By avoiding boredom, never learn discipline

A recent report in The Irish Catholic described a study by the Universities of Vienna and Sussex on spiritual boredom.
When lead author, Thomas Gotz, and his team decided to investigate spiritual boredom, they discovered that there was a surprising lack of previous research. They chose five spiritual practices – yoga, meditation, pilgrimage, silent retreats and sermons at Catholic Masses – to investigate.
Unsurprisingly, sermons were rated as boring whereas pilgrimages were not. Surprisingly, perhaps, yoga was also rated as boring, though less so than sermons. Boredom is often associated with a lack of control. Gotz wondered why people would experience boredom in activities they have opted to engage in. He surmises that people take back control by no longer attending church.

Captivation

Let me state immediately that I feel sorry for homilists. Preaching week after week (and many also give brief homilies at weekday Masses, too) is far from easy.
Furthermore, I have spoken in many churches at novenas and other occasions and the sense of deadness in some congregations is intense and sometimes difficult to overcome.
Normally, I am starting with an advantage because a layperson speaking after Communion is somewhat of a novelty. But even with this headstart, sometimes my heart fails me when I look out on a sea of faces who look bored even before I start. I can imagine how difficult it must be for a priest.
Boredom is nothing new. In the Acts of the Apostles, a young man called Eutychus went to sleep as Paul was preaching, fell several stories to the ground and was killed. Paul restored him to life. Some homilists wish they could restore their congregations to life, I am sure.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers had a word for a particular kind of boredom, which they called acedia, or the noonday devil. It is a kind of listlessness where you are bored or cannot be bothered with your self-chosen spiritual exercises. It is a kind of deadening of the spirit.

It is an ever-present crutch, so we never have to endure and push through boredom”

William Hogarth’s earliest dated painting, from 1728, features a preacher so boring that halfway through the entire congregation is asleep. Hogarth is a social satirist and his paintings often have elements of the grotesque.
In 1863 and 1864, John Everett Millais painted two paintings called ‘My First Sermon’ and ‘My Second Sermon’, which are much more charming. They feature the artist’s adorable little daughter, Effie, who is aged about five. She is paying full attention in the first portrait. In the second, her little legs hang bonelessly, as she is fast asleep.
While boredom has been present since the earliest times in the Church, we now have agents of distraction constantly at hand, called mobile phones. It is an ever-present crutch, so we never have to endure and push through boredom. As a result, our attention spans and tolerance for boredom have atrophied. If we are not being entertained, we don’t want to be there.

Discipline

But by avoiding boredom, we never learn the discipline necessary to go beyond it to interior quiet. And therefore, we have fewer opportunities to hear the gentle voice of the Lord.
We must be careful about trying to make the Gospel more relevant. The Gospel is already the most relevant document known to humanity; it simply needs to be presented in an engaging way.
Some Protestant and Evangelical churches in the US leaned heavily on making church relevant, with up-to-date music and homilies that were more like pep rallies. It worked for a while but those megachurches are slowly emptying now, too.
If people stop going to church because of the homily, something deeper is going on.
My mother-in-law used to respond, “Your love is too short”, when people complained that the Mass was too long.
We have come to rely too heavily on Mass as the only marker of being a Catholic. Of course, the Mass is the greatest gift we have but it must be accompanied by regular prayer, confession and a community commitment, including service to others.
In Penal times in Ireland, Catholics risked their lives to attend Mass. In many places today, Catholics take similar risks. I doubt they complain of boredom.
Priests have an obligation to preach to the best of their ability. The most humble and effective preachers I know actively seek feedback. A chaplain (now deceased) at the school where I used to teach once asked students how he could improve his homilies.
One student let rip. She attended his church every week, which was rare for a young person even then. She was frustrated because he never addressed young people. A gentle and kind man, he was taken aback but asked her how he might do so.
A year later, she informed me that he addressed young people directly at some stage in every single homily. Now, that is truly inspiring.