The Quality of a Homily

by Michael Shackleton · March 14, 2007

I am disillusioned by the quality of the homilies at our Sunday Masses. I’m told that the Vatican has instructed that homilies must explain the Scripture readings at the Mass, and that’s all. Is this why the sermons are so uninspiring? What happened to the preachers of a few years ago, who could stir us to love God and our neighbour and practise our faith? Knowing the Scriptures is all very well, but surely our religion is more than Bible knowledge.

Canon 767 of the Code of Canon Law says in part that the mysteries of faith and the rules of Christian living are to be expounded in the homily from the sacred text. However, canon 768 in paragraphs 1 and 2 clarifies this by saying that those who announce the word of God must firstly set out those things necessary to believe and practise for the glory of God and the salvation of all, and must explain the teaching of the magisterium of the Church concerning the dignity and freedom of the human person, the unity, stability and duties of the family, people’s social obligations and the ordering of temporal affairs according to the plan established by God.

This is a pretty broad spectrum, so the preacher is not restricted to focusing on biblical passages to the detriment of doctrine and other important matters. What is necessary is that the preacher should connect what he tells us to either the readings of the day or, as the instructions in the Roman Missal indicate, to another text from the Ordinary or the Proper of the Mass of the day.

People can easily lose their concentration if a preacher begins his homily by repeating what they have heard moments before in the readings. To draw the faithful’s immediate attention, preachers might consider firstly presenting a subject which will instantly make their listeners sit up. As they develop their points and urge the people to some kind of reaction, they could then bring in the scriptural or liturgical text and even surprise the people by demonstrating how amazingly the words of Scripture are still powerfully relevant to what the preacher has just told them today.

Christ commanded his Church to teach the world to observe his commandments (Matthew 28:20), and it is the preacher’s plain and serious duty to teach, using the sacred Scriptures as an appropriate means to that end.