On the subject of preaching, Blessed Francis had very definite and weighty
thoughts. He considered that it was not sufficient for a preacher to teach
the ways of God to the unrighteous, and by converting the wicked, to build
up by his words the walls of Jerusalem, that is, of holy Church, while
making known to God's people the ways of divine providence. He wanted more
than this, and said that every sermon ought to have some special plan,
with always for its end the giving glory to God and the converting and
instructing of those who were to hear it. Sometimes this would be the
setting forth of a mystery, sometimes the clearing up of some point of
faith, sometimes the denouncing of a particular vice, sometimes the
endeavouring to plant some virtue in the hearts of the hearers.
"No one," he said, "can sufficiently lay to heart the importance of having
a definite aim in preaching; for want of it many carefully studied sermons
are without fruit. Some preachers are content to explain their text with
all the painstaking and mental effort that they can bring to bear upon the
subject. Others give themselves up to elaborate and exhaustive research
and excite the admiration of their hearers, either by their scientific
reasonings, their eloquence, the studied grace of their gestures, or
by their perfect diction. Others add to all this beautiful and useful
teaching, but so that it only slips in here and there, as it were, by
chance, and is not expressly dwelt upon. But when we have only one aim, and
when all our reasonings and all our movements tend towards it and gather
round it, as the radii of a circle round the unity of its centre, then the
impression made is infinitely more powerful. Such speaking has the force
of a mighty river which leaves its mark upon the hardest of the stones it
flows over.
"Drones visit every flower, yet gather no honey from any. The working
bee does otherwise: it settles down upon each flower just as long as is
necessary for it to suck in enough sweetness to make its one honeycomb. So
those who follow my method will preach profitable sermons, and will deserve
to be accounted faithful dispensers of the divine mysteries; prudent
administrators of the word of life and of eternal life."
When our Blessed Father heard a certain preacher praised up to the skies,
he asked in what virtues he excelled; whether in humility, mortification,
gentleness, courage, devotion or what? When told that he was said to preach
very well, he replied: "That is speaking, not acting: the former is far
easier than the latter. There are many who speak and yet act not, and who
destroy by their bad example what they build up with their tongue. A man
whose tongue is longer than his arm, is he not a monstrosity?"
On one occasion, of some one who had delighted all his hearers by a sermon
he had preached, it was said: "To-day he literally did wonders." The Saint
replied: "If he did that he must be one of those absolutely blameless men
of whom Scripture says 'they have not sought after gold, nor hoped for
treasures of gold and silver.'" Another time he was told that this same
preacher had on a particular day surpassed himself. "Ah!" he said, "what
new act of self-renunciation has he made? What injury has he borne? For it
is only after overcoming ourselves in this way that we surpass ourselves."
"Do you wish to know," he continued, "how I test the excellence and value
of a preacher? It is by assuring myself that those who have been listening
to him come away striking their breasts and saying: 'I will, do better';
not by their saying: 'Oh how well he spoke, what beautiful things he said!'
For to say beautiful things in fluent and well-chosen words shows indeed
the learning and eloquence of a man; but the conversion of sinners and
their departing from their evil ways is the sure sign that God has spoken
by the mouth of the preacher, that he possesses the true power of speech,
which is inspired by the science of the Saints, and that he proclaims
worthily in the name of Almighty God that perfect law which is the
salvation of souls.
"The true fruit of preaching is the destruction of sin and the
establishment of the kingdom of justice upon earth.[1] By this justice, of
which the prophet speaks, is meant justification and sanctification. For
this, God sends his preachers, as Jesus Christ sent His Apostles, that
they may bring forth fruit, and that this fruit may remain,[2] and by
consequence that they may labour for a meat which perishes not, but which
endures unto life everlasting."[3]
When I was in residence in my diocese I never failed to preach on every
possible day in Advent and Lent, besides doing so on all Sundays and
holidays. Some good people who set themselves up as judges in such matters,
full of worldly prudence said that I was making myself too common, and
bringing the holy function of preaching into contempt.
This came to the ears of our Blessed Father, and he, despising such poor
earthly wisdom, observed, that to blame a husbandman or vinedresser for
cultivating his land too well was really to praise him. Speaking to me on
the subject, and fearing that all that had been said might discourage me,
he related to me what follows: "I had," he said, the best father in the
world, but as he had spent a great part of his life at court and in the
camp, he knew the maxims that hold in those conditions of life far better
than he did the principles of holy living.
"While I was Provost," he continued, "I preached on all possible occasions,
whether in the Chablais, where I was busy for many years uprooting heresy,
or, on my return, in the Cathedral, in parish churches, and even in the
chapels of the most obscure Confraternities. While at Annecy I never
refused any invitation whencesoever it came to preach. One day my good
father took me aside and said to me: 'Provost, you preach too often. Even
on week days I am always hearing the bell ringing for sermons, and when I
ask who is preaching I invariably get the same answer: "The Provost, the
Provost." In my time, it was not so; sermons were rare, but then they
_were_ sermons! They were learned and well studied, more Greek and Latin
was quoted in one of them than in ten of yours; people were delighted and
edified, they crowded to hear them, just as they would have crowded to
gather up manna. Now, you make preaching so common that no one thinks much
of it, and you yourself are held in far less esteem.'
"You see my good father spoke according to his lights and quite sincerely.
You may be sure he was not wishing me ill, but he was guided by the maxims
of the world in which he had been brought up.
"Yet what folly in the sight of God are all the principles of human wisdom!
If we pleased men we should not be the servants of Jesus Christ, He
Himself, the model of all preachers, did not use all this circumspection,
neither did the Apostles who followed in His footsteps. _Preach the word:
be instant in season out of season._[4]
"Believe me, we can never preach enough, especially in this border-land of
heresy, heresy which is only kept alive by sermons, and which will never be
destroyed except by that very breath of God which is holy preaching.
"If you will take my advice, therefore, you will shut your eyes against the
counsels of your worldly-wise monitors and listen rather to St. Paul, who
says to you: _But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfil thy ministry._[5]
"Moreover, when the Apostle continues, _Be sober_, he refers to temperance
in eating and drinking, not to sobriety or restraint in the discharge of
pastoral duties. Blessed is the pastor who shall be found watching and
feeding his flock! I tell you that the divine Master will set him over all
his goods. And when the Prince of Pastors shall come he will receive from
His hand a crown of glory which can never fade."
[Footnote 1: Dan. ix 24.]
[Footnote 2: John xv. 16.]
[Footnote 3: Id. vi. 27.]
[Footnote 4: 2 Tim. iv. 2, 3.]
[Footnote 5: 2 Tim. iv. 5.]