Do you remember any Sermons?
Most visitors to Vincentian Mindwalk have heard anywhere from hundreds to literally thousands of sermons. Opps, I mean homilies!
How many do you remember ? Any that changed your life?
Buckingham Palace has announced that the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth will be at Westminster Abbey on September 19.
I immediately remembered the homily Bishop Michael Curry preached there. Harry and Meaghan flew the Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States for their wedding!
At this point, I don’t know who will stand in the pulpit of Westminster Cathedral for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. But I do know this person will have to clear a high bar.
In the Vincentian Mindwalk, I offer a taste of a sermon I definitely remember. I hope it whets your appetite enough to view it in its entirety on YouTube. On the BBC channel alone, it has been viewed well over a million times!
The Power of Love
“Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history. .. I’m talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.“
“He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying… he sacrificed his life, for the good of others, for the good of the other, for the well-being of the world… for us.”
“If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.”
“Just imagine…
- our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way
- governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
- this tired old world where love is the way.
“When love is the way – unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.”
“When love is the way…
- no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
- we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
- poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
- we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
- there’s plenty good room – plenty good room – for all of God’s children.
“Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well… like we are actually family.“
“My brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.“
The fire of love
“Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said that the discovery, or invention, or harnessing of fire was one of the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human history.
“Fire made it possbile to…
- cook food and to provide sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its time.
- heat warm environments and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even into colder climates.
- Without fire there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire.
“And he then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love – it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.“
“We must discover love – when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.”
How did St. Vincent discover… and manifest the power and fire of love?
How will we discover… and manifest the power and fire of love?
Click below for an early audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk
I don’t recall who introduced me to Father William Bausch from the Trenton Diocese, whose homilies were so compelling that one of his parishioners transcribed them from her notes and those transcripts ended up in one of his several books. Many of those homilies are shorter than some of the ones we hear in our parishes on Sundays and there’s a lot to be said for brevity and conciseness.
His overarching method is re-telling one story (aka parable) by telling another story or two. He even published a book on Storytelling, which I discovered today is back in print (or I should say “reprint”).
One of his homilies had a definite effect on me and probably helped me gather some kindling for that fire you mentioned. The homily was entitled, “View from the Ditch.” It was a retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan from the perspective of the man who had been accosted and left on the side of the road, in the ditch. His homily opened up so many facets of that parable that I find myself still unpacking every time I hear or read it.
When I get stuck in the pews straining to hear something of substance from homilists, I often drift back into how Fr Bausch might have approached the subject and that gets me through to an honest participation in praying the Creed at the end of the homily and the remainder of the Liturgy.