In search of good homilies

“It’s hard to find sermons that resonate in daily life,” I told my confessor Father Dan McNamara years ago. “Many priests read from texts written by other people, or thunder on about sex and immorality, or worse, do not care and ramble endlessly.”

“So I shop around in search of good homilies. Is this okay, Father?  Or is it sacrilegious?”

“Shop away,” Fr. Dan said, and gave recommendations. Fr. Dan’s homilies are some of the best I know, personal and poignant, including the one on lasting love he did at my wedding, the year before Fr. Johnny Go was ordained into the Society of Jesus in 1998.

Crises of faith

“When I was younger, I would experience a crisis of faith at least once a week,” went one of Fr. Johnny’s homilies, “every time I attended Sunday Mass.”

Imagine a priest (and the director of a Catholic school at that) proclaiming this from the pulpit!

At his ordination, he confessed that, until after college, he did not want to become a priest. Friends and family members were flabbergasted. But God’s call could not be ignored.

But when he was a child, “I used to sit there every Sunday, helpless and hapless, my faith hopelessly slipping through my fingers. ‘Lord, increase my faith!’ I had nothing else to do but pray. Texting had not been invented then.”

Then Fr. Johnny said something I had never considered. In Mass, priests also have crises of faith, when they have an unresponsive, bored, or attention-deficit congregation.

“We can’t help but get bored by a church full of bored parishioners. We priests also cannot help, like you, but cry out to the Lord: ‘Lord, increase our faith!’”

What ultimately counts, of course, is God. “When we come to worship, usually our hearts are somewhere else: at the church door or, if we do bring it inside the church with us, we send it out in the form of a text.  Maybe God also can’t help but shake his head, praying to Himself:  ‘Please. Increase my faith.’”

This sermon alone is worth the price of the whole book.

50 something

Yes, ye of little faith, cogent, thoughtful and insightful sermons are finally available in a book, to be reflected on not just when we first hear it, but any time we need to.

For the book “50mething,” in honor of Fr. Johnny’s 50th birthday this year, his friends selected their favorite homilies from 1998 to 2010 in Mary the Queen Parish, Ateneo de Manila and Xavier School, among others.

Some sermons I am familiar with and they have left an impact. I read Fr. Johnny’s ordination message long ago, but the image of his beloved mother, who did not want him to suffer in training, leaving the young novice bags of siopao, reminded me of my own mom who, had she not passed away early, might have done the same thing if I had chosen the path of renunciation.

And then there was Fr. Johnny’s first talk few years ago as director of Xavier School. In kindergarten, he played a reluctant Prince Charming waltzing Cinderella. This event came to mind when he accepted the leadership job, with some trepidation but total obedience, prepared to waltz with faculty and staff.

I recall this every time I continue to refuse administrative positions in academe or government.

I admire Fr. Johnny because, for all his doubts and self-deprecation, he has more faith and hope and love than I.

Than, indeed, most of us. But, as my Grade 7 son Scott said, the sermons were “not holier-than-thou yet holy.” Immersed in pop culture, Scott and his friends love the pieces that touch on Neo in “Matrix,” the Sorting Hat in “Harry Potter,” and Mary Magdalene in “Da Vinci Code.”

Deepest gladness

Most pieces in the book though, I am reading for the first time. Each has passages that take your breath away.

Recently, a student asked for guidance on what to do after college.   Many paths beckoned, it was hard to choose.

After we discussed the pros and cons, I finally quoted from one of my favorite writers, the Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner: “The place that God calls you to is where your deepest gladness and the world’s deepest hunger meet.”

Hours later, I came across that same quote in Fr. Johnny’s book, so I told my student to read that particular homily. And he was comforted and enlightened.

The only close friend I have who knew of Buechner now runs a Christian ministry in Canada. None of my Catholic friends here had ever heard of Buechner so I gave them copies of his works.

One friend said, “But he’s Protestant!” to which I replied, “So what?”

I am going to give her Fr. Johnny’s book, too. He writes like Buechner, after all, and no one can question his Catholic faith.

When I read Fr. Johnny’s descriptions of the courage of mainland Chinese nuns at the Manila World Youth Day in 1995, I wept.  Another friend of mine is now spreading the Word in China. She had mentioned how risky it was, and I had told her to take care of herself for the sake of her kids, that she could not be of service to anyone if something happened to her.

I will give my friend the book, too.

“I discovered what it meant—and, for some, what it cost—to be both Chinese and Catholic,” Fr. Johnny said.

Though these homilies are addressed to groups, they speak to each of us personally of the simplest yet most profound truths. Give freely, from the heart. Seek the Lord everywhere. Embrace pain as prayer. Never refuse God’s mercy. And, above all, continue to love.

All sales proceeds go to Erda Technical and Vocational High School in Manila. “50mething” is available in National Book Store and Xavier School (7230481).

Fr. Mario Francisco, who also gives good homilies, said, “Buy three copies and give away the other two.”

E-mail the author at [email protected].