Preaching in a language that makes sense

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

While I was  sitting at the hospital bedside of an elderly woman, she received a text message from one of her grandchildren. Having read the message she looked at me and said how the world had changed since she had been a teenager. We agreed that young people today have great opportunities. She asked me – in something of a rhetorical question –  if it was all for the better. That led to an interesting conversation about the pros and cons of the times that are in it. We  agreed that there’s never a paradise on earth.

Later that day I was listening to RTE Radio 1’s Liveline. The topic was transgender issues and how we discuss them, and how language is being changed. The programme morphed into a discussion on many aspects of gender. 

I have no difficulty  in admitting that I am at sea when it comes to many of these topics. I was back thinking of my earlier conversation with the elderly sick woman and wondering what she might have to say on the topic being discussed. 

And while all these conversations are happening our churches are emptying. Large numbers of people have distanced themselves from institutional religion.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Body of Christ. It comes after the feasts of the Trinity, Pentecost, Ascension and the great feast of Easter. There are many threads going through all these rituals but they all place great stress on community. 

There is emphasis on the mysterious reality of three persons in one God and on how the historical Jesus always emphasised the importance of community. In tomorrow’s Gospel (Luke 9: 11 - 17) Jesus feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. It turns out they all have enough to eat and not only that but “when the scraps remaining were collected they filled the twelve baskets.”

In that same passage the disciples had earlier suggested to Jesus that he send the crowd home. But he was having none of it. Jesus wanted to be with his people. He wanted to break bread with them. It is camaraderie at its best. It’s easy to picture Jesus there with his team befriending those who had come to listen to him talk about God. And ever since Easter Sunday we have been made aware of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, a unity of persons so perfect that it is one God –  but really beyond our understanding.

Pope Francis has on many occasions stressed the importance  of priests celebrating Mass in a meaningful and prayerful manner and preaching in a language that makes sense. Right now churches are being closed down, the numbers of Masses across the country are being scaled back by the week. 

Why have people, young and not-so-young, stopped going to church, why have they stopped participating in the Eucharist? There is a myriad answers and none of them is simple. But to say that people have lost the faith does not convince me. Every day I see the idealism, the goodness, the quality of young people.

And if these people have turned their backs on religion, might it not be time for churches to ask if they are speaking a language that makes sense to the world of today?  For instance, I doubt that Jesus was wearing an alb and chasuble when he fed the 5,000 people. And on that point, theologian Liam Walsh in his book The Mass Yesterday, Today… & Forever’ ) writes that we must protect our liturgy not only from unbridled piety but also from authoritarian manipulation.

I’ve already said I find much recent discourse difficult to comprehend. But when I read tomorrow’s Gospel,  I am also reminded  that Jesus put no preconditions whatsoever on any of the 5,000 people with whom he broke bread. And in  sitting down and sharing a meal with them, he shared his life with those people. It’s clear that they appreciated what he was saying and enjoyed listening to him. He created friendship and unity between them and him. The bread that we break at the Eucharist is both a sign of our unity with one another and God and it is also a means of bringing about union and companionship among us.

The war in Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, is the antithesis to everything that tomorrow’s feast is about.

“I am the living bread come down from heaven, says the Lord. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.” Alleluia.