On Homily Length
Are long homilies the problem, or a symptom of something more?
In a Wednesday audience on December 4, 2024, Pope Francis shared his thoughts on preaching the gospel. In his prepared remarks, the Holy Father articulated an evangelical vision for homiletics, stating that homilies should be kerygmatic, that is, focused on the Gospel, and preached through the Holy Spirit.
Preaching with the anointing of the Holy Spirit means transmitting, together with the ideas and the doctrine, the life and profound conviction… not with persuasive wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power.
To that I say, Amen, Alleluia! Would that all homilies be Gospel-focused and Spirit-filled.
After his prepared remarks, the Holy Father offered some off-the-cuff advice for preachers, namely, that homilies should be limited to “one idea, one sentiment, and one invitation to action.” That echoes some of the best advice I received in my own homiletics formation, which is to limit your homily to One Thing.
Let’s face it: the scriptures are rich. There are any number of good things that could be said about the Lectionary readings on any given day. But you shouldn’t try to say it all in one homily. You want to give the congregation a refreshing drink from the well of Holy Wisdom, not drown them with a fire hose.
If the theme of your homily can’t be identified with a single word or short phrase, then it is not focused enough. People ought to be able to walk away from Mass and say clearly, “The homily was about X.” If they can’t, then what you have is a failure to communicate. Given that what the homilist (should be) trying to communicate is the Gospel, them’s pretty high stakes indeed!
So far, so good. But then Pope Francis went on to offer his thoughts about the proper length of a homily, which he said should be limited to 8 to 10 minutes.
After 8 minutes, preaching gets dispersive and no one understands. Never go over 10 minutes, ever! This is very important.
At this point, I admit, my first thought was, “Here we go again… What’s with Pope Francis’s obsession with short homilies?” This is far from the first time Pope Francis has spoken publicly about the need to keep homilies brief.
I tend to have mixed feelings whenever the Holy Father speaks on this topic. On the one hand, I don’t particularly like sitting through long homilies myself. And I know congregants complain when the homily runs long. To my mind, if the length has overshadowed the message, then the homilist has failed.
But on the other hand, I also don’t like the idea of being dogmatic about homily length, as if the most important thing is that it come in under the clock. Mass is about worshiping Almighty God, after all, and if we can sit through a three-hour long Marvel movie then surely we can worship on Sunday without getting put out of sorts when the homily takes a little longer than normal — especially if the homily is good.
And that’s always been my hesitancy to ascribe too much importance to homily length. I’ve heard homilies that went over 20 minutes, but they were good. By that I mean they hit all the benchmarks Pope Francis spoke about in his Wednesday audience: they were focused on the gospel, they were preached with the power of the Holy Spirit, and they offered real, practical advice for living discipleship — and they didn’t feel too long. No one was checking their watches because the preaching was engaging.
To me, a much more important question than length is whether or not the homily was well crafted. The solution to poor homiletics is not to make homilies shorter, but to make them better.
My attitude has always been that a well-prepared and well-delivered homily takes as long as it needs to take. Now, to be sure, if a homily is going to be ill-prepared and ill-delivered then I’d much rather it be short, all things considered. And most of the long homilies I have heard were long because they were rambling, not because the preacher actually had that much to say. Part of what’s tended to bother me about criticizing homily length is that it seems to tacitly accept that homilies are going to be bad, so let’s at least make them short.
But the fact that nearly Every. Single. Report. on Francis’s general audience (including the one from Vatican News itself) chose to lead by highlighting his off-the-cuff comment on length underscores the fact that the Pope’s insistence on short homilies resonates with people. Preachers would do well to take note and ask why this might be.
A symptom, not the problem
Here’s where I’ve landed on the matter: Long homilies are not the problem. They are a symptom of the bigger problem, which is bad homilies, by which I mean unprepared or poorly prepared homilies.
It takes a lot more time and effort to prepare a powerful, focused, short homily than it does to prepare a long one. I’ve heard it said that Blessed Fulton Sheen once remarked that it took him an hour to prepare a weekend retreat, a day to prepare an hour lecture, and a week to prepare a seven-minute homily. I don’t know if he actually said that, but I can attest to the truth of it from experience. I can lead an hour long discussion with my students on any article of the creed at the drop of a hat — I’ve studied and taught theology for years, so that’s not a problem. But it takes me all week to prepare a Sunday homily.
Here is my typical method.
On Monday, I read the lectionary readings, in prayer. I may read some background exegesis for context. I start to think about what theme from the reading I want to focus on in my homily.
On Tuesday I write. I try not to concern myself with the length at this point, but just say what I want to say.
On Wednesday I edit, which often consists of deleting about half of what I originally wrote. If something doesn’t relate to the theme of the homily, even if it’s good, it’s gone.
On Thursday and Friday I don’t do anything. I let it sit and try not to think about it, so I can return to it with fresh eyes.
On Saturday, I make a final edit, usually tightening the focus even more.
All of that takes time and work, and I can’t do it with every homily I preach. But when I take the time to do the editing work, my homilies are always better because of it. And here is where I find a lot of preachers fail. They don’t edit. The priests and deacons I have known whose preaching is sub-par are usually the ones writing their homilies on Saturday afternoon (or worse, who insist on not preparing at all, but letting the “Holy Spirit” guide them in the moment). In other words, they are preaching from rough drafts or composing on the spot. The people of God deserve better.
Those homilies may have some good stuff in them — they often do — but the good is obscured by a lot of homiletic chaff that should have been weeded out in the editing process. And so the homilies ramble on with little to no direction, leaving people looking at their watches and squirming in their seats. By the time Mass is over, no one recalls what the homilist said, but they know it took exactly 23 minutes for him to not say it.
Look: the homily is meant to help people break open the Word of God in the Scripture before they receive the Word of God in the Eucharist. For better or for worse, it’s also the primary way the majority of Catholics receive catechesis in the faith. And the status quo ain’t cutting it.
I get it. Clergy are busy. I’m busy. The time it takes to craft a good homily is easily appropriated by any of dozens of other pastoral matters. But I would encourage clergy to give homily preparation priority in their schedules. Given that Sunday Mass is when most Catholics routinely encounter the Word of God (both in Sacrament and Scripture), I’d say it would be time well spent. And if you aren’t a good editor — and editing is definitely a special skill — find someone who is and work with that person.
Our goal should be good homilies, not short homilies. But if homilists get serious about keeping to Pope Francis’ recommended 10 minute time frame, it may force them to be better editors, which would lead to them being better preachers overall. And that would indeed be good news for the Gospel.