Pope’s plea for shorter homilies falls on deaf ears

By M L Satyan

Coimbatore, Nov 7, 2024: On November 2, I attended Mass in the Catholic Diocesan Cemetery in Coimbatore around noon time.

The priest who celebrated the Mass holds an important post in the diocese. He preached for 35 minutes. That was “the most confusing homily” I have ever heard in my life. He said, “A person dies three times – once when the heartbeat stops; second when the person is buried; and the third when people forget that person who died.”

The audience looked confused.

He then challenged one part of the audience saying, “If any one proves that there is a mention of “purgatory” in the Bible I will give one lakh rupees.” Soon after that he challenged the nuns saying, “If you prove that purgatory is mentioned in the Bible, I will give you two lakh rupees.”

By posing this open challenge, did the priest try to prove that he has the “money power”? Interestingly, he never gave a clear and convincing answer why the Catholic Church believes in Purgatory.

At one stage of his homily, he announced that the parish priest (who was a concelebrant) celebrates his birthday on November 2 and he made the people clap their hands. He also said that he enjoyed the birthday breakfast that morning. He also announced, “Your parish priest is the fourth child in his family.”

The parish priest interrupted saying, “No, I am the fifth child after four sisters.” Then, the preacher said, “Oh sorry, he is the fifth child and his mother gave birth to him after a long prayerful expectation.” Now my question is: Was that occasion appropriate to make such announcements? According to me, the preacher made a fool of himself.

On the same evening my friend came to visit me. He is based in Delhi but visits Coimbatore regularly. He said, “I am surprised to note a trend in the Catholic parishes in Coimbatore. That is – the priests give lengthy homilies and the Sunday Masses are stretched for more than two hours.”

I have heard similar comments from quite a number of people. Surprisingly, this has been the concern of Pope Francis too. Speaking in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday catechesis on June 12, the Pope explained that the goal of a homily is to help move the Word of God from the book to life.

Hence, he made a request to priests, “Please be brief…no more than 10 minutes, please! Lengthy and abstract homilies are a “disaster”.

He further said, “The homily must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling. The homily should not go beyond eight to ten minutes because after that time you lose attention and people fall asleep.” It was not the first time and the Pope has stressed the importance of shorter homilies on several other occasions.

The Pope’s words echo the recommendations made by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic in his 2010 book on the 2008 Synod on the Word of God, which advised prelates to keep their homilies to eight minutes or shorter and to avoid “improvisations” from the pulpit.

Speaking off the cuff to diocesan liturgical directors on January 20, the Pope said, “Homilies are not academic conferences. I sometimes hear people say, ‘I went to this parish, and yes it was a good philosophy lesson, 40 to 45 minutes.’ He elaborated saying, “Homilies are “sacramentals” to be “prepared in prayer” and “with an apostolic spirit, but, in the Catholic Church, in general, the homilies are a disaster.”

He further said, “A pastoral approach to the liturgy allows religious celebrations to “lead the people to Christ, and Christ to the people,” which is the “principal objective” of liturgy and an essential principle of the Vatican Council-II. If we neglect this, we will have beautiful rituals, but without vigour, without flavour, without sense, because they do not touch the heart and the existence of the people of God,”

The Pope also said, “The job of a diocesan liturgical director is to offer parishes a liturgy that is imitable, with adaptations that the community can take to grow in liturgical life. A liturgical director should not care about a parish’s liturgy only when the bishop comes to visit and then let the liturgy go back to how it was after the bishop leaves.”

A closer examination of many homilies reveals that over 80 percent of the content often lacks relevance to the people’s lives. The homily should serve as a platform for priests to address pressing socio-economic and political issues affecting their communities.

For instance, during Mass on Independence Day, one would expect a priest to inspire patriotism and reflect on current events. Yet my experiences of attending Mass in Bengaluru and Coimbatore, the focus remained solely on the Assumption of Mary, neglecting the opportunity to connect faith with national identity.

I had the opportunity to interact with a number of priests and a retired bishop about the instruction of Pope Francis on the duration of a homily. They all raised the same question: “What can we preach in eight to ten minutes?” Their question is a clear indication that they have not understood what the Pope has said.

The priests want to make use of the occasion of the Eucharist as an opportunity to “bulldoze” or ‘bombard”. They think that they have to talk as much as possible and as long as possible. In the whole exercise, their “ego” dominates and nothing else.

As far as I know, there are Parish Council, Catholic Sabha, Mahila Sangh and Youth Group and Pious Associations. I have never seen a parish having a permanent “Liturgical Committee.” Why? The priests think that liturgy is their “specialised area” and no one should interfere in it.

Hence, the priests do “whatever they want” during the liturgical celebrations. Liturgical books, authorised by Rome and the local bishops’ conferences, exist. Yet, each priest celebrates Eucharist in “his own style”. This can be witnessed in every Catholic Church.

The time is ripe for the priests and laity to wake up to the reality that liturgy is the celebration of life. Hence, proper training must be given in the formation houses; liturgical committees are formed in every parish; the diocesan liturgical committee needs to give clear guidelines to make every liturgical celebration meaningful. Will the pope’s instruction be taken seriously and followed? We need to wait and watch.