‘For He Taught Them As One Having Authority’

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS refers to Christ who, after preaching in a synagogue, left a deep impression on the people who compared the way he preached with the way the scribes preached. (cfr. Mk 1,22)

This gospel episode somehow reminds us, especially priests, about how preaching should be properly done. It cannot be denied that while preaching can lend itself to a varying number of styles, there is one indispensable element that should not be neglected.

And that is that preaching should be done in the person of Christ, and not just as our own. That is the most important aspect of preaching, otherwise we would be preaching something else, and not the things of God.

That’s why we need to see to it that we develop and ever polish the art of preaching, which is a vital extension and participation of the preaching of Christ. Through the powers of the sacraments and the liturgy, Christ’s preaching continues up to now, this time making use of authorized ministers.

This is how we have to view preaching. It’s not just some priest yakking at a certain point in the Mass. It is delivering and listening to the word of God as expressed once by St. Paul when he extolled the Thessalonians:

“We give thanks to God…because when you heard and received from us the word of God, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God who works in you who have believed.” (1 Thes 2,13)

It’s about time that we give serious attention to this very important aspect of our life, since as we all know a lot of flaws, confusion and wrong practices have marred it through the years.

For us priests, especially, we need to internalize the gospel, God’s word where the life, teaching and example of Christ are recorded, not in the way an actor internalizes his script. We internalize it by making it the very life of our mind and heart, the very impulse of our emotion and passions. It should be the soul of our whole life.

Thus, when we preach we cannot help but somehow showcase the drama inside our heart, giving others a glimpse of how our heart is actually taking, handling and delivering the word of God.

Preaching should reflect the condition of our heart as it grapples with the living word of God. It should not just be a matter of declaiming or orating, reduced to the art of speaking and stage performing, a mere play of our talents.

Neither should it be just a display of our intellectual prowess or our cultural wealth. It should manage to show the actual living faith and love our heart has for God’s word, how our heart is receiving it and reacting to it.

Thus, preaching is a matter of how effectively we manage to show and teach Christ to the others. It’s never about us, the preachers. Rather, it can be about us in our effort to bring Christ to the others. Its success or failure depends solely on this.

St. John Mary Vianney, patron for priests, is an example of an excellent preacher. Though not very gifted intellectually and humanly, he managed to preach well because his heart burned with great love for Christ.

That love led him to an amazing eloquence, full of common and supernatural sense, that attracted all kinds of people, even the most sophisticated and complicated ones.

We need to learn to preach from a heart immersed in Christ!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com