I have sometimes heard the comment from various priests that they can not remember the confessions they hear and very quickly forget them. Now whether this is a genuine charism of the priesthood or something more akin to hearing the same things over and over and tuning it out I don’t know.
I do have personal experience with something related, but certainly not a charism. That is within minutes of hearing a homily I pretty much have forgotten it. If there was a pop quiz at the end of the Mass I would almost certainly fail it. It is really quite annoying to try to recall what was said and to experience liturgical amnesia. No doubt much of it is my fault as my mind wanders during Mass moving from distraction to distraction. Although I also suspect I seek distractions during homilies because what is being said is not thought-provoking, but distraction-provoking. Sometimes a homily will momentarily grab my attention such as like yesterday when the Gospel concerned the Canaanite woman. Unfortunately in cases such as this it is because of the numerous ways the preaching about this can go wrong and it seems all those ways are explored. There are riches in the Church Fathers regarding this passage, especially Augustine, but instead the explanation was rather confusing. Maybe it is a blessing that most homilies in my experience are easily forgotten.
I also hope they never have a pop quiz about all three readings for the Sunday Mass. I could probably get the Gospel correct as I have other sources such as podcast homilies, blog posts, and Church news to help reinforce what the Gospel was for that date in the Liturgical Year. But if called to reference the Old Testament reading I would be very hard-pressed to recall what it was. That also goes for the New Testament letters. This is really embarrassing as I really do want to be able to reflect on these passages and to discern the reason the Church picked out the three readings in some connected theme.
So I am not very happy with having liturgical amnesia regarding the readings and the homily. Now if only I could have liturgical amnesia regarding most of the hymns used.
7 comments
Your point is well taken, and I am also occasionally grateful to forget the homilies I hear, but with the readings, I have a solution. I find that looking at the USCCB’s daily readings site the night before fixes them in my head and gives me a jump start to think about what I may be hearing about at Sunday Mass.
As a lector, I usually start this process several days in advance to familiarize myself with the readings multiple times, but I usually take a peek ahead even on weeks when I’m not reading, and it has greatly enhanced my own attention. I never “read along” in the missalette anymore, but rather listen to the lector proclaim the Word, in order to listen for the nuances that he has chosen, how they differ from what I picked out in my own reading of the text. This is of course on the best days, when the lector is clear and confident in his own proclamation, but even when the lector does a poor job of proclaiming, I still at least knew what the readings were thanks to my peeking at the USCCB site.
About 30 years ago, I was in the service and on my way to a base in Virginia, due to report in on a Sunday afternoon. That morning, I stopped at a small Catholic church (I can’t remember where) that was packed. And NO air conditioning. It was typical Virginia in August: 90 + with about 300% humidity.
An elderly Irish priest said the Mass. When it came time for the Homily, he said:
“Well, because it is so hot today, I’m going to spare you the trial of a long sermon. Just remember this: Today is hot, hell is hotter. Go out and be good this week.”
That was it.
I figure in my 60 years I’ve gone to between 4000 and 5000 Masses, most with a homily. Of all those, this is the only homily I’ve ever been able to remember.
I’m not clear what it is, but there’s a lesson here.
Yesterday, I was very fortunate. The homily included experts from one of John Chrysostom’s homily on Matt 15:21-28. ‘Twas memorable.
It’s a mistake to search for a common “theme” among all three readings. Sometimes, like this past Sunday, it works out that way; more often, it doesn’t. Broadly speaking, in “Ordinary Time” the Gospel passages appear according to the principle of “semicontinuous reading”. That is, they appear from one Sunday to the next in the same sequence as they appear in the Gospel book, although some material may be left out. In Year A (this year), the Gospel is that of Matthew. In Year B, it’s Mark, and in Year C, Luke. Each year the “bread of life discourses” from the Gospel of John are inserted for a few weeks. The Old Testament reading for each Sunday has been selected to harmonize with the Gospel reading, but the New Testament readings from the letters of Paul and James follow their own path of “semicontinuous reading”. So last week we heard excerpts from Chapter 11 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, ending with verses 29-32, this Sunday we’ll hear verses 33-36, the following Sunday we’ll hear Chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Mid-September we’ll move on to Philippians for a couple weeks, then First Thessalonians in October, etc.
The General Introduction to the Lectionary, especially Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, provides a detailed explanation of the rationale for the arrangement and choice of the texts. Paragraphs 66-68 in Chapter 4 and paragraphs 103-107 deal with “Ordinary Time”.
