is good to know how to speak and the great speeches through history. You cannot be a good musician if you do not learn from the masters: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Joaquin Rodrigo, etc. But do not copy others. You got to be yourself. Our preaching is a prolongation of our own personality. Do not preach long. I remember the words of a town mate, Desi, on a Sunday, and when I was walking towards the church to say Mass: “Don Fausto, vamos a oir Misa no a oirle a usted (Don Fausto, we are going to hear Mass, not to hear you). Somewhere I learned the secret of a good homily or sermon, although at times I am not able to follow it! The ABC of a good speech: Accurate, Brief and Compassionate. “Sermón bueno y breve dos veces bueno” (a good sermon if brief, two times good). Well-known American Dominican preacher Peter John Cameron OP says that his homilies last eight minutes: “The longer the homily goes, the more the attention span wanes” (Why Preach? 177).
“Preaching is not the act of giving a sermon; it is the art of making a preacher; the preacher then becomes the sermon” (Fulton Sheen). The preacher ought not to be afraid (cf. Mt 1029). He should not be afraid “to speak with boldness the message received.”
Three functions of the preacher: first, “the preacher must listen; he must be in the secret place with Christ… [One may only listen the voice of God when his heart is attuned to God; no noises of selfishness, but self-forgetfulness]. No man can speak for Christ unless Christ has spoken to him; no man can proclaim the truth unless he has listened to the truth; for no man can tell that which he does not know. Second function of the preacher: the preacher must speak what he has heard from Christ, and he must speak even if, by speaking, he takes his life in his hands. And third: the man with a message speaks to men in the presence of God (W. Barclay, In Mat 10:26-31).
Jesus is Lux mundi (light of the world) We are also, Jesus says, light of the world: “Vos estis lux mundi” (cf. D. Sertillanges OP, El Orador sagrado). The preacher is received, like St. Paul, “as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus” (Gal 4:14). It is understood that a preacher proclaims the truth: He who does not say the truth, cannot pronounce a word of God.” The message is the message of Chris and the messenger carries this message (cf. D. Sertillanges, El orador sagrado, 19).
Preaching is most helpful to the preacher himself: “When I preach, I preach to myself; when I prepare myself to instruct, I instruct myself; when I am the coach of people, I also march” (D. Sertillanges, 29). Paul to Timothy: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim 4:16; cf. Ib verse 6).
I suggest, with Fr. Sylvester MacNutt OP, the following: before preparing a sermon, a homily, a retreat, the preacher asks himself six questions. (1) Does this sermon answer a spiritual need of the people? (2) Does the preacher relate his subject to his listeners’ lives and make it of personal importance for them? (3) Does the preacher touch the spiritual need of as many of the audience as possible?” (4) Does the sermon suit the occasion or feast? (5) Does the preacher stick to his subject? (6) Does this sermon have something finite to say about the subject, or does it lack focus? (Cf. Sylvester F. MacNutt OP, Gauging Sermon Effectiveness, 18-32).
The attitude of the preacher through his delivery: be yourself, be humble; give hope; have and show self-confidence. In preaching, the preacher presents himself as he is: his personality, his faith and convictions, his understanding of the world in which he lives.
Attitude of the preacher towards God: the constant need of listening to him in prayer and meditation – on one-on-one conversation, often just silent presence before him. Anthony of Padua writes: “In the first place, the preachers must exercise themselves in the air of contemplation with desires of eternal happiness, so that later on they will be able to feed themselves and others with the bread of the word of God.”
Attitude of the preacher towards the people, the audience: good will towards them; love them; no to anger, yes to a sympathetic approach. His preaching is an encounter with his audience, and above all, an encounter of the listeners and of himself with God.
Attitude of the preacher towards the message. We are dealing with God’s word. The preacher is the servant of the Word. Hence, “no preacher may preach himself, but instead witness the Word of God, of his Son Jesus who became man and dwelt among us” (Calvo, 77). The Word of God is sacred, and therefore deserves reverence and entails in the preacher a strong desire to communicate the message, wich is Good News to all.
- PREACHER BY OTHER NAMES
I love a text of St. Thomas on the different names that a preacher has: soldier, vineyard laborer; shepherd; ox; farmer; threshing; architect, and finally minister of the altar (cf. St. Thomas, In I ad Cor., c. 9, lect. 1: by Calvo, 82).
From an old text (1741) we have the following wonderful titles the preacher may have. He has to be like a clock: he gives the exact time. Like a lantern: not only gives light but illumines the way. Like a conductor or driver, who points out the way while making the way himself. Like light, which does not enlighten others unless he herself is lighted. Like a cock, that when he wants to wake others up must wake himself up first with the movements of his wings. (Cf. Calvo, 82).
- DOMINICAN PREACHERS
Like other preachers, Dominicans preach “to the whole world” (cf. LCO 108-123). This is the goal of our vocation and of our preaching: the liberation and salvation of humanity.
(1) PREACHERS AFTER ST. DOMINIC
Dominicans are, after St. Dominic, praedicatores gratiae. Dominican preachers proclaim God’s grace and mercy truly, positively, zealously, and compassionately (cf. ACGBH19, 178).
Dominican preachers proclaim the truth of the whole Gospel, that is, they know the truth – veritas -, preach the truth, and do the truth in love. In a world invaded by the so-called post-truth, fake news and sweetened lies, and also by what is apparently “politically correct,” only the truth will make us truly free (Jn 8:32) - free to love.
