Monsignor Pope Ping!
It depends ... Weekday Mass at noon, the congregation have mostly taken off work to have lunch with The Lamb. A very brief, very much to-the-point sermon is an act of charity to them. Sundays allow more time for depth and detail.
It depends, in part, on what’s happening next. If you have to get the people from 9:00 a.m. Mass out, so the people for 11:00 a.m. Mass can get in, then there’s an obvious constraint on homily length.
At my church on Sunday afternoons, we have Mass at 1:30 and 4:30, so there’s a little more “give” in the schedule.
The length is less important than the content.
Does he tell people that Jesus died for them more than NOT telling people that Jesus died for them?
The speediest Mass I have ever been to was 45 min. long.
Where did he come up with 40?
For the record, the Pope's Mass was offered on September 15th, a Saturday.
I think it was the Apostle John who when he spoke to the gathering later in life would just say “Love one another”. That would work today.
Length bothers me less than the constant trite social justice, white guilt, TAKE DOWN WALLS, theme of just about EVERY SINGLE HOMILY! It really ruins the mass for me way too often. Also mic volume!!!
I belong to a parish which has 4 Sunday masses because of parish mergers.
Years ago, when I was an alter boy, one priest, in his sermon, said that in Saint Charles seminary they were told that if the homily is more than 3 minutes long, you have lost most of your audience. That stuck with me until today. It seems that a lot of priests leave the seminary and little by little, get more long winded. The 3 minute time was right.
Our liturgies last 2 hours. We stand. For the Epistle and the homilies we get to sit on the floor. Fritz would be outraged. Especially since the homilies pull no punches and are on spiritual growth, and taking up your crosses, not being dragged around by them...
Francis is your typical Jesuit. Most do what they feel like doing at Mass not what they are supposed to do. Francis hardly ever genuflects or makes the sign of the cross. He has always acted like he could careless about Mass. This is typical for snoddy acedemic liberal Jesuits.
My late uncle, who was a Catholic priest until his death in 1994, always said the homily should be no more than 10 minutes. Anything over that causes loss of the congregations attention spans! He was absolutely correct!
The congregation cheered when Pope Francis called for a 40 minutes Mass. I dare believe they would have cheered even louder if he had said Mass is no longer necessary. Very sad. The Mass is the merger of Heaven and Earth... I agree with wanting the homily to be relevant and no longer than necessary... but who wants to arbitrarily limit our communion with Heaven?
It is not about the length of homily/sermon or the talent of the one giving it. It should be about the worship of the people hearing the Word of God as it works on their hearts. Those who love the Lord will not much think about the length, but only the content. Is the content something the Holy Spirit is using to convict them of sin, or to exult the name of Christ Jesus, etc. If someone is worried about the length, they don’t get it.