Once upon a time, I thought of doing a blog post homily every Sunday (based on the Gospel for the Day of course). I thought about it as advance practice if Divine Will should dictate that I become a priest. But, like almost every idea I can think of these days, it never materialized.
Simply put, it is hard. Coming up with a 15-minute sermon based on a 2-3 paragraph Gospel reading is not what it seemed to be.
I guess the blame points back to me. Either I didn't try hard enough or I aimed too high.
I wanted these sermons to be earth-shattering revelations full of intimate reflections and newly-found truths. I didn't want to sound like those priests I criticized way back who were content with rehashed and hackneyed homilies. In the end, I was in a state of paralysis: not wanting to start because the perfect idea for the sermon hadn't come my way just yet.
Looking back, I have a better appreciation for priests in general. It's hard to put out an inspiring message every week, let alone every day. It's doubly hard when the message had to be grounded upon a text (the Gospel) that has been around for quite some time and which has been analyzed, shared, refined, and reflected upon for so many years. Against this backdrop, even a decent homily is a great accomplishment for a priest and a great and novel homily, in turn, is a miracle.
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