From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Is it a sin to attend Sunday Mass and be irritated during bad homilies or take a 15 minute leave during the terrible homily?
Probably not. However, you can usually tease out some good point from a bad sermon, if you want to.
That said, this “terrible” is pretty open ended. What is “terrible”? Decent content, but terrible/bad delivery? We’ve all had classes/courses from profs who have great material, but are bad teachers/deliverers.
It is bad because of the content? Is there heresy? Is it just plain stupid or irrelevant?
Is it bad because it cannot be heard or understood? Bad sound system? Accent to strong?
Again, you can usually tease out some good point from a bad sermon, if you want to. Sometimes, as Augustine points out in De doctrina christiana, the holiness of the preacher teaches something.
If a homily is bad or terrible (in terms of content, up to and even including outright heresy) isn’t there an argument to be made that leaving is a form of protest against the content?
In the old rite, the priest would take off his maniple to preach; therefore if my weak liturgical knowledge serves true then the homily is not part of the Mass. Although the distinction is lost in the Novus Ordo; which is probably where this discussion is most required nowadays.
My church- and liturgy-history readings are unsystematic and the opposite of rigorous to put it mildly, but how is the sermon related to the Mass? E.g., some Eastern visiting finds the sermons sometimes during, sometimes after, the Divine Liturgy. Could this be a matter of consideration (though I only ever walked out of a – wildly Lubac-ian – sermon! – perhaps unjustly)?
I did walk out of a daily Mass once when the priest was going on and on and on about how great the Muslims were and how Catholics need to learn about how to pray and to mediate from the Muslims. I figure, at that point, remaining was becoming a “near occasion toward the sin of wrath.”
Most other times I’ve been able to tell myself, “Our Lord has humbled Himself to be bread and to sit in the tabernacle and listen to this drivel – I should be able to do the same.”
I’ve had my fair share of some rough homilies, from some retired priest talking about his “chick magnet” from back in the day, to an old deacon singing something from the 50’s /60’s that makes no relevant tie to what the Gospel was at all.
The parish closest to me does incessant poll taking, asking who’s new, where they are from, blah blah blah. The closest reverent Mass is over an hour away from where I am in central Florida, and with gas at close to $5.00 a gallon plus tolls, it is SLIM pickings.
I usually will discreetly pray a rosary until the storm passes and we start the creed and then at home listen to Archbishop Sheen, or live stream a homily from elsewhere.
Recently at my old NO parish, the new deacon (who I do not know/met) launched into a political diatribe against Trump and Vance by name in his homily- many in the congregation applauding; not surprising given where this parish is- this was witnessed by friends of my son (young, more traditional); they reported the pastor attempting damage control by thanking all the families with young children for coming to Mass… I know I would have definitely walked out. Any thoughts Father?
I used to have a co-worker who then was a Mass-going Catholic– he’s since lapsed– who told me that he didn’t like our church because he thought there was something wrong with the sound system. “Why do you think that?” I asked. “Because the pastor sounds funny when he speaks.” I asked, “Have you ever spoken with him in person?” “No,” he replied. “Well,” I said, “he sounds exactly the same in person!”
I left church once at the beginning of Sunday Mass because the Priest was a traveling “evangelist,” or something, who, at the beginning of Mass, ordered us to all move to the front pews and sit close together. This was not a request, but an order. For some reason my wife and kids had driven in one car and I was in another so at this bad omen, I left and assisted at Mass at a nearby parish. The report on the Mass that I got from my wife made me glad I left. Apparently, the Mass was all about Father *** and “Look at me, me, me!!!”
I sit through it and try to pick up a few words. This particular father is from Haiti and has a strong “African” accent (does not sound Caribbean at all). I still greet him after Mass and thank him for his homily and priesthood … which always gets a smile from him.
Sometimes it is advisable to close ones eyes and ostensibly pretend to sleep to send a signal to the priest. Snooring is optional.
I close my eyes, put my head down and stick fingers in my ears. I guess they think I’m a crazy homeless drug addict and leave me alone.
During the time that I was forced to attend a diocesan, aka Novus Ordo parish TLM, I had my fair share of pander-doodle sermons from priests who wanted to keep the bishop off their backs. I also had some from priests who wanted to chastise us “meanie-pants” trads. That was another way that he figured he would remain friendly with the very leftist bishop. I often prayed my rosary during those sermons. It beats walking out and flat out leaving, especially when I went through the long drive to get there. Strange times. I’m at a decent TLM now and much, much happier.
According to a commentary on him when he was a featured composer one year during the Proms at Royal Albert Hall, Gabriel Faure, when serving as an organist at a Paris cathedral, would go outside to smoke a cigarette during the sermon, which greatly annoyed the priest. I think Faure leaves the Dies Irae out of his Requiem which suggests he might not have been particularly pious.
I do not think it is a sin at all. Just get back for the Eucharist. It’ s like a bad 1/2 time show at the superbowl where one goes to the kitchen or bathroom, or outdoors for a smoke until the game begins again. We priests are responsible to bring you to Jesus in the entire Mass, not to repel you. — Fr. Richard Perozich
I have attended homilies that suddenly gave me the urge to go to the bathroom. And maybe while I’m in the bathroom, there was something interesting on the wall to look at until I heard the recitation of the Creed begin. This has happened only rarely, thankfully.
But if it’s something like a strong accent, then I do my best to try to understand what’s being said. I live in a diocese that’s considered “mission territory,” so I’ve had more than my fair share of priests with thick accents.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s Moral Theology talks a lot about how, when it’s to the advantage of the Massgoer, it counts as still being at Mass if you’re outside the nave, or just outside the church, in the basement, and so forth.
This was why a lot of US Catholic men used to go outside and smoke during part of Mass. You see a lot of 19th century complaints about this, and it seems to have been common in other countries also. People taking their kids outside during a meltdown were considered to be more okay.
To be fair Fr. Reader; sometimes that happens by the homily even with the most elegant, sincere and orthodox priests; when it’s an early morning Mass, not a lot of sleep was had the night before due to the kids, and sometimes Mass is so peaceful that…. mea culpa. It’s difficult on occasion…
Yes, I have done this. I am avoiding the near occasion of sin.
earbuds + podcast of the day’s homily from a repitable priest (or text-to-speech for Fr.Z’s) = problem solved.
Card. Sarah has this line in one of his books about how the microphone is the worst thing to happen to the liturgy. Perhaps not exactly the worst, but boy, does it encourage the priest to display his own ego during the homily, even when he is halfway orthodox.
Egoism, that essentially is what makes most homilies terrible, beyond the blatant lack of faith displayed in now a few of them, and a skills issue of the inability to string together a coherent thought when speaking off the cuff (which is just egoism of thinking that one can get away with not having a written and prepared homily).