Florida Catholic | What Makes A Homily Good?

Father Timothy Sherwood preaches a homily at St. Joseph Parish in St. Petersburg.

JANET SHELTON | FC
Father Tim Sherwood preaches at St. Joseph Parish in St. Petersburg.

What makes a homily good?

Compelling priests prepare and practice for what they preach.

JANET SHELTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU

Published: 03.14.08

ST. PETERSBURG | It’s the Sunday liturgy at St. Joseph Parish here and Father Tim Sherwood is on his hands and knees.

His homily message is about spiritual thirst and the priest is taking the role of a man searching for water in the desert. We all have spiritual thirst, he explains, and when you are looking for spiritual water, don’t follow mirages — worldly things that distract you from God; they only lead to more sand, more dryness.

An unconventional approach to a homily? Certainly. But it is probably safe to say that Father Sherwood had everyone’s attention that Sunday.

As part of his Living Eucharist initiative, Bishop Robert N. Lynch has talked about the importance of good homilies and how many Catholic priests could more effectively use their time at the pulpit. At the recent diocesan Living Eucharist conference, he said he has sometimes delivered homilies that weren’t up to par.

What makes a good homily? Father Sherwood doesn’t consider himself an expert, but he has studied the topic extensively. He is finishing a Ph.D. in leadership studies with a focus on rhetoric — the study of oral persuasion. In 2001, he graduated with a doctorate in ministry in preaching from the Episcopal seminary that is part of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools, a consortium of six different Protestant seminaries that study together. He chose the Episcopalian program in part because it was strong on practice and feedback.

“I wanted something that was more practicum involved,” the priest said. “This was geared more toward the application (of studies).”

At the school, Father Sherwood studied and practiced the preaching styles of other Christian denominations, some of which were “quite dynamic,” he said. It was quite an experience for a Catholic, but he said he did pretty well.

“I enjoyed experiencing and talking with … others from these other traditions and preaching to them,” he said. “I held my own.”

Father Sherwood said that the point of a homily is to bring an important message related to the readings of that day to the congregation. The congregation is a key part of a “persuasion triangle” connecting the homilist, the message and the congregation.

Preparation is critical in creating a homily. Father Sherwood takes a full week. He starts with the next week’s Mass readings, does research, focuses on a theme and formulates the presentation. He speaks his thoughts out loud to see how they sound. He thinks about visual tools.

The homily that had Father Sherwood crawling though a desert in search of water was based on the Gospel reading that day about Christ’s encounter with the woman at the well.

“Here I am crawling up the middle of the aisle,” he said. “I am using as much as I have to preach with.”

He doesn’t write down his presentations.

“You want that to complete the (persuasion) triangle with the people and you don’t want barriers in that,” he said. “If you try to communicate orally with something that has been initially put together in a written form, you are already putting in a barrier between you and the people.”

Father Sherwood said he strives to get the congregation interested in the homily from word one. The middle of a homily is the teaching portion. The end has to be strong.

“You have to have an emotional punch at the end,” he said. “If I have a pertinent story, I try to lead to my story near the end.”

Father Sherwood said Catholic seminaries are addressing homiletics better than when he was studying for the priesthood, but those classes are still too often led by a priest who gives good homilies, but who doesn’t have the necessary teaching tools.

“I think the time has come that seminarians need to learn about the history of preaching and some of the real theories of preaching,” he said.

The priest isn’t alone in his thinking. Benedictine Father Guerric DeBona is a professor at St. Meinrad School of Theology, an Indiana seminary that houses one of the larger homiletics programs in the United States. Many of the methods taught at the school were developed by Protestant ministers who, by reputation, are far better at preaching.

Father DeBona said homilies are an important part of ordained ministry, and their importance was driven home in a 1982 document by the U.S. bishops.

“It’s just part of ordained ministry. It just must be there,” he said. “The homily leads people from the word of God to the table where they can give thanks and praise,” he said. “If we’re not going to give them (reasons for) thanks and praise, why would they want to do that”?

Like Father Sherwood, Father DeBona starts preparing his homilies a week before he delivers them. It takes time and he knows parish priests are extremely busy, but that probably isn’t the only problem, he said. Preparing a homily is a lonely process that can mean hours spent in front of a computer or in research. Active ministry is a lot more affirming, and there can be a temptation to slight the homily in favor of other responsibilities.

“They’ll find time if they can and if they want to. I think it’s always going to be a matter of prioritizing,” Father DeBona. “You just have to live with the satisfaction that you are doing what God wants you to do.”

He said studies show two primary reasons people leave a church or parish are bad preaching and bad music. In their preaching, priests need to respect the people to whom they are speaking and connect with them on the level of their shared humanity and baptism. Father DeBona said three things especially hamper homilies:

One, the priest doesn’t take enough time to prepare.

Two, he tries to say too much and doesn’t concentrate on a unified thread.

Three, his communication skills are weak.

Priests can take communication methods used in the secular world and employ them in homilies, Father DeBona said. They need to be aware of what they are up against in contemporary culture and draw from it, not just condemn it. Oh, and they need to know the Bible.

“Then they can make cross-references and really preach the salvation history, which is in the word of God,” he said. “To be able to grasp that through biblical text, I think, is very important.”

Another obstacle to effective homilies can be a heavy foreign accent or a priest who speaks too fast for people who don’t understand English well. The best message will be rendered ineffective if the congregation can’t understand the words. Father DeBona said dioceses need to prepare priests coming from other countries.

“They need to be in a program of accent reduction,” the Benedictine said. “If you put a priest who is struggling with his accent and add a bad sound system, you have a recipe for disaster.”

“My recommendation for people transitioning in that area is to copy the homily and have it distributed,” he said. “While he’s learning, this would be a really nice stopgap or bridge to help people. (It shows) ‘He’s got something here. He’s not just rambling.’”

And finally, priests really shouldn’t take others’ homilies. They can use them for research, but they shouldn’t take them, the priest said. Not only is it ineffective, but sometimes people will hear the same words in different parishes on different weeks, so they know the priest is not composing an original.

“You’re not really owning a crucial part of your priestly ministry,” Father DeBona said. “I do think it’s dishonest to pass something off as yours that is not.”

Father DeBona said a homily is a crucial bridge between the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist — much more than 10 minutes to fill. Uninspiring homilies not only can kill a parish; they can drive people away from their faith. Catholics are checking out and sometimes joining evangelical churches, he said. Why is that? Because of the music? Because of the preaching?

Neither priest pretends that’s it’s easy to give a strong homily week after week. Father Sherwood admits that for all his preparation, some things just don’t click. “A lot of times I’ll do something at the 5 o’clock (vigil) Mass and it doesn’t work,” he said. “And I’ll change it all for the next day.”

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