Here’s an idea...

At our 6 p.m. Life Teen Mass at St. Ann’s we always try to find a creative way to break open the scriptures during the homily. Some Sundays are easier than others, depending on the readings. Regardless, one thing we strive for is variety so that we’re not always doing the same thing over and over.

The usual routine begins with a meeting on Wednesday morning prior to Sunday’s homily. It’s usually myself, the presider, and the youth minister. We discuss the readings, the main theme (or thrust) that father is using for his homily, and then brainstorm some creative ways to break it open. Sometimes we might plan a simple introduction the the homily; other times the homily might be based upon a certain idea.  Here are three recent examples to give an idea of some the different levels of involvement:

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time/August 21, 2011: In Matthew’s gospel Jesus asks: “Who do you say that I am?”

This one was pretty involved. We chose 4 famous people and looked up some random trivia about each person.  Father said, “I’m going to read 5 different facts about someone. When you know who I’m talking about, raise your hand and keep it raised until I’m finished. Let’s see if you can figure out who this person is.”  We chose a president, a famous singer, a famous athlete, and a famous artist/musician. The facts were so obscure that almost no one could figure out who these people were. Afterward, father said, “Okay, let’s see who this person is...”  The band started playing and singing, “Who Are You” by THE WHO, which everyone knows from CSI. Then, we showed a large image of the person on our screens. Everyone had an ‘aha’ moment when they saw the picture. It was fun and eye-opening at the same time.

The last one was Jesus. The first fact father read was “I was born in Bethlehem, the son of a carpenter.”  Well, everyone cheered and threw their hands up. Each clue made it equally obvious that it was Jesus. When his picture was shown at the end, people cheered all the louder!
The point father made was, it’s really easy to recognize Jesus, to say you believe in him, and to stand up proudly when we are in the safety of our own church. But what happens when we go to work? to school? back home to our families? back to our friends? Will we still cheer for Jesus then? Will we say that Jesus is our Lord? our Savior?

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time/September 11, 2011: In Matthew’s gospel we hear of the ungrateful servant who didn’t show the same mercy given him to one of his fellow servants.

We simply began this homily with a short skit performed by 2 teens and an adult. To begin, a parent (the adult) and teen are having a conversation about an ‘over-the-top’ cell phone bill from too much texting. The parent threatens to take the phone away, but the teen begs for another chance. The parent shows mercy and decides to give her one more chance.
As soon as the teen leaves the conversation with her parent, she meets a friend who owes her 7 dollars. The friend begs her for more time, saying that he won’t be able to eat lunch, but she threatens to embarrass him on Facebook if he doesn’t pay up. You can see the similarities between this skit and the passage from Matthew’s gospel. The homily continues...

Feast of Our Lady of La Salette/September 18, 2011: Our parish of St. Ann is run by the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. Each year we celebrate the feast day on the anniversary when Mary appeared to two children in La Salette, France and asked them to make her message known to her people. (For more information on Our Lady of La Salette please visit here: lasalette)

This was even more simple than the previous example. Father began his homily by asking, “Who here has a cell phone?” Of course he immediately followed that with the somewhat humorous fact that it might be easier to ask who did NOT have a cell phone. He then asked, “If you wanted to get a message out to as many people as possible in the quickest way, what are some ways you can do that?”  Immediately, teens responded with answers like, ‘texting,‘ and ‘email,’ and ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter.’  He then explained that those things did not exist in 1846 when Mary appeared to Melanie and Maximin, an 11 and 14 year old. She trusted them, God trusted them...young people like you...to make the message known. 

These are just some examples of different ways we try to break open the readings.  It doesn't always have to be as involved as the “Who Are You” version.  A simple question at the outset of the homily that refers to something very familiar in all our lives can really help set the tone for a powerful and creative homily.