The article was originally delivered as a sort of sermon or reflection to the members of the St Martin de Porres Chapter of the Southern province of Lay Dominicans. In other words, it was preached to members of the Order of Preachers. In writing it out for print, there have been a few small changes made--it is always difficult to transcribe the spoken word into the written word, and so at times something is lost in transcription. I have done my best to do this, and hope this serves as good inspiration to those who need it, and especially that it is pleasing to God, to whom all preaching is properly dedicated.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its strength, what shall it be salted with? It is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world….let your light shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to God.” (Matthew 5:13-14;16)

In the Gospel according to St Matthew, these words immediately follow the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. They are, in a sense, the first time in the Bible in which Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, will be called upon to preach. But what is preaching, and what is its goal, and how do we do it?

Perhaps it is better to ask ourselves, what, exactly, we are preaching. This is in turn related to our very purpose for being. Why do I exist? In a Catechetical manner, I will answer. We are here because God has willed us to be here; and He has willed us, because He loves us. In the person of the Father, He loves us as His Children; in the person of the Son, He loves us as brothers; and in the person of the Spirit, as One Who lives in us.

As Catholics, we acknowledge this as being at the core of our metaphysics. Too often, we stop there. Are we not called to be the disciples of Christ? To proclaim the coming of His Kingdom, to convert the whole world unto the greater glory of God? Truly, none of us wholly succeeds in this, but has that become a mere excuse for apathy? Indeed, if we truly do accept and believe the claims of our faith, we ought to preach it as well.

We return, then, to the “how” of preaching. How should we preach? The passage from Matthew has already given us a few hints. First, we are to be “the salt of the earth.” We preach by “flavoring” the earth—or, more accurately, by bringing out its flavor. Salt does not flavor a meal, rather it brings out the meal’s natural flavors and enhances them. Thus, we must strive towards an authentic sanctity, which will in turn bring out—even strengthen—the best in those whom we meet.

In his talk titled Ecumenism without Compromise, Professor Peter Kreeft reminds us that the most effective means of preaching is showing the world that our faith is really true. That is how we will convert people to the faith, how we will evangelize the world, how we will be “salt of the earth.” The Protestants are constantly seeking a “personal relationship” with Jesus; we have that relationship in a way not accessible to them—He is really physically present in the Eucharist.

The Protestants will ultimately be re-united with the Faith when they see that it is within the Church that this “personal relationship” is found in its completeness; but they will only see this when we show it to them, in how our Faith informs our lives. Kreeft similarly notes that the Jews will be reunited to us we they see in our faith the fulfillment of the Law; and the Muslims, when they see our total submission to God’s will. Our faith really is the fulfillment of the truest, deepest, greatest desires of every other faith.

In other words, people will believe our Faith he most, and our preaching will be most effective, when they see that we are becoming (or striving to become) saints. Saint Francis of Assisi might render Matthew 5:13-14 and 16 as: “Preach the Gospel everywhere, using words when necessary.” The Epistle of James has a slightly different rendering of this: “What will it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have works….I from my works will show thee my faith….Faith without works is useless (dead)” (James 2:14, 18, 20). Saint James concludes, “Who is wise and instructed among you? Let him by his good behavior show his work in the meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

Our lives are the best way we have to preach. Ours is a religion which is centered on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity; it is also one which is based on joy. Are we interiorly joyful, or merely outwardly cheerful? Do we put forth a show of gloom in our penances, “like the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces in order to appear to men as fasting” (Matthew 6:16)? How about when we are actually suffering in ways beyond our control—not as a penance, not as fasting or mortification—are we gloomy then, or do we bear it stoically, praying that we may unite our suffering to Christ’s and thus participate in His redemption of the world? Are we not joyful that we have been given this blessing, that our suffering has meaning? It is certainly difficult to be grateful for this, and I know that there are many times when I see the trees but miss the forest, that is, when I see my suffering and forget that it is a chance to participate with Christ’s.

