Okay, What Is It With The Good Homilies All Of A Sudden?

I got back from my trip to the Grand Canyon Sunday and I was DOG TIRED. I mean, I was PLUM TUCKERED OUT.

I’d driven 1200 miles in 48 hours (make that 1500 in 72 hours if you count the trip to the mud volcanoes), slept little and fitfully on hard hotel beds, and gone hiking in almost-freezing-cold weather at an altitude of 6000 feet (in a body acclimatized to 500 feet).

It was EXHAUSTING.

So when I got back, I was exhausted. But I had a problem: I still needed to go to Mass. With an hour to go before the last Mass of the day, I was falling asleep. So I set my alarm clock to give me 20 minutes to get up and get to Mass and then took a catnap.

I awoke debating with myself whether I was sufficiently tired to be excused from my Sunday obligation, but decided to go to Mass anyway.

If the priest celebrating Mass would have turned out to be the pastor, I seriously considered asking him if I could be excused from my Sunday obligation if I’d go to a daily Mass later in the week (pastors have the authority to excuse you), but it wasn’t the pastor. Instead, it was Fr. "Deep Voice," who was being assisted by a deacon.

I really dread going to the last Mass of the day on Sundays, because it’s the "youth Mass" at my parish, with its "youth choir" and "youth band" and "youth readers" and is designed to appeal to "youth." As a result, I find the music horrible, and so it was no surpise when they started Mass with a song whose opening melody line was (I am NOT kidding) "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" played in a minor key. (The song is called "Sing Out Earth And Sky." Pray that this sanity-shattering liturgical horror is never inflicted on your parish.)

The homily was done by the deacon.

I ended up being glad that the pastor wasn’t the priest in attendance, because as a result of not being excused from my Sunday obligation, I got to hear one of the best homilies I’ve heard in a long time (not counting Fr. "You Decide!"’s recent memorable homily).

It started off as a standard "Let’s diss the commercialization of Christmas without offending anyone" homily–you know, the one in which the homilist talks about how much he enjoys Christmas celebrations and buying presents and such, thus providing himself heat shield for the deplorations of commercialization that he’s about to give. As formulaic as this type of homily tends to be, I appreciate them to a significant degree because at least people are being reminded that they need to resist the commercialization of Christmas and remember its spiritual significance.

But then the deacon’s homily really TOOK OFF!

After inoffensively dissing the commercialization of Christmas, he then asked (forcefully) "But who’s  birthday  is it, anyway!?"

He then asked (again, forcefully): "Is Jesus on your Christmas list?–And is he at THE TOP of that list?"

He then said that he wanted to give us some "shopping ideas–like the commercials do on television–for things that you might want to buy as presents for Christmas. I’m not talking about a CHEAP GIFT that is gone the next day. I’m talking about a GOOD GIFT."

He then went on to name things that we might give (to Jesus) as gifts for Christmas, such as:

  • Donating to or volunteering our time at homes for unwed mothers.
  • Resolving to go to Mass every Sunday next year if we aren’t already going to Mass regularly.
  • Resolving to go to Mass an ADDITIONAL day each week if we are going to Mass on Sundays. ("I didn’t say it would be easy," he added.)
  • Signing up to do an hour of Eucharistic adoration each week (possibly following his own example of signing up for a hard-to-fill hour; he mentioned that his is 1 a.m. Sunday  morning, and he added that, although he often wakes up for it thinking "Why did I ever volunteer for this?" that he NEVER regrets it once he is there and sitting in Jesus’ presence).

I mean, his homily totally ROCKED!

It wasn’t standard Christmas holiday sentiments and vague generalities about what to do in our lives. It was loaded with SPECIFICS and CHALLENGING BUT ACHIEVABLE SPECIFICS that can help DRIVE HOME to people the significance of Christmas if they make and follow-up on these resolutions.

YEE-HAW!!!

Now: I had been thinking early on of excusing myself for the concluding rites, in view of how tired I was, but after the deacon’s homily zoomed up into the stratosphere, I knew I had to hang around and thank him after Mass.

Credit where credit is due.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

24 thoughts on “Okay, What Is It With The Good Homilies All Of A Sudden?”

  1. Jimmy, I wouldn’t have thought that one could be excused from Mass for fatigue. Not that I haven’t done it, but when I did, I then went to confession for having missed Mass. Please fill me in on what constitutes valid reasons for missing.