Funny, I usually forget the homily, too – except last Sunday, where it would have been better is I had. Caught two homilies at two different parishes, one by an priest and one by a deacon, both of whom appeared to be in their late 60s – so, educated in the 1960s and 70s.
Yikes. Here are these beautiful readings, all about how we Gentiles get to saved, too, and we get some sort of LSD flashback homilies, complete with Newspeak talk about ‘values’.
It would be nice if I could remember the good homilies. And I can’t forget the songs, either, usually – but the baffling homilies drove them right out this one time. Not a good trade-off.
I suspect that immediately forgetting the homily is a self-defense mechanism in your brain to keep you from going insane. Trying to incorporate all the banality in with your other thoughts would force your brain into places it doesn’t need to go.
((( I do have personal experience with something related, but certainly not a charism. That is within minutes of hearing a homily I pretty much have forgotten it. )))
Been there and done that Jeff! I’m hoping that some may be reading your blog and some Sunday, you might hear something that will make YA want to fly to the roof top and sing like YA use to in the days of old…
Anyway I can almost hear some priestly cells, maybe this Saturday and/or Sunday saying with a deep conviction stuff like… Listen folks I want YA’s all to go out there and politely tell all these Puppets, “I” mean these human animals but try to be kind and remember that YA are all entitled to YAR opinion
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=18142394&postID=2517703394690179972
butt like “I” said, try to be kind when YA alien angel gods tell these good human being cells that are left within them to “Stop” calling “Jesus” and all His followers indirect liars because “IT” is not very kind to do such things. Remember that we’re not talking about ordinary people hear, “I” mean here, these are people who really believe that Christians don’t really have “Faith”, they truly believe that there are all kind of Jesuses and this as been going on centuries. As a matter of fact, GOD (Good Old Dad) sent His Only Begotten Son “Jesus” to correct this problem butt the alien angels who had teamed UP for centuries agreed that this old man could be add again just like the days of old if they just hung in there. Anyway “Jesus” tried to warn these Puppets, “I” mean these good human animals but the more HE tried to warn them, the worst “IT” got…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2014/08/19/isis-split-her-in-two-she-would-not-convert/
Nowadays, scholars and popular writers have mined the Christian Gospels to “look behind” them, to create a portrait of what Jesus really was like and believe “IT” or nuts, “I” mean, they are using purely modern methods and they have the support of many alien angel cells… Mind YA, they say that Jesus is butt a historical Jesus as opposed to the Christ of Faith that we true Christians believe in Jeff…
Don’t tell them that all of US (usual sinners) “I” mean that we gods have told YA that they believe that YAR Jesus is nothing butt a so called “Zealot” and they are polite about “IT” so what do YA want us gods to do about “IT” when Victor doesn’t even believe in US, “I” mean us now…
Long story short, many these days for whatever reasons honestly believe that the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth is but a Gay, “I” mean a Ferry Tail, “I” mean tale and most Puppets, “I” mean good human being will continue to follow this Almighty Dollar long tradition cause they must protect their home front, “I” mean they must all follow their chores chart hypothesis that the alien godly virus angel species have wanted them to follow for hundreds of years. Remember Fred, “I” mean Jeff that YA didn’t hear about this Bluff from “ME”, “ME” and “ME”…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2014/08/15/third-way-ism-and-hegels-bluff/
As we gods were saying Jeff this Jesus nowadays is nothing but a Jewish zealot and all the rebel alien angel cells of those days will agree that Jesus was against Rome and the Roman angels, “I” mean agents of those so called two thousand centuries or so agree with “IT”…
Longer story short her, “I” mean shorter! Come now! Not yet! “I” mean this poor Jesus was His OWN worst enemy and we gods are not just saying this because He kept His Friends close but simply because He kept His enemies even closer and they all considered Him a Fool in LOVE at the time…
Jeff! Jesus was wrong to try and tell these human that we alien, “I” mean that these alien angel godly cell species existed… Truth be known “IT” would have been just as easy for this Jesus to tell them the truth instead of saying stuff like: Unless YA hate YAR mother, father, son, sis and what have YA… Come to think about “IT” this did happen about over two Thousand Years ago and these days we gods are a LOT smarter and………………………………………………………………………………and…………………………………………………………………….and………………………..
END YA SAY sinner vic? DON’T BE LIKE THAT! BE NICE NOW!
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Mt%2016:13-20
Go figure brothers and sisters in Christ nowadays? LOL 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJQNhZeB8XM
God Bless Peace