Another way to think of all this is to say that the end of preaching is evangelization and not proselytization. We preach to spread the gospel, that is “the good news” of Christ’s Resurrection—by extension, the good news of our salvation. The word evangelize really means “to spread the good news,” and gospel is a translation of this word. We are here to spread good news, and to share the riches of our faith; it is from seeing this good news, and then believing it and accepting it that we gain converts to the faith. Indeed, we gain something better than converts: we gain saints.

When we preach to evangelize, we are showing people the riches of the Faith, and inviting them to share those riches with us. Evangelizing mean inviting people to join our community as brothers and sisters, inviting them to know the Truth, and to let the Truth set them free (John 8:32). Who or what is this Truth? The Truth is in the Word, the Son of God, who was made flesh; thus in inviting men to the Truth, we are inviting them to know Christ, and through Him to know His Father and the Spirit. By extension, we are inviting them to know His bride, who is the Church—starting, perhaps, with us. Such evangelization will win converts—real, genuine interior converts, men who will be willing to lay down their lives for their newfound Faith, heroes for Christ and His Church; in a word, such evangelization shall win saints.

This is to be distinguished from the mere act of proselytizing. We do not preach to induce people to share our Faith, to induce an exterior conversion; we are not trying to create a race of mere automatons, men who will assent to our doctrines with their mouths while despairing of them in their hearts. Such “conversions” do not set men free, but rather enslave them further. We do not desire a legalistic Church of men who fear hell so much as a faithful Church who desire the summum, infinitum, et perfectisimum bonum (the total, infinite, and perfect good): God Himself. Moreover, this desire for God should not merely be a selfish desire, but one which desires such good for others. This is the very meaning of the verb “to love”—agape in the Greek, caritas in Latin, and charity in English—as put forth by Pope John Paul the Great (see Love and Responsibility).

Evangelization makes the Church rich in the only sense which matters: spiritually. It takes sinners and makes saints, it takes legalism from morality and shows us that the real end of morality is right relationships—love—and it takes our trials and transforms them into joy (James 1:2). Proselytization does little more than change a man’s skin, giving him a fresh exterior, as if to slap a coat of paint over a rotting fence; evangelization springs from the heart and becomes a wellspring of joy. Whereas the true internal conversion and the joy which comes with it may help further enrich the faith, the merely “external” conversion—so often one in which only sorrow remains—is a false conversion which will only impoverish.

In speaking of evangelization, it is easy to overlook catechesis—that form of preaching which teaches about the faith. The Truth cannot set us free if we do not first know the Truth, or at the least sincerely pursue the Truth. Thus, a part of the responsibility of preaching is to teach the Truth to even those who are members of our faith community. “For whereas by this time you ought to be masters, you need to be taught again the rudiments of the Word of God” (Hebrews 5:12). We want to pursue God as He really is, to the best of our abilities. If we desire a God Who takes us as we are without asking us to “strive to be perfect, even as [He] is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), then we are not really pursuing the real God, the living God, the loving God. We are, after all, members of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15)—Who, being God, is perfect.

How can a perfect Person have an imperfect body? He cannot, and so we must strive to be perfect, for what we cannot accomplish by ourselves will be made up by God; but He will only make it up for us if we make the effort as best we can. If we will not try to be perfect, if we do not desire perfection enough that God can complete it within us, then we will find that we cannot be members of His body, and so will lose salvation. How can we strive to be perfect, how can we understand the Truth—or what little of it can be understood—if there is no one to explain it to us? We would be like the Ethiopian Eunuch of Acts, who, when asked by St Philip if he understood what he read in scripture, replies, “Why, how can I, unless someone shows me?” (Acts 8:30-31).

If we are to be proper preachers—specifically, if we are to do a good job of catechizing—then we must first commit ourselves to study. Our Lord warns us that this is so, asking “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will not both fall into a pit?” (Luke 6:39). The Lord Himself should be our Teacher, and we His disciples, for “No disciple is above his teacher; but when perfected, everyone will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). If we are to become like saints, if our preaching is to “Bear good fruits” (Luke 6:43), then we must be rooted in Scripture, rooted in the Word of the Lord; we ought to be as children (Luke 18:16-17), as God’s own children. And as such, we should learn by the example of our Mother, Our Lady, whose first and last lesson is submission to the will of God: “Be it done to me according to your Word” (Luke 1:38).

