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Formed in Christ

Friday, November 28, 2025Faith

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The homilist's task is to shine God's Word, not his personal agenda, on himself and the assembly to bring about the change of heart or direction that each of us always needs.

Father Robert M.
O'Grady

Decades ago, in many dioceses, the priests received an annual mailing from their bishop. It was either a complete sermon for each Sunday and holyday of obligation, or an outline with the material that should be developed for the respective celebration. There was only one cycle of readings, with almost nothing from the Old Testament. The required sermons were often moral exhortations, sometimes just class presentations, and often unrelated to the readings or even to the season or feast itself. In one diocese, this led to the prepared text being, in no uncertain terms, a denunciation of divorce as the required sermon for Easter Sunday!
For bishops, priests, and deacons who prepare homilies for Sunday or other days, there are multiple resources available.
The first resource, though, is obviously the sacred texts of Scripture proclaimed at the Mass when the homily is preached. Remember, there are four scriptural texts that can be the source; they could be individually used or in some combination. The Sunday readings are arranged so that the first reading is usually from the Old Testament, it is expanded upon by the psalm that follows it, and the psalm also serves to link the first reading with the Gospel. As we observed previously in this column, the second reading is almost an orphan, but it can be a not-to-be-overlooked source for the homilist.

The homilist must be familiar with the text of scripture before him for the Sunday liturgy. He will obviously need to use commentaries on the texts and learn for himself what the text was saying at the time it was written. Who was the audience? Why was it written then and not at another time? Or does it sound repetitive? Did we hear this recently from another writer?
Then he bridges all of that to the community where he is preaching. What is this saying to us? What is God trying to get through to our minds and hearts? Are there similar situations and circumstances, people or societies today that need to hear this message? This is not a finger-pointing or denunciation, but rather a call to conversion of myself, of the homilist and of the assembly.
The homilist's task is to shine God's Word, not his personal agenda, on himself and the assembly to bring about the change of heart or direction that each of us always needs.
Recently, I read about translation theory. There are lots of them. Word for word, phrase for phrase, sentence for sentence. Then there is also "What is this author in that language trying to say?"
Another was this: "How do I (the translator) tell this audience (hearing or reading) what the author (in the original language) wanted to tell them?"
This last seems to me an apt description of the homilist's task. How do I (the homilist) relate to this assembly the message that God wants to get to me and them?
It cannot be a word-for-word explanation. It must be the homilist being addressed by God's Word and so be able to address that Word to this assembly.
"While the scriptural texts are the first source suggestion given the homilist, there is also this: 'It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should consider both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.'" (General Instruction of the Roman Missal)
Other sources, as we see above, may be the texts of the Ordinary of the Mass. These are in invariable parts of every Sunday Mass, e.g., the Gloria, the Creed, the various responses, the Our Father, and the Lamb of God. In the Proper of the Mass are the variables for Sunday. Among these are the collect, the prayer over the gifts, the preface, the Eucharistic Prayer, the post Communion prayer, and the solemn blessing.
Additionally, the occasion, e.g., a baptism, marriage, funeral, etc., would be another source. And finally, a particular feast of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin, or one of the saints in the Roman Martyrology.
Those are just for Sundays. Weekdays offer more options, especially with the variety of Masses, both with the proper scriptural texts and Mass prayers. There are all kinds of Mass "intentions" in the "back of the book" that is the Roman Missal. They are called Votive Masses or Masses for Various Needs and Occasions.
Faith should touch all aspects of the Catholic Christian's life. The homilist has many resources available to him to help the Lord speak his Word to us.
The Holy See provides an excellent document about the homily: www.usccb.org/resources/Homiletic-Directory-CDWDS.pdf.
And there are two documents from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.usccb.org/upload/fulfilled-in-your-hearing-homily-Sunday-assembly.pdf and www.usccb.org/resources/usccb-preaching-document.pdf.