Sunday's homily

I'll get to the homily-first an intro of sorts.

Many years ago I acquired (it may have been a gift, or I may have purchased it myself) a book of quotes: Toastmasters Treasure Chest. (apparently it is still in print-yet my edition is much earlier than this one.)

As a young single man with nothing better to do, I decided I would memorize and use several of the quotes contained in this book everyday. I came across the book this morning and found those quotes I learned still marked with an "x". Here is one example:

It's a wise man who profits from his own experience, but it's a good deal wiser on who lets the rattlesnake bite the other fellow. - Josh Billings.

For some reason, this was one of my favorites:

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does. - Steuart Henderson Britt.

And finally-getting to the main topic, I have marked off is this one:

Everything comes to him who waits-among other things, death. - Francis Herbert Bradley.

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Father talked about death yesterday-about preparing for it. He told the old story about the Court Jester who said something outrageously stupid; because of this, his king gave the Court Jester a staff and told him to keep it until the Courst Jester found a greater fool than himself.

Some years later, the king is on his deathbed. The court jester is in attendence as are the other nobles. The court jester says to the king, "Every time you go on a journey, you send ahead messengers and courtiers to prepare your way. How have you prepared for this journey you are about to undertake?" The king replies, "Alas, I have not prepared at all." Thus, the Court Jester hands the king his staff and says, "Sire, I have now found a greater fool than myself."

This was only one of the stories told by Father in yesterday's homily. He told of a conversation St. Philip Neri had with a young man-also with the same theme-preparing for eternal life. Father also recounted an experience of seeing his own father praying.

I mention all these things for two reasons. The first reason has to do with our memory and how we learn.

We have 4 of friends children (all nine and under) staying with us this weekend. We have 10 children in the house. At dinner last night, (now this is some 7 hours or so after Mass has ended), I asked all the children what they could remember about what they heard at Mass. They remembered those stories-some retold them almost word for word (even the younger ones took part in remembering). I did not prompt them at all. (I was proud of both my kids and the visitors. They were paying attention.)

For some reason we are wired to remember stories (whether true or parables) better than straight preaching.

This brings up my second reason for this whole discussion: "Catholic" fiction.

Few "Catholic" publishers do any fiction-or any new fiction. Yet Christ taught with fiction (parables) if you will all the time. I (Requiem Press) would not dare to venture into fiction-it is a whole different ballgame: different editing skills and different marketing strategies. Yet perhaps, it is the most important area of publishing - if we want to evangelize the culture.

I read a novella this weekend that was sent to us for review (for possible publication). It was well written. It had my attention. It dealt with issues of our present culture. The conversatons were realistic-but nothing preachy. It is the kind of work which could reach some people-get them to think about life and death and choices. I think it should be out there.

The author may be able to get a mainstream publisher to do it-she is a published author. But where could she realistically go in the Catholic publishing world to do this? In the Catholic realm, those who do publish some fiction, do so mostly for the faithful (inspiring stories to increase devotion), rather than for the unchurched in society-reaching out to them with a parable.

I think this has been discussed before (see here -I don't really discuss it, but link to some other discussions. ) It is worth another look. It has to do with how Catholics reach the greater culture with Christ's message.

Okay, something to think about as we begin the week.

Oremus pro invicem!