~ by Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ

Whenever I preach during a Sunday mass I am struck once again by how special an opportunity it is and, at the same time, how preaching from a pulpit, any pulpit, is just not enough. It is very unlikely that the living word of God will be be sown, watered and come to fruition over the course of a single homily. Sure, I am up there with a microphone speaking to a captive audience; I have the spotlight and some experience in speaking about the Word of God. But really, I am more and more convinced that pulpit preaching is a third tier sort of preaching of the gospel, a tier that depends on preparation both remote and proximate.

All of us preach most effectively by the way we live our lives. That is the gospel made incarnate by each Christian. How we choose to treat people, how we spend our time and our money, who we choose to love and if we choose to love anyone at all – these choices preach our gospel to the world around us. It is through these actions that other people are either drawn or repelled by the message of Christ in our world.

We all are living out a gospel, it is up to us to which one. Some of us choose the Gospel of Comfort and make every effort to insulate ourselves against the bumps and inconveniences of the world.

Others of us choose the Gospel of Self Improvement. We are always in search of another way to become perfect through out own effort. We strive to have a sharper mind, a better body or a more spiritual inner life, always working to improve ourselves. This can become a life consuming gospel that brings few people to the life changing grace of Christ.

Still others of us, and I suspect this is a very large group, preach the Gospel of Security through the way we live our lives. We choose always protect our future by having plenty of money in the bank, strong locks on our front doors and every possible border, both personal and national, strongly fortified. No one has ever been drawn to the Living Christ out of a need for security.

After how we choose to live our lives, the second way we effectively bring people to Christ is by word of mouth. Ask anyone who has tried to sell seats to an event and they will tell you that word of mouth is the most effective way fill those seats. Word of mouth in this case is more than just talk about how to best be entertained in our free time. It is more than just good tips on where to find the best Mexican food in town. We must find ways to speak about our experience of Christ and do so as a way to help those closest to us.

Word of mouth depends on trust-filled human connections. It is the way we make decisions in our social settings. The more adept we become at speaking about our life with Christ, the better instruments we become for bringing all to Christ. By living a Christ-centered life other people will be drawn to us and we must be ready to speak about our lives with Christ. We must be able to preach the gospel to our curious friends and neighbors. They will want to know why we live our lives the way we do – we must be able to give an accounting for the hope that is in us.

All of this happens in communities, communities centered on Christ and able to speak words about this life together. And this is the perfect context for the preacher to step up to the pulpit and further articulate the living gospel, with this added dimension of ripeness that is the Word. In this Christian context, pulpit preaching can be most effective when the seeds are already planted and any one homily serves as just a bit more water to encourage the growth.