I FEEL privileged to be part of this year’s formation of seminarians of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. Being a professor of Homiletics for nineteen students in 2nd Year Theology gives me a sense of fulfillment of being able to help future priests to become good preachers and pastors. This, indeed, is a great blessing!
What I teach them is a very important discipline, one which they will use almost everyday of their lives as priests. I am teaching them how to preach effectively to transform communities not only through a greater knowledge of the Scriptures but also through a deeper understanding of the people that they will serve.
The Word of God that they are called to peach should have the power not only to change personal lives but also to build better and authentic Christian communities. For the purpose of preaching is not only to redeem an individual but also to change societies to be guardians of justice, to be instruments of peace and reconciliation, to be giving, loving, and caring.
This is why the First Reading from the Book of Nehemiah is so fitting for this transformational purpose of a preaching. “Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly…Standing at one end of the open place…he read out of the book in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand.” Here we see how the proclamation of the Word of God is intended for the hearing of all people, the whole community, to remind them of their covenant with God to be people of mercy, love, justice and peace.
This purpose of preaching is even more evident at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke this Sunday when Jesus unrolled the scroll from the Prophet Isaiah and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
In today’s world when we hear of people taking advantage of the weak and robbing people of their hard earned monies, priests and pastors must take their role seriously to preach the Gospel powerfully and effectively. Children and youth must hear and witness these traditional values of faith, love, and compassion.
The words from the song, Send us, O Lord, to the New World, from the musical play, Fides Ecclesiae (Faith of Church) are relevant to this reflection:
How can they call on Him whom they have not believed?
How can they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?
And how can we preach unless we are sent?
Let us pray for those who are called to be preachers of God’s Word. Let us also pray that communities that they serve and will serve will be light to all nations and salt of the earth as they live the Gospel of love, justice, and peace fruitfully and authentically!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
