After the Gospel is proclaimed all sit and the Ordained Minister preaches a homily.
Homily comes from the Greek word meaning "a familiar conversation." The homily was originally given in the early Church as a kind of informal preaching, which would make sense for the usual small gatherings of Christians to worship.
Like the proclamation of the Scriptures where Christ speaks to us, his People the Church, so he also speaks through the preacher. Catechism #888 teaches us that "Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task ‘to preach the Gospel of God to all...’ in keeping with the Lord's command. They are ‘heralds of faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers’ of the apostolic faith ‘endowed with the authority of Christ.’"
The preacher is the instrument that Christ uses to convey his message, but the preacher is an imperfect instrument and his weaknesses can impede that message as much as his strengths can enhance it. Yet still Christ can speak to us in the homily because of what the homily is meant to do: "The homily is a mutual search by preacher and congregation–a seeking after the voice of God." (Thomas K. Carroll, Preaching the Word, p.43)
This official definition of a homily is typical: "The purpose of the homily is to explain the readings and make them relevant for the present day." (Liturgiae instaurationes 2,a)
Several other basic definitions found on the web are:
"Broadly speaking, a homily attempts to apply the message of the Sunday Scripture readings to the lives of the people."
"The purpose of the homily is to provide insight into the meaning of the scripture and relate it to the lives of the parishioners of the church."
All are in agreement that the homily must begin with the Scriptures that were just proclaimed in the liturgy and that the homily is not independent of the liturgy, as if we take a break in the Mass for some "Bible study" and then go back to the Mass which is to praise and thank God and offer the sacrifice of the Mass.
Sometimes it is helpful to know what the homily is not. It is not primarily teaching, Bible study, a lecture, or even what is very tempting in our culture: entertainment. A homily may very well contain elements of these things, but I find this quote instructive:
"The homily is not simply an explanation of the scriptures, the fruit of research into the best scholarship. Nor is it the drawing of a moral from the scriptures, nor using the scriptures to back up the latest need for school support or abortion law reform. Nor is the homily a great a great literary creation 'from nothing': the scriptures and eucharist are its beginning and its ending. The homilist helps the assembly appreciate the wonderful web that links word and sacrament and daily living." (Gabe Huck and Gerald T.Chinchar, Liturgy with Style and Grace, p.50)
Just like the rest of Mass, the homily is meant to facilitate an encounter with the living Christ, Jesus who is the Word made flesh, the revelation of the life of God as a loving communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we are invited into this communion, this "exchang of love." (See Catechism #221 HERE)
Second, the homily also nourishes the "religious imagination" of the People gathered for Sunday worship. We live mainly by our images of reality, more than by our intellect. These images usually carry a great deal of emotional meaning for us. But our images of God and his vision for our lives and our world can be accurate or distorted. Hearing the Scriptures and the preaching in the Liturgy of the Word, in the context of the Church’s Tradition, should give us the right images to nourish our relationship with God and the Church. (See more on this matter of imagination Here and HERE)
The U.S bishops document, "Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily" (issued January 2013) affirms the role of religious imagination in preaching:
"Jesus was not an abstract preacher but laced his preaching with rich images and provocative stories...
"But Jesus was not content simply to cite ordinary examples; there is in Jesus’ parables a quality of strangeness, something out of the ordinary, that grips the imagination and triggers wonderment on the part of the hearer."
Third the homily gives us a vision of how God wants our world to be like and calls us to be agents of change in our world, to begin to build what is Biblically called "the kingdom of God." Essentially, the Kingdom of God is the rule of God’s love. The homily explores what it would be like if we lived in that love and if that love changed the world into something infinitely better. Of course, this vision calls us to repent from whatever is unloving in us, i.e. sin.
Fourth, the homily, as part of the liturgy, points us implicitly and explicitly to how Jesus came to inaugurate God’s Kingdom of love by his Death and Resurrection. His Cross proclaims Christ’s sacrificial love for, which is how God loves us, and the Resurrection assures us that this love never ends.
Again the U. S. Bishops teach:
"Every homily, because it is an intrinsic part of the Sunday Eucharist, must therefore be about the dying and rising of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial passage through suffering to new and eternal life for us. By means of that pattern, the People of God can understand their own lives properly and be able to see their own experience in the light of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus." (ibid)
Lastly, the homily is meant to lead us into thanksgiving (Eucharist) and to offer ourselves with Christ’s One Sacrifice in the Eucharist–the service of his sacrificial love in dying and rising with him and to be prepared to go out and live the faith proclained in Word and Sacrament.
"As part of the entire liturgical act, the homily is meant to set hearts on fire with praise and thanksgiving." (Ibid)
No homily can do all of this in less than 10 minutes! Which is again why it is important, moreover essential, that we attend Sunday Mass every Sunday. Only in this way will we progress in our understanding of how to live as God’s children in this world.
Next Week: The Creed
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