By: S. Brice Higgenbotham, Seminarian, Diocese of Houma–Thibodaux
Part of our priestly formation here at NDS is preparation to preach homilies. What follows is the text of a “practice homily” for our Homiletics II class taught by Father Philip Neri Powell, OP. Many of his actual homilies can be found on his blog at hancaquam.blogspot.com.
“Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.” This is how the Church responds to the Gospel! We sing! We “sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds!”
Are we singing today? If we’re not singing out loud, are we singing in our hearts? When you woke up this morning, did you experience the power of the resurrection? When we woke up this morning, did we experience the joy of the Gospel? If not…why not?
We sing with the psalmist, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Are our hearts maybe a little hardened to the power of God and to the joy of the Gospel?
When Pope Francis was here in America a few weeks ago, he had this to say: “So much seems to stand in the way of this invitation to rejoice. Our daily routine can often lead us to a kind of glum apathy which gradually becomes a habit, with a fatal consequence: our hearts grow numb. We don’t want apathy to guide our lives…or do we? We don’t want the force of habit to rule our life…or do we? So we ought to ask ourselves: What can we do to keep our heart from growing numb, becoming anesthetized? How do we make the joy of the Gospel increase and take deeper root in our lives?” How do we do that?
The Holy Father then told us that “the source of our joy is an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of our own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy’ (Evangelii Gaudium §24).” That same power which rose Jesus from the dead!
When you and I don’t experience the power of God…when you and I don’t experience the joy of the Gospel…when we are at risk of being called by Jesus an “evil generation” with hard, numb, anesthesized hearts, maybe we can ask ourselves two questions:
Number 1: How am I experiencing the power of the Father’s infinite mercy? When I go to Mass, how do I prepare to receive the Eucharist, the “kiss of Jesus”? How often and with how prepared a disposition do I go to Confession? Do I pray every day, spending time in silence with the God whom I love?
And number 2: When I am receiving well the power of God’s infinite mercy, am I sharing it? Am I showing that mercy to my spouse…my children…my enemies…and the poor?
If you do these two things (pray deeply and share mercy) I can guarantee you two results: (1) You will suffer with Jesus Crucified and (2) you will experience deep down in your heart the joy of the Gospel, singing aloud God’s wondrous deeds.
About the Author: S. Brice Higgenbotham, Seminarian, Diocese of Houma–Thibodaux
Brice Higginbotham is in his third year of theological studies at Notre Dame Seminary for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southeast Louisiana. With God’s grace and holy perseverance, Brice will be ordained a deacon in May of 2016.
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