God delights in cheerful service, yet He may be even more pleased with service that perseveres through heaviness or reluctance, choosing the good out of love despite opposite feelings.

It’s generally practical to keep the basics in their proper place—Catechism classes are where those foundations should be taught clearly and thoroughly. But when it comes to the homily, that’s the time to connect the faith to real life—to speak about what’s happening right now in the community, in the lives of the people, and even in society at large, and to show how we as Christians are called to respond. That’s how the Word becomes not just something we know, but something we live.