Last month, I celebrated the 55rd anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. When I read the texts for today, the Feast of the Ascension, I realized that its words have indeed been at the very heart of my past 56 years of ministry, if you count my one year as a deacon.
Let me give you a quick synopsis of my own “going out to the whole world to proclaim the gospel” and what I have learned in the process.
My earliest memory of being attracted to preaching took place when I was seven years old in the Cloverport Baptist Church, way down river, at a family funeral. At that time, I had never before stepped foot in a Protestant church, but even at seven years old, I was absolutely fascinated by that Baptist preacher’s dynamic preaching style. I was both enthralled and hooked! Back then, I knew that I wasn’t supposed to like it, but that day I knew that I did anyway!
Growing up, our parish priest was a good man, but I do not remember him ever being any good at preaching. He avoided it as much as possible! In the spring, he would say that it was too hot for a sermon. In the fall, he would say that it was too cold. I do, however, remember being fascinated by the preaching of the priests who would come through every few years or so to conduct a Parish Mission. A bit scary, they would shout and walk down into the congregation waving a Bible or a big crucifix! They kept me on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what they would say next! It was obvious that they were there to challenge us to become better Christians and better Catholics! Even as a child, I took them very seriously!
The next time I remember being attracted to preaching was at Saint Meinrad Seminary. When I arrived there in 1965 as a Junior in college, Vatican Council II was going on and I remember taking to heart these words from that Council. “Priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of the Gospel of God to all.” Not only did I hear that challenge, but I was privileged to hear monks model good preaching every day in the seminary chapel.
As much as I was attracted to preaching, I had a problem. I was so bashful that I was terrorized by even having to read in the seminary chapel. It slowly began to dawn on me that I needed to overcome this handicap if I wanted to fulfill my “primary duty” as a priest after I was ordained. I resolved, then and there, to do whatever I could to conquer my crippling bashfulness.
That resolve eventually led me to sign up for a summer program for seminary students offered by the United Church of Christ. Their program was called a “A Christian Ministry in the National Parks.” I was the first of two Catholic seminarians to sign up for their summer preaching program. After my orientation in Chicago, I was assigned to preach in the campgrounds of Crater Lake National Park in the state of Oregon. In the summer of 1968, I preached in the park campgrounds twice every weekend all summer long. When I got back to Saint Meinrad Seminary for my final year of seminary, when we were offered our very first course in preaching, I went into that course with more preaching experience than anyone else in my class. During that final year of seminary, I was ordained a deacon and was given opportunities to preach at Saint John Vianney Church here in Louisville where I had been assigned.
Two weeks after being ordained a priest, I found out I was being assigned to the “home missions” down along the Tennessee border, to a parish the size of the state of Delaware where the Catholic population was only 1/10 of 1%. I was not happy, but I had no choice but to go. For ten years, preaching in a crowded sea of Protestant preachers became my main ministry. I was invited to preach three years in a row by a public high school graduating class at a school that had no Catholics in its student body. This happened after I had been invited as a guest speaker to answer their questions about Canterbury Tales in their English Literature class. I also had the opportunity to be an interfaith campus minister at Somerset Community College. I also preached "short church services" for the residents of a boys’ state-run juvenal delinquent institution.
After ten years in the “home missions,” I was sent to central Kentucky to a 225 year-old Catholic parish in Calvary, right outside of Lebanon, Kentucky. I went from an area with almost no Catholics to an area that was almost 100% Catholic! From there, after only 3 ½ years, I was suddenly sent to our Cathedral, a dying parish that was on the list of parishes being considered for closing. You heard me! The Cathedral was on a list of parishes being considered for closure. Parish membership had dropped to only 110 members. By focusing mainly on preaching to marginalized Catholics for fourteen years, we grew to over 2,100 members.
After leaving there, I went to preach to college students at Bellarmine University and to seminarians from around the world who were studying to be priests at Saint Meinrad. During fourteen of those following years, I published a weekly column in The Record that contained summaries of many of my homilies. I have preached over 80 Parish Missions and published quite a few books of collected homilies. I preached over 150 priest and bishop retreats in 10 countries. I have even addressed two conferences of Bishops: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Antilles Bishops Conference. Finally, until COVID reared its ugly head and their volcano erupted, I was volunteering in the foreign missions of the Caribbean. I made 12 trips down there. I preached in their Cathedral many times, in the Bishop’s Pastoral Centre Chapel and several of their parishes.
After that, I went back to our Cathedral for a short time, only to learn the hard way that “you can’t go home again!” I finally came here to St. Frances of Rome and St. Leonard and have been preaching here happily for the last several years! I have also been preaching to the elderly on Mondays at the Little Sisters of the Poor and to the Louisville Ursuline Retirement Community some Sundays. I am now finishing building a church in Kenya in west Africa where the Catholic Church is growing, not shrinking.