Like children, we ought to be eager always to learn, for there is no truth which is not God’s. And who has been appointed to teach the Children of the Father? We all of us have as our first teacher our parents, and especially our mothers. The same is true in the family of Faith, but our mother here is the Church. Christ established this Church to guide us always, and appointed His Apostles (and their descendents, the bishops) to be our shepherds and our teachers (Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:44-49, and Acts 1:7). Their minds have been opened “that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45), and that they may be faithful witnesses (Luke 24:48) who can pass on God’s revelation to us.

Though our studies may better enable us to know and understand the Truth—and thus to properly and wisely preach it—knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are all three gifts of the Holy Spirit. “All wisdom is from the Lord God, and hath been always with Him, and is before all time….The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom….The fear of the Lord is the religiousness of knowledge….Wisdom shall distribute knowledge, and understanding” (Sirach 1:1, 16, 17, and 24). The fear of the Lord is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, who shares His gifts with all who ask.

Thus, proper preaching begins not only with study, but with prayer. At times I think that preaching should really be spelled as a contraction: P-R-apostrophe (‘)-E-A-C-H-I-N-G. The contraction pr’eaching means “PRayerful tEACHING.” It is not by mere coincidence that all of the great mendicant orders—Franciscans, Carmelites, and of Course the Order of Preachers (Dominicans)—all of the orders which were established to preach in some way were established not only with a first order of friars, but also with a second order of nuns to pray for them. In our own order’s founding, St Dominic established the second order before establishing the first.

We need prayer, and we need also to remember that our preaching is itself a form of prayer, and so it should give glory not to us, but to God. In the words of the Psalm, “Non nobis, Domine, sed nomine tuo da gloriam.” Not to us, Lord, but to Your Name give glory. Would that we could sing that Psalm more often, in either the English or the Latin, for it is an important reminder that our preaching should seek to glorify God and not ourselves. “Men will be lovers of self, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemous….Avoid these” (2nd Timothy 3:2, 5). If St Paul warns St Timothy—and by extension, us—to avoid such men, how much more does he warn us to avoid becoming such men?

I have at this point spoken of the relationship to preaching of each of the other three pillars of our lives as Dominicans. Each of these things were present in our order from the beginning—from the founding by St Dominic. Our order was originally founded to combat the heresy of the Cathari (“pure ones”), and particularly of the Albigenses. This was a Gnostic sect of the Manichaean variety, and they stood in contrast to the exterior appearances of the Church. Our clergy were often rich, lived in luxury, were poorly educated as regards the Faith; they were proud, often worldly men who failed as teachers of the faith; there was a general shortage of good preachers in the Church.

The Albigenses taught a sever asceticism—based in poverty—which contrasted with that of the clergy of their times. Yet, theirs was a heresy which would destroy the Church, and they spread their heresy with the sword, laying siege to the surrounding countryside; in short, they proselytized rather than evangelized, for theirs was a heresy without riches—physical or spiritual.

Saint Dominic, for his part, began his preaching in earnest by first living amongst the Cathari of southern France. By studying them, he could learn what they really believed and thus more effectively evangelize them; one cannot show the Truth if one does not understand the error. He recognized that there was a kernel of truth in their way of life—for if there wasn’t, they would win over nobody. Their detachment from worldly things was in emulation of Christ’s teachings, but it was not based in the Gospel; rather, it was based in the old dualist ideas that there are spiritual things and physical things—spirit and matter—and that the former is good while the latter is evil.

He founded the first Dominican convents as communities of women converts to pray for God’s aide in his preaching, and a few years later began the first order—the friars preachers—as well. It was only after he had studied the heretics—learning both their errors but also knowing the Truth with which to confront these errors—and after he had founded communities of believers for the purpose of praying, that he began to establish friars for the purpose of preaching. Upon founding his order, St Dominic famously remarked:
“It is not by the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-housed palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is untrue, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth.”
We would be wise to learn from his example.