  3. “Sing Out, Earth and Sky” is a bit odd, I’ll grant you. But as long as you sing it like it’s an opera aria or an old school Protestant hymn, and it’s being played on an organ, it sounds okay. Otherwise, it is a tad bizarre.
    The real problem with it is that… well… Catholics don’t really do call and response songs, unless it’s an actual Mass part, like the psalm. It’s silly to pretend they will. So why do composers insist on writing them?

  4. A slight apology for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”: the tune is a French folk melody entitled “Ah vous dirai-je maman” that was arranged into a theme and variations piece by no less an authority than W. A. Mozart. So, even though culturally we’ve made that tune very lightweight, it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. (Of course, whether it belongs at Mass at all is a different question!)

  5. Jimmy, I wouldn’t have thought that one could be excused from Mass for fatigue

    I would think that if one was so tired a drive to mass would be dangerous to self and others, avoiding mass would be reasonable.
    Now if that fatigue were the easily foreseeable result of one’s day, that might be another matter.
    Anyway, I’ve noticed homilies getting much better lately at my own parish. Perhaps God is handing out Advent gifts to his flock and his shepherds.

  6. Hi Jimmy,
    I’m curious — do the priests and/or deacons at your parish know who you are, and do they know about your work with Catholic Answers Live, your blog, your books, etc.? Or are you pretty much anonymous there?

  7. The great Homilies must be spreading. Usually our priest gives good Homilies. At least he talks about our faith and the sacriments and such and it isn’t much fluff, but man, the homily he gave for last weeks Mass was just absolutely awesome. It was for the Marian feast day and wow it just rocked. So I say, yay, thank God and yay again!

  8. What Is It With The Good Homilies All Of A Sudden?
    Could it be that Frs. “You Decide!” and “Deep Voice” and Dcn. “No Remarkable Idiosyncrasy” might reading your blog? You decide!

  9. Are you opposed to youth liturgy in general or badly-done liturgy (youth or otherwise) in particular?
    With regards to musical styles, etc. in liturgy I view the various approaches as analogous to different facets of a diamond* – each illuminating a a slightly different part of the same beautiful inner reality that is obviously Truth itself.
    On a personal level I am priviledged to participate in an awesome daily Mass with a very devout Benedictine community. The combination of deeply devout monks, occasional latin, gregorian chants, and beautiful physical surroundings (particularly in the winter, when only the altar is lit, and most of the remainder of the church is kept dark) is a real treat.
    On Sundays I’m equally priviledged to participate in a “youth liturgy” with extraordinarily enthusiastic (if not nearly as mature)folks that are really enflamed with a love of Jesus, his real presence in the Eucharist, and the gift of his church. Anyone who doubts their commitment should check out the hundreds of kids who come monthly for rock-solid adoration (with exposition), or check out the vocations coming out of this community (the first two priests are being ordained this May).
    Yes I know there are many ways that outreach to youth has been abused, from watering down or even corruption of liturgy, to bands who view the liturgy as a concert rather than worship, and so on and so on and so on. BUT IT CAN BE DONE RIGHT, and when it’s done right, the power to develop truly committed Catholics is awe-inspiring.
    God bless.
    *(thanks to Fr. Terry Kraychuk who uses the diamond analogy to explain the beauty of the various rites within the one, holy, and apostolic Catholic church).

  11. Gosh, someone turned on bloody italics.
    Oh, and my pastor’s homilies are always good. His main theme is ‘going through the motions’ and ‘semi-Catholics’
    Erm…
    [/I]

  15. Heh. Sounds like Mozart was doing it more for fun than culture.
    “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman
    Ce qui cause mon tourment?
    Papa veut que je raisonne
    Comme une grande personne
    Moi je sais que les bonbons
    Valent mieux que la raison.
    Ah ! vous dirai-je, maman
    Ce qui cause mon tourment?
    Papa veut que je retienne
    Les verbes La Laurentienne
    Moi je dis que les bonbons
    valent mieux que les leçons.

  16. Jimmy: I know what you mean about youth mass. My daughter is in confirmation formation this year and so now we are supposed to attend the youth mass. Last time one of the songs sounded like “Under the Sea” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. By the time the song concluded I was thinking about Ariel and Sebastian (mermaid and crab friend) instead of about God. My bad. But as for homilies, I noticed that my priest has been giving better homilies lately with more zing and actually telling people about sin! But then I had to ask myself whether his homilies had gotten any better or whether I was listening better! He who has ears should hear!