Dominican preachers proclaim God’s Word with zeal, that is, with passion and enthusiasm (cf. ACPA17, 96; RFG, 30). Historians tell us that “Dominic completely renewed the canonical order [apostolic life] that then had lost its original zeal.” Thus, “zeal for preaching must be present from the first moment of any vocational discernment” (ACPA17, 96). Indeed, zeal for preaching in candidates is an undeniable criterion to vocational discernment (ACGBH19, 180, a).
The followers of Saint Dominic proclaim the Word compassionately, with the “compassion and friendship of God, directed towards the fullness of justice and peace” (RFG, 14), and with compassion for the people. The witnesses for the canonization of our Father Dominic repeated: Dominic had “the gift of compassion.” To be able to preach with compassion convincingly, preachers have to experience compassion for the needy around them: “Our Province, following the mission and the example of Dominic’s compassion and mercy, does not give up in its effort to continue transmitting the hope of the Good News that is increasingly concerned about the impending future …” (ACPA17, 101).
The preacher is open to the Spirit and to the people they preach to, and taking note of their situation (cf. LCO 99, # II; 106 and 110). Paul preached with “the demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4; cf. Ibid. verses 1-10). Filled with “grace and power” - like St. Stephen -, the good preacher knows and feels that the Holy Spirit speaks through him (cf. Acts, 6:8). Thus, he needs to “cultivate the spiritual life and the human virtues” to be a creative preacher. He is a member of a community that sustains him and also preaches (cf. LCO 99-100, # III). To speak with authority, with “charismatic authority,” the preacher needs the power of a deep spirituality. Always open to continuing conversion and unceasing renewal, the preacher is “called to engage seriously in permanent formation” (RFG, 172; cf. ACGBH19, 180, b).
Learning to preach is part of initial formation and of ongoing formation that is directed to “forming apostles and preachers” (RFG, 15; cf. ACG, 2019, 180, b). Good, qualified preaching is supported by our Dominican spirituality and its elements, namely, prayer, study, community life, the living out of the evangelical councils and regular observance. These are necessary for our preaching ministry to be faithful and fruitful (RFP, 106). Dominican preachers are contemplatives who share their contemplation of the Word with others – contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere - and therefore treasure meditative and contemplative prayer and silence, in which the voice of God is heard. Prayer is the fountain where we get the needed water to nurture and cultivate our preaching ministry. It is good to remember here that the focus of the apostles’ life was, and must continue to be in the apostolic life, “prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 5:4).
Our preaching springs, moreover, from a spirituality of listening. We are asked to “look for places of silence to hear God and his word, to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus, and to hear the women and men of our world” (cf. ACGBH19, 128 and 125). Silent listening is “the premise and undeniable part of preaching.” It was so in Dominic’s preaching. Our brother Schillebeeckx told us, following our Father: If you don’t talk to God first, you can’t talk about him. Hence, the continuing need of a “humble and attentive listening” to God and to people and to God’s creation, a contextual listening to the Word of God that requires an enlightened reading of the news and their sources - the printed and online mass media.
(2) THE NEED OF WITNESSING, INCLUDING POVERTY
The apostles gave “with great power their witnessing to the resurrection of the Lord” (Acts, 4:33). All preaching is supported, made credible by the authentic life of the preacher - a life that preaches (ACPA2017, 99). Always true the well-known words of Saint Pope Paul VI: “The first mans of evangelization is the witness of an authentic Christian life”; “Modern man listens more to witnesses than to teachers [including preachers], and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41; cf. RM, 42; ACPA17, 65). In the world, in Asia, St. John Paul II said that people are more persuaded by holiness of life than by intellectual arguments.
The good preacher lives his sermons and homilies. Our sister St. Catherine of Siena wrote that the reform of the Church must be done by holy and good shepherds in deed and in truth, not only with the sound of the word, because if it is said and not done, this would amount to nothing.” Our General Chapter: We can only preach in a credible way with a witness of life that proceeds from fraternity lived in our communities. It exhorts us to care for the common fraternal life as the first form of preaching (ACG, 2019, 176). Truly, “we preach together when together we pray, grow in our fraternity and study the Word” (ACPA21, 75; cf. ACGB64).
Dominican preachers are good preachers if they live a simple life style. As mendicants, “we live in simplicity and detachment” (RFG, 19). Preachers are “sent” to preach the Good News of Jesus to all, “and especially to the poor” (LCO 98). Our peaching is “particularly concerned about the religious and human problems of the poor and workers, especially the problems of those who are far from their faith” (LCO 109, # I). This means “the proclamation of the Gospel and communication of grace to the needy and disadvantaged of the world” (ACPA17, 100). The 2017 Provincial Chapter urged us to remain committed to individual and collective poverty of religious and communities (ACPA17, 55).
From the life and teaching of Jesus onward, a constant companion of authentic preaching is poverty. The apostles, the first Christian communities, the canons, the mendicants and religious congregations considered preaching and poverty always together, as it is clear in the life of our Father Dominic and the first Dominican communities. In fact, our Dominican normative states that all professed brothers ought to have “apostolic experiences” in contact with the world of the poor, the exploited and the marginalized (cf. RFG, 144).
Preaching to the needy. Humbert of Romans says that good preaching consists on this: preferring to preach where there is more need. Truly, what does it profit to be preaching always to religious men and women and/or pious people, who do not need it much and leave on the sidelines those who really need it? That is why the Lord says: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mt 9:12). But, are we really well enough? (A brother Dominican, a well-known American preacher, comments: “There is no more daunting an audience to preach to than to ‘our own’.” He was going to preach to an audience made up of “venerable older friars, a few priests who were my peers, not to mention a number of student brothers preparing for the priesthood: all in all, - Cameron adds -, “a lethal combination” (Peter John Cameron, OP, Why Preach? 181). (FGB, OP)