“One word the Father spoke — it was His Son. And this Word speaks always in the eternal silence. And it is in silence that this Word is heard by the soul.”
— St. John of the Cross
On June 25-27, I traveled 363 miles with several priests from our diocese to attend a conference on Catholic preaching entitled, “We Preach Christ Crucified,” at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. One of my priest-companions was a 1961 alumni of Notre Dame (graduating before I was even born!). Normally over 80,000 people attend a Notre Dame football game, with a large national audience tuning in for this event of an almost “sacred” mystique. I was inspired to see 360 persons descend on Notre Dame for this conference. In our country there are 300 million Americans and over 60 million of those are Catholics. Although there were some 360 priests, bishops, deacons, religious and laity attending the conference, how many millions of persons rely upon them for inspiration! People will travel a great distance to hear a good word, one that gives spirit and life.
A few decades ago, a couple from Indianapolis, John and Virginia Marten, took a special interest in preaching and the homily. One Sunday after Mass, Mr. Marten asked his children (he had eleven), “What did you learn from the homily today?” There was silence. The following week he repeated, “What did you learn from the homily?” Again, no response. Trying on the third week to no avail, his children still had nothing to say. This experience spawned John and Virginia to act so that preachers would have available the best training to become effective communicators the Word of God. Through their generous gift in 1983, a Marten Program at St. Meinrad School of Theology in southern Indiana was founded. John Marten died in 1985 and his wife Virginia and family have continued to be vitally interested and supportive of effective preaching that penetrates the soil of the culture and converts hearts and minds to Jesus Christ.
One of our speakers at the conference this year was the Archbishop of San Antonio, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S. This 56-year-old Mexican-born, dynamic and friendly soul was a lightning rod of hope, electrifying the crowd. He made us smile as he said, “The great sin of the Archbishop is that I love to eat!” Jesus loved to eat with people, to teach to them and proclaim the Good News. Jesus always made time for people, and His life proclaimed what He preached. The Archbishop spoke on the importance of the integrity of our lives and credibility of our actions undergirding everything we communicate. Evangelical preaching allows us to illuminate minds, motivate hearts, challenge lifestyles, nourish lives and set the world on fire. It will work because the power of the Holy Spirit moves us and sends us to preach Christ. Preaching the Word of God is a privilege and sacred responsibility — to be a mediator of God’s Word, to console and encourage with God’s Word, to give others strength and hope.
The Archbishop spoke about the poor quality of our preaching, noting that some comment it is boring, superficial, irrelevant and useless. He reminded us that we are not to preach ourselves — preaching is not about us. It’s a conversation of love, inflaming people to become lovers of God and humanity. St. Augustine said, “We are hollow outwardly if we don’t hear the Word of God inwardly.” Christ goes beyond culture, language, socio-economic conditions, gender, nationality and age. We are to preach with conviction, passion, enthusiasm and piety, and to be commissioned by the Holy Spirit to set the world aflame.
Fr. Robert Barron, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the creator and host of “Catholicism," a ground-breaking 10-part series and study program about the Catholic faith, spoke on the “New Evangelization and the New Media.” He noted that Pope John XXIII at Vatican II emphasized that the mission of the Church is to bear Christ’s light to all the nations with new ardor, new expressions and new methods. The source of the Church’s ardor is our belief that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, which is also the source of evangelical preaching. Fr. Barron noted that there is a deep confusion about God in our society, with atheism multiplying. He said that God doesn’t compete with our freedom, He increases it. He said that we live in an increasingly disenfranchised world, a world with no spiritual reference or dimension. In St. Augustine’s words: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord.” Fr. Barron noted that pleasure, power money, honor..., these finite things, can never fulfill an infinite longing. Only God is the true answer to every human hunger. Unfortunately, we often float in a lazy lake that produces a “ho hum” culture where my will determines value and what I believe is up to me — a culture of sovereignty of self.
Instead we need to go “in haste” like Mary with a sense of purpose, meaning and direction, giving God sovereignty in our lives. To raise up a culture that has a great reverence for God’s Law, God’s Commandments and God’s Authority, we need to make use of new methods as a jumpstart of evangelization. The late Blessed John Paul II asked Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, “What are you doing to evangelize the culture?” Father Barron has taken to task this challenge to use modern technology, the internet and You-Tube to reach a generation. Check out http://www.wordonfire.org/ to see how Fr. Barron is doing this. When I met Fr. Barron, I mentioned to him that he is the Archbishop Fulton Sheen of our day.
As I jogged around the stadium at Notre Dame, I passed statues at every gate: Gate A (Dan Devine), Gate B (Ara Parseghian), Gate C (Frank Leahy), Gate D (Lou Holtz), Gate E (unnamed), and at no gate, Knute Rockne. These legendary coaches tried to communicate effective leadership on the gridiron for a winning championship. So, too, those of us attending the conference had a remarkable line-up of speakers, stirring us to first hear the Word of God and proclaim it boldly. I made a new friend in the Bishop of Fairbanks, AL, the Most Reverend Donald Kettler. There are 17,000 Catholics in his diocese with only 20 priests. He told me in the winter the sun comes up at Noon and goes down at 2:30 PM. I marveled at adverse conditions in which he witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