  17. I’ll trade you my last seven bad homilies for your one good one 😉 Honestly I can usually only count on two fingers the number of good homilies I hear in a year. The mediocre ones are usually on one hand as well.
    One nice thing about going to grad school full time, working full time and writing a book is that it has necessitated paring down Christmas. I have the box of lights still behind the couch. I MAY get them up when finals are over, but that’s just for me. I LIKES ME THE LIGHTS. Other than that? I was pretty poor, so folks didn’t get much, and I was too busy to watch TV or go out in public and be inundated by the commercialized Christmas vibes. I even got all my Christmas shopping done before thanksgiving, so I dont have to make extra trips to the mall and shopping centers and such.
    …Of course, I also have so little time that I’m writing this post while I’m on the phone with someone and lunch is usually peanutbutter. I no longer have time to spread it on bread, so I just eat it with a knife out of the jar.
    GO LITTLE CHRISTMAS!!!!!

  18. Signing up to do an hour of Eucharistic adoration each week (possibly following his own example of signing up for a hard-to-fill hour; he mentioned that his is 1 a.m. Sunday morning, and he added that, although he often wakes up for it thinking “Why did I ever volunteer for this?” that he NEVER regrets it once he is there and sitting in Jesus’ presence).
    I just wanted to mention that back around 1995 or so, I decided to start going to my local parish’s Friday/Saturday Eucharistic Adoration, and I figured that, as a college student, I should take the most difficult hour – 2 am. (I was usually up at that time anyway, so why not?)
    It turned out to be an incredible experience each week, with my learning more about my faith, my vocation, and the value of silence.
    In 2000, I met a woman who I liked, and wanted to learn more about. So, we went out to dinner a few times, and eventually had one of those “all-night, tell me your life story” talks. Most of the way through it, she sat up bolt upright in the chair, looking into the kitchen, and then said, “Oh, it’s Wednesday, not Thursday.” I asked what that meant, and she said, “You’re going to think it’s weird, but every Thursday, I go to the church and sit in front of the Eucharist from 2am to 3am.” I nodded, with an odd look on my face. She said, “I know – weird, huh?” I said, “Not as weird as the fact that I *also* go from 2am to 3am on Fridays.”
    I married that girl, and we now have a 10-month-old daughter.
    God is good!

  19. I’m teaching grade two Catechism this year… in line with the who’s Birthday is it anyways?, last week, our last class before
    Christmas, we held an early Birthday party for Jesus! We even had a cake that said “Happy (early) Birthday Jesus!,” We had party hats, banners, baloons, and all that jazz. I admit, I’m one of those people who has clearly defined boundaries between Advent and Christmas, but seeing as this was our last class before Christmas, I wanted to do something with the kids to remind them what Christmas was all about. We then made a craft that consisted of a Birthday card, decorated on the outside with ribbon and and such to look like a present, and on the inside the kids wrote “Happy Birthday Jesus! This is my Birthday present for you. I will…” and then they came up with their Birthday present for Jesus. It’s amazing what some seven year olds will come up with if left to their own creativity. Very humbling as well. The Birthday presents ranged from “I will sing you a song” to “I will forgive people” to “I will be nice to my brother” to “I will pray for the poor people” etc…
    Anyways, yes, what are we giving Jesus for His Birthday?

  20. I love the Christmas present for Jesus idea. We actually start Christmas morning in our family by having the youngest put Baby Jesus in the creche, and then singing that beloved Christmas carol “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” and eating cupcakes. For the littlest ones, reinforcing the whole “birthday” thing makes it much clearer. But I hadn’t thought before about presents for the Christ Child… Very cool idea, I’ll have to confer with dh on how to work this in.

  22. Overheard:
    Priest 1 : Once a year, i get a really good congregation. Everyone was answering at their normal voice, everyone was singing. I had to check whether I was at a Catholic church.
    Priest 2: Yeah, why can’t our parishioners be like evangelicals. I don’t even know if they listen to my homilies. I use only one homily for the whole year and no one has called me on it.
    Priest 3 (with deep voice): Something strange happened to me. Just after I said the homily last Sunday, I heard somebody at the back go “YEE-HAW!”
    But seriously folks, are we celebrating the “birthday” of Jesus or are we celebrating the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah (not really the same thing). The first sounds too secular for my taste.

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