Why am I telling you all this? During all those years, I
learned the truth of what St. Gregory Nazianzus said, “One and the same
exhortation does not fit all. According to the quality of the hearer ought the
discourse of the teachers to be fashioned.” A preacher must change his style to
fit the hearers in front of him. All of them require a different approach and a
different style. Preaching to college students is different from preaching to
nursing home patients. Preaching to non-Catholics is different from preaching
to Catholics. Preaching here is Louisville is different from preaching in the
Caribbean missions.
Here are some of those groups to whom we are called to preach the gospel.
• PRACTICING CATHOLICS:
These individuals rarely miss Mass, are present at most
parish functions, take advantage of opportunities for faith formation,
participate in the social ministries of the parish and support the parish
financially. Oddly, this may be the smallest of the groups to whom I have
preached. This was my main focus when I preached in Calvary and as a seminary
staff member at Saint Meinrad. My fellow Catholics, we priests must stop the
routine of preaching to the choir and start paying attention to who are NOT here
– stop the routine of giving 90% of our attention to 20% of the flock just
because they show up on Sundays. When will we get it through our thick heads
that the numbers of those who show up are shrinking right in front of our eyes
and the warmed-over. in-house. pietistic, “church-chat” we are dishing out from
our pulpits is not that appetizing to most of our people?
• NON-PRACTICING CATHOLICS:
This group has been called “the second largest denomination in the United States.” They may still be registered members of a parish, but they attend Mass infrequently. Some of them may even send their children to sacramental preparation or religious education. When asked, they may identify themselves as “Catholics,” having been “raised Catholic,” “former Catholics” or “recovering Catholics.” This was my main focus when I preached at the Cathedral between 1983 and 1997, in my Parish Missions and quite often in my fifteen-year weekly Record column. Not all non-practicing Catholics are alike! I can list four different types of non-practicing Catholics and each require a different preaching style:
THE MAD — those who describe themselves as having been hurt, abused, or neglected by clergy or other church workers.
THE SAD — those “separated” from the Church because of marriage, divorce, sexual orientation or doctrinal issues. Typically, these people feel a sense of loss.
THE IGNORED — those who stay away because they do not feel accepted, do not feel that they fit in or do not see other minorities like themselves. Many are immigrants or people of color.
THE BORED — those who have no particular complaint with the Church, but who have grown weaker in the practice of the faith over the years, may not have been strong to begin with or who do not identify with much that any religion has to say. They are just flat out bored with what they experience. This could be the biggest group of non-practicing Catholics.
• OTHER BELIEVERS:
Those in this group are believers who identify with another faith tradition. Their attitudes toward Catholics vary from outright hostility and suspicion to that of interest and respect. This group is especially important because of the number of inter-religious marriages in our Church. This was my focus when I preached in Crater Lake National Park, down in southern Kentucky, the Caribbean missions and at the Cathedral, especially in my work with the Cathedral Heritage Foundation.
• THE UNCHURCHED:
These people do not identify with any organized religion. They describe themselves as “not interested in religion,” “spiritual, but not religious,” or “agnostics.” I have always found this group especially honest and fascinating. This group was my main focus in southern Kentucky, especially in Monticello.
Each of those groups require a different approach and a different style of preaching. We priests and deacons simply must move beyond our “one style” “take it or leave it” attitude.
In preaching to all these groups, I have tried my best over the last 56 years to carry out the words of Vatican Council II, “Priests have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all.” Because I consider preaching to have been my “primary duty” all these years, in my own funeral plans, I have asked to be laid out in my free Saint Meinrad casket, holding a copy of the Lectionary in my hands rather than a chalice that most priest are laid out with. It is a gift given to me by the Archbishop of Winnipeg, Canada, after a couple of days of talking to him and his priests about their “primary duty” of preaching.
In all those years of preaching to such a wide-range of audiences, I have tried to heed the words of Saint Gregory the Great who said “The preacher must dip his pen into the blood of his own heart; then he will be able to reach his neighbor’s ears!” In other words, I have tried to share my own doubts, my own failures, my own sins and my own setbacks to show you that I am with you, not above you! To remind me of that, I have always tried to remember the words of the famous baseball player, Johnny Sain, who said, “People don’t want to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby.” When sharing my problems, I have understood that people don’t want to hear about how bad I had it, they just want to know how to overcome their own setbacks and sins!
As I look out at you today and think of all the
congregations in several countries to whom I have preached, let me say it again
and again! It has been an honor to share the Word with you and so many other
people in so many places! My "pulpit tour" today is a glimpse into
the challenge of carrying the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”
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