Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. Six years ago I had a dream. Nothing quite as mind-blowing as Martin Luther King's. Still, not insignificant for the future of our church, our country, our way of life, our profound spirituality. It was springtime 1990. I was in my 12th year at Georgetown University, theologian in residence; in my 23rd year as editor of the scholarly journal Theological Studies, my 44th year on the editorial staff. I knew I would be resigning both positions soon. I was touching 75, increasingly aware of the Psalmist's warning, "The days of our life are 70 years, perhaps 80, if we are strong" (Ps 90:10). On what should I focus for however many years God would grant me-something that would engage my background, talents, and interests? Background? Theology. Talents? Communication: preaching, lecturing, writing. Interests? People. I was then a senior fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center, a research organization located at Georgetown University, founded in 1974 by the New York and Maryland Provinces of the Society of Jesus to put theology to work on social, economic, and political issues. It proved to be the seedplot of my dream. The Woodstock Theological Center has been doing splendid work in touching theology to the neuralgic problems of our time-books and articles, conferences and workshops. But this approach, indispensable indeed, reaches only a relatively small number of people. How could we expand the Center's influence, stimulate American Catholicism as a whole to live and spread our social gospel? It was then that it hit: preaching! Where do American Catholics gather regularly in largest array, even more than for pro football? At weekend liturgy. A captive audience, millions of potential listeners a TV network might profitably sell its soul for. Not preaching in general, but preaching the faith that does justice-an inseparable unity our 32nd General Congregation called "the mission of the Society of Jesus today," a mission that Pedro Arrupe confessed was the most difficult of all to put across to the Society. But the dream had a nightmarish aura: Catholic preaching is all too often dull as dishwater, what the president of the University of Rochester called "Saturday Night Live, Sunday Morning Deadly." If our homilies are to instill new life into the relationship between justice and faith, our homilists must be set aflame. But how? What is so distinctive about our project, Preaching the Just Word, that since 1991 we have captured the imagination of over 3,000 preachers? A wedding of workshop and retreat. Fr. Philip Murnion, editor of Church, persuaded us that Preaching the Just Word would fail of its purpose if its priority were information, data, skills, important as these are. More importantly a spirituality, a conversion process that turns the preacher inside out, shapes a new person, puts "fire in the belly." The method? Meditation on five "social" themes from the Exercises: God's creation of a human family, a community; sin as destruction of that divine intent, division, dismemberment; reconciliation as restoration of community; Christ's crucifixion as social in its origins, its actuality, its outcomes; Pentecost as a fresh sending forth in the risen Lord. Crucial emphasis on biblical justice. Catholic preaching has stressed an ethical construct, giving to each what is due to each, because it can be proven from philosophy or has been written into law. Important, but not enough. Rather, God's own Word on justice: fidelity to relationships and responsibilities that stem form a covenant with God. What relationships? Love God above all else, above the idols that dominate our culture. Love each man, woman, child like another self, especially the marginalized. Touch the earth with respect and reverence. Biblical justice is supplemented by the Catholic tradition, relation of liturgy to justice, and the cultures into which we preach-each handled by an expert. Small -group discussions. Justice in specific parishes: issues resources, decisions. Your people: Where do they hurt, wherein do they joy, what do they hope for? The preacher: Your hurts, your joys, your hopes. The art and the craft of justice preaching. The resources? The Bible and the newspaper: biblical justice concretized on the large sheets of newsprint that surround the retreatants and detail the justice issues in the parishes represented. Finally, a justice homily preached by each participant to his/her small group. Liturgical readings? Not as one chooses; rather the next six or seven Sundays are imposed on the six or seven groups, in our conviction that the whole of Scripture is social. Mix of clergy and laity. Not always possible in every diocese, but the advantages are coming clear. The January 1996 Rochester NY retreat/workshop was a splendid example: 16 priests,12 women, two lay men, one permanent deacon, one candidate for permanent diaconate. So too was the February 1998 Hawaii retreat/workshop: 10 priests, 6 deacons, 12 women religious, and 20 lay ministers. Return to Preaching the Just Word Page