A Gift for Me and Priests, Too

+ Enlarge

Saint Nicholas came early to me this Christmas, bringing a gift that will continue giving throughout the year.

The present I’m enjoying so much is Peter Kreeft’s new book, Food for the Soul.

I first encountered Kreeft’s work in my theology studies. He is a Catholic apologist who teaches philosophy at Boston College, a noted speaker, and an author with 95 books to his name. More importantly as far as I’m concerned, he has an amazing ability to explain theology in a way that the average person can understand, but at the same time he doesn’t water down the truths of the faith.

The subtitle of Food for the Soul is “Reflections on the Mass Readings, Cycle C,” but the book is really a collection of homilies for each of the three Sunday Mass readings for this liturgical year. In his introduction, Kreeft says he wrote the book “for three classes of people: enterprising priests, lazy priests and laity.”

For enterprising priests, Kreeft says, the book can be “a ‘homily helper’ that does to their homilies what ‘Hamburger Helper’ does to boring hamburger. It’s also for lazy priests who want to use my poor brains instead of theirs.”

As a member of the third category for whom the book is written, “the laity who are hungry for more of ‘the bread of life,’” I’ve already been fed by the contents of the book despite the fact that I’ve had it only three weeks.

Kreeft gives a half-hearted apology for having the temerity to attempt to improve the homilies of Catholic ministers by questioning his qualifications for doing so: “I’m an absent-minded philosophy professor, not a priest or a deacon. I have never preached a homily in a Catholic church. I do not teach biblical theology or homiletics. I am not professionally qualified to write this book.”

Countering his objection are not only his curriculum vitae, which I mentioned above, but also a some of the praise for the book, printed on the inside page:

“… Peter Kreeft’s artfully expressed thought never fails to inspire.” – Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston

“Peter Kreeft has no equal with respect to making the deepest truths shine forth with aphoristic brilliance. He is the perfect person to place in the pulpit. …” – Joseph Pearce, editor of the St. Austin Review

I’ll add my own plaudits: “Peter Kreeft makes sitting through a horrible homily less of an occasion of sin for me because I know that after Mass I’ll be able to receive the Word of God in a more palatable form once I read what Kreeft has to say about the readings for that Sunday.”

I’d feel guilty about confessing how painful it is to listen to some homilies, but Kreeft himself acknowledges “how many Catholics are exercising heroic charity toward their priests in being polite and patronizing and pretending as they endure their mild weekly purgatory.”

Humor aside, Kreeft is solidly orthodox in his approach to his reflections, noting that a Catholic homilist “serves four masters:” God, God’s Christ, Christ’s Church and the Church’s Bible. “Catholic homilies are always founded on the Bible,” he states.

One of the many things I like about the book is that Kreeft has a thoughtful reflection for each of the three Sunday readings. Myself, I rarely glean anything from the second reading, and the first reading from the Old Testament has hit-or-miss appeal, but Kreeft mines gold from those as well as from the Gospel.

If priests consistently preached like Kreeft writes, I’d have more reason to look forward to Sunday Mass.

I wish I could afford to give Food for the Soul as a gift to every priest and deacon in the diocese. I’ve already shared it with two priests, both excellent homilists, and each said they’d love to have a copy. One actually thumbed through it for inspiration for the upcoming week’s homily. To me, that’s the best recommendation this book could get.

Food for the Soul can be purchased at Immaculate Heart Religious Gifts and Books in Draper and Magdalene Religious Goods in Salt Lake City.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.