Trouble with Homilies

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Every Sunday you sit in church with the resolution to pay attention to the priest's homily. And every Sunday you leave church feeling guilty because you can't remember one word that the priest said. Well, lighten up, it might not be all your fault. One Spanish Claretian priest, Father Teofilo Cabestrero, says that the problem of homilies may not just be in the language used by priests but all the more in its content. In his book, "Are Our Homilies Understood? The Need for a More Communicative Language," he expressed his belief that a sermon must be life-changing for its hearers. "We are asked to speak more of Jesus, to illuminate with the Gospel the real problems that ordinary people live and suffer," he said. Aside from the difficulty in the language used in Scripture, there's also diference in culture depicted in biblical times. Aside from the needs to be breif, he emphasized that the homilies need the language of witnesses. He added that Christian witness must be simple and helpful, free and respectful of the freedom of others and as a full lof discretion as its of clarity and truth.