The number of occasions during the week and on a Sunday when lay people are being called upon to preach in a liturgical context is growing. The more lay people can prepare themselves well for preaching, the more the Church will be enriched. Neil Darragh provides helpful notes for people who may consider taking up this ministry.

A homily (or sermon or scripture reflection) in the contemporary Liturgy of the Word is essentially an interpretation of preceding scripture readings applied to a contemporary congregation. Most commonly, but not always, the homily is based on the Gospel reading, with the other readings playing a complementary role. The first reading on a Sunday has usually been chosen because it is related in some way to the Gospel reading. 

The process of homily preparation can be summarized in the following three steps:

Step One - Text for First Century Hearers?

This step is an interpretation of the scripture text that takes into account the context of those early Christian communities as well as the place of this particular reading within the overall plan of the book that it comes from. In other words, this first step is an interpretation of the text taking into account the criteria normally used by contemporary scripture scholars.

Most homilists will need access to recent scripture commentaries to do this. If you do not have access to recent scripture commentaries, some helpful New Zealand websites are the Society of Mary site (www.sm.org.nz/about/nz-province/homily-helps/ ) which has many links to other homily sites; Bill Fletcher’s site, The Practice of Jesus  (home.clear.net.nz/pages/bfletch/index.html ) which has a strong social justice orientation not often found on other sites; Bosco Peters’s site ( www.liturgy.co.nz ) has many liturgical resources including reflections on the readings and seasons.

The homilist should be aware though that scripture scholars are not just neutral observers. Like the rest of us they are influenced by their wealth, their culture, their gender, their geography, etc. Nevertheless, keeping this in mind, scripture commentaries can give us access to information about the context of the scripture readings that most of us do not have time to investigate for ourselves.

The key point here is that the hopeful homilist should not be put off by having to do a little research beforehand. Scriptural interpretation is not just the domain of professional scripture scholars. It can be done by anyone who has tried to live the scriptures and is prepared to check out some commentaries or websites.

Step Two - Key Message for Now?

From the initial investigation of what the text was saying to its original hearers, the homilist discerns a message that is relevant to this contemporary congregation. The homilist does this out of familiarity with both the scripture text and the congregation. What is the most important message from this text that I need to convey to this congregation? Usually a homily can have only one such message, perhaps two. Here the homilist needs conviction. A homily carries a message. It is not just a general explanation of a scripture text.

Without this discernment and conviction, the homilist is likely to resort to banalities or time-filling stories or personal experiences that are essentially ballast rather than a message delivered with conviction. If you have nothing to say, don’t try to make it attractive.

Step Three - To Change the Congregation Now?

Once the key message is clear to the homilist, the form of the presentation becomes the next step – the way in which this message can most effectively be communicated to this contemporary congregation.

It is a good idea to keep in mind four broad areas of application:

1.  the personal conversion or