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It’s no secret that Catholics aren’t always delighted with the homilies they hear at Mass. Catholics on Reddit have complained about hearing homilies ranging from the silly (comparing the Trinity to parts of a car) to the theologically inaccurate (saying a dead person’s spirit lingers around the earth for forty days, then ascends to heaven like Jesus) to the genuinely false and harmful (saying that it’s a sin for married couples to have sex if it doesn’t lead to pregnancy). Aside from concerns about content, people complain about homilies being too long, too boring, or just plain irrelevant.
What makes a homily good, though? Why do so many Catholic homilies miss the mark, and what can preachers do, to make them better? And what can parishioners do when they feel they’re being subjected to bad preaching on a regular basis?
On this episode of the Glad You Asked podcast, hosts Emily Sanna and Rebecca Bratten Weiss talk with preaching expert Father Maurice J. Nutt, a Roman Catholic priest in the Redemptorist Congregation. Nutt holds a doctorate of ministry degree in preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology where he is an adjunct professor of preaching and evangelization. He is a revival, mission, and retreat preacher, and the author of multiple books, including Down Deep in My Soul: An African American Catholic Theology of Preaching (Orbis Books).
Learn more about this topic and read some of Nutt’s writing using these links:
- “Rev. Dr. Maurice Nutt Preaches Antiracism at Mariandale,” by Gina Ciliberto
- “After a bad homily, this is what I told my kids,” by Shannon Wimp Schmidt
- “To empower women in the church, allow lay preaching,” By Rhonda Miska
- “The Catholic women teaching priests how to preach,” by Kelly Sankowski
- “Humor can evangelize. Why don’t priests use it well?” by Judith Valente
- What do you do if you don’t like your pastor? | Paul Jarzembowski
- Father Maurice J. Nutt
