UNDERSTANDING THE LITURGY by John J. O'Brien, C.P.

PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS: PREACHING IN OUR CHURCH

I remember two things about the preaching of my boyhood pastor, Monsignor Joseph W. Hack. The first was that he often said: "I daresay." The second was that he preached from a book of outlines that the Diocese of Brooklyn issued each year. Up until the late 1960s many dioceses issued sermon outlines on the ten commandments, the commandments of the Church, the corporal works of mercy, the seven sacraments, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, etc. (if anyone can remember all of them, without looking them up, see me for a special prize!). These catechetical instructions were a long tradition in the Church. For example, St. John Chrysostom (Chrysostom means golden mouth) gave moral instructions to those preparing for baptism and for those newly initiated. St. Cyril of Jerusalem explained the meaning of the Eucharist for those who had just received the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. These moral or doctrinal catechetical sermons at Mass were eventually replaced by the homily at the Sunday Eucharist.

The Church of forty years ago witnessed a great variety of preaching. On Sunday we had doctrinal and moral sermons. On Good Friday, we had the three hours service and enthusiastic preaching on Jesus's seven last words.

Every year we had Passionists come to give a parish mission. The platform was erected in the sanctuary. Monsignor Hack marched through the dimly lit church carrying the large Mission crucifix and then firmly set it in place on the platform. Every night the mission preacher gave a short instruction on prayer or devotion to the passion of Jesus. He then delivered the mission sermon on the four last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. Sometimes he scared the hell out of sinners. Hell fire and brimstone sermons were meant to conjure up repentance and sorrow for one's sin. This would be followed, not by an altar call as was done in Protestant revivals, but by a trip to the confessional. Passionist preachers were to be lions in the pulpit and lambs in the confessional.

Later when I entered the Passionists and was in training, the local superior would give a pious ferverino before night prayer. This was a short talk meant to inspire us.

Finally, every year, there was the annual retreat with the preacher sitting at a desk. The only light was on the desk, right next to the crucifix that we all saw as we were spellbound by the carefully crafted and suasive rhetoric of the preacher.

I found myself fascinated by street corner preachers. At the corner of Broad and Wall Streets, in the shadow of New York's stock exchange, preachers from the Catholic Evidence Guild set up their box and began doing apologetic preaching during lunch hours. It got really exciting when a heckler in the crowd engaged the preacher and then was refuted by skillful, cleverly reasoned arguments.

Whether it was Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on TV or the Passionist missionary preacher, it was obvious that Church reforms based on the Council of Trent's emphasis on preaching were successful. The period between the 1920s and the 1960s in America was a rich time of quality preaching. I knew then that I wanted to be a preacher.