It’s safe to say that Pope Francis has grown older but not wiser. I may have junked Chick Publications and Jesus-is-Savior style of writing. The recent news that Pope Francis pleaded with Catholic priests last June 12, 2024, to keep their sermons short. I decided to write this post for the sake of Catholic readers. This isn’t an act of anger but an act of love to reach Roman Catholics with the Gospel.
Below is an excerpt that I took from the Catholic News Agency:
Pope Francis has once again appealed to Catholic priests to keep their homilies short, this time warning that homilies should be no longer than eight minutes or “people will fall asleep.”
Speaking in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday catechesis on June 12, the pope explained that the goal of a homily is to “help move the Word of God from the book to life.”
“But the homily for this must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling. The homily should not go beyond eight minutes because after that time you lose attention and people fall asleep,” he said.
It is not the first time that Francis has stressed the importance of short homilies. In 2018, the pope urged priests to “be brief” and ensure that their homilies are “no more than 10 minutes.”
As a former Catholic, I remember the Catholic priest giving a short sermon after all the ceremonies. I could remember the program of a Catholic mass. It’s a sheet of paper that devotees take to tell them the flow of the program. There was the opening song, the responsorial psalms, the Scripture reading, the offering of the eucharistic bread and wine (which no wine is given to the laity), the distribution of communion, the singing of the final song, and the dismissal. Why was the sermon cut short? The Word of God is not something to be easily understood. First, I was told not to read the Bible for myself. Second, I was told that only the priests have the authority to interpret Scripture. I guess that’s why Bible classes became incredibly boring when I first had them. I found more joy in learning Catholic rituals than in learning the Bible!
Back then, I Googled “Catholic expository preaching” and landed on Homiletic and Pastoral Review. I would like to give an excerpt where while the site gets some things wrong (like saying sermon-centered equals pastor-centered when it’s not necessarily the case), here’s something that they noticed about the Evangelical worship services:
The ideal Evangelical sermon not only teaches the meaning of the biblical text, it also applies that text to the real-world concerns that the members of the congregation face. Many pastors use expository preaching, which means the pastor will have a series of sermons on a single book of the Bible. Each week, the sermon explains another section of the book, verse by verse, so that by the end of the sermon series, the congregation has a good understanding of the main message of the book. Sadly, expository preaching is probably the biggest reason that Catholics leave the Church in favor of an Evangelical congregation. Ex-Catholics often say that they understood the Bible for the first time after regular attendance at an Evangelical church.
You may have noticed one glaring omission in the description of an Evangelical worship service: there is no mention of the Eucharist or Communion. That’s because the Eucharist is normally celebrated infrequently in a special service. In Evangelical theology, sacraments are only signs; they do not actually confer grace. Instead, Evangelicals believe that it is much more important for believers to be strongly grounded in scripture, than it is to celebrate any ritual. Thus, Evangelical churches have chosen to limit the time-consuming celebration of the sacrament in favor of longer sermons. In fact, when an Evangelical speaks about “being fed,” he is probably talking about the practical knowledge of Scripture that he is gaining by listening to the weekly sermon, not the reception of the Eucharist.
The born-again Christian worship service is focused on singing hymns followed by the sermon. Worship services in Baptist or Protestant churches usually take an hour and a half long. If I spoke too long (like for more than two hours), the pulpit would have the right to complain I was preaching too long. I can imagine the deacons becoming hungry hyenas because I spoke too much and it’s reaching lunchbreak. Chances are if I preached for more than two hours–I’m already babbling nonsense! Chances are that the deacons will storm the stage, pick me up, and throw me into the garbage bin because I’m already babbling garbage.
Dr. John F. MacArthur in his book Rediscovering Expository Preaching also said the following:
As long as it takes to cover the passage adequately! I do not think the length of the sermon is as important as its content. . . .The important thing is to cover the main points so that people are convinced of its truth and comprehend its requirements. If you have nothing worthwhile to say, even twenty minutes will seem like an eternity to your people.
Basically, it can be helpful to have more than 10 minutes. The worship service’s purpose is to focus on the Word of God. The communion service is usually done once a month. In Cebu Bible Baptist Church–it was done during certain times of the year (during an evening service) and not monthly. The problem with Catholic worship services is focused mainly on the communion service instead of the Word of God. As for others, the communion bread and wine are served only after the service instead of a special service. Not all churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper or communion service in the evening. In Cebu Bible Baptist Church, they practiced the evening-only communion service, while not fighting with other churches that didn’t do that. Those services are devoted to a special sermon about the seriousness and importance of the sacrament. In Living Word Christian Church, communion was served after every service during the first day of the month. I can’t deny that the focus on both types of Lord’s supper is still the Word of God.
The problem with Catholic worship services is the ritualistic liturgy. The Mass starts with an opening song, the priest enters with the parade to wow the crowd, much time is spent with responsorials (which includes responsorial singing), and much less time is focused on the Word of God (8-10 minutes only), to focus on the so-called bloodless sacrifice for sins. Please, the sacrifice on the cross was once and for all! The purpose of the sacrament of communion is to remember what Jesus did, not a repetition of what He did on Good Friday! The Word of God is really repugnant to the natural man. That’s why when people get saved, they may linger around Catholicism for a short while, but the hunger for strong preaching makes them leave. As for Catholics, that’s probably why the sermon is kept short for only 8-10 minutes long. They just want to get it “done and over with”–in action and application. They don’t want to hear more of it because they naturally don’t hunger for it. The piece of literal bread is given more importance (hence the doctrine of transubstantiation is there to “back it up”) instead of the spiritual bread, the Word of God.
It goes back to what Jesus declared in Mark 7:6-13. These people may be singing or chanting but their hearts are far from God. The people have been drowned in the traditions of manmade religion. It’s probably why the sermons are kept short during every mass. The focus hasn’t been getting people equipped with the Word of God. Instead, they’re so focused on rituals.
Reformed Baptist Christian Blogger 