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.
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