In this sense, I am essentially in agreement with you: It is not enough to preach or to do pastoral work with the precious cargo acquired in theology studies. This is important, it is essential, but it must be personalized: from academic knowledge, which we have learned and also reflected upon, in a personal vision of my life, in order to reach other people. In this sense, I would like to say that it is important, on one hand, to make the great word of the faith concrete with our personal experience of faith, in our meeting with our parishioners, but also to not lose its simplicity. Naturally, great words of the tradition — such as sacrifice of expiation, redemption of Christ’s sacrifice, original sin — are incomprehensible as such today. We cannot simply work with great formulas, [although] truths, without putting them in the context of today’s world. Through study and what the masters of theology and our personal experience with God tell us, we must translate these great words, so that they enter into the proclamation of God to the man of today.
And, on the other hand, I would say that we must not conceal the simplicity of the Word of God in valuations that are too heavy for human approaches. I remember a friend who, after hearing homilies with long anthropological reflections in order to bring others near the Gospel, said: But I am not interested in these approaches, I want to understand what the Gospel says! And it seems to me that often instead of long summaries of approaches, it would be better to say — I did so when I was still in my normal life: I don’t like this Gospel, we are the opposite of what the Lord says! But what does it mean? If I say sincerely that at first glance I am not in agreement, I already have their attention: It is understood that I would like, as a man of today, to understand what the Lord is saying. Thus we can, without circumlocution, enter fully into the Word.
This is beautifully put and very moving. My only hesitation was the passage about drinking from your own fount, your humanity. We drink above all from Christ. But to criticize the Pope here would be to take the passage out of context: he is really saying that we can only preach effectively if we see our own life, and the life around us, in the light of the gospel. We have to be anchored in reality.
From my own experience of preaching I would say that this is a supremely important task, but that a delicate balance must always be kept. Sometimes it is difficult to find that balance. For example,
(a) you may refer to the world around you, to contemporary issues, but at the same time you must not be a partisan politician or tub-thumping activist;
(b) you may refer to stories, or incidents from your own life, but at the same time you must not be alarming, or ramble on self-indulgently or leave people focussed on you;
(c) you may refer to the community around you, but must not leave people wondering if next Sunday you will use something they said about themselves in your homily.
With regard to (b), to illustrate, I remember a Lutheran pastor beginning a sermon by referring to an stunning act of rudeness by his daughter. We hardly heard any of the rest of the sermon – we were left wondering about the family dynamics. It is also difficult referring to your own struggles. Those who preach will share the same human struggles as those in front of them. They may have a story to tell of finding Christ’s strength, or the mercy of God, in their own life, at a moment of need. But to say too much risks either being over-emotional or self-dramatising or disconcerting. Perhaps it is best to recall that in the pulpit or at the altar, we are always, in some way, naked, even without saying much about ourselves. People know us, and hopefully they love us (and sometimes forgive us) and know that we are fellow-pilgrims on the journey through life.
I liked these statements, reminding us of the simplicity of truth :
“And we must also keep in mind, free of false simplifications, that the Twelve Apostles were fishermen, artisans, of the province of Galilee, without special preparation, without knowledge of the great Greek and Latin worlds. And yet they went to all the places of the Empire, even outside of it, to India, and proclaimed Christ with simplicity, with the force of simplicity of what is true. And this also seems important to me: Let us not lose the simplicity of the truth. God exists and he is not a distant, hypothetical being, rather, he is close, he has spoken to us, he has spoken to me.“
#2, That part struck me as well. I heard echoes of Francis Schaeffer’s “The God Who is There”.