By Gary Topping–
In the early thirteenth century, St. Dominic received papal approval for a new religious order, the Order of Preachers. Members of the Order were to go about combatting heresy and reclaiming for the Church people who had fallen into false teachings.
There was and still is a lay component to the Order, of which I have been a member for quite a few years. An issue we always have to confront when someone inquires about joining the Order is how a lay person can be a preacher, because the Catholic Church (wisely, I think) prohibits lay people from giving homilies at Mass.
There are at least two answers: one is that we can explain and defend Catholic doctrine individually and in contexts outside of Mass, just as the early Dominicans did. The other is contained in a picture my colleague Susan Northway gave me a few years ago. (Susan herself is not a Dominican, but she is certainly a sympathizer and “fellow traveler.”) The picture shows St. Dominic with a finger to his mouth, hushing us up. Isn’t that contradictory? How can the founder of the Order of Preachers tell us not to preach? What he is saying, of course, is that we should preach primarily through the way we live, not through what we say.
I keep this picture posted behind my desk to remind myself, a man of far too many words, that all the words I have written and spoken throughout my long life are less important than the life I have lived. I have two authorities for that: one is the Letter of St. James, which reminds us that our faith must be manifested in good works, not just good words. The other is my patron saint and the founder of the Order of Preachers.
Whatever else we resolve during this new year, let us resolve to talk less and live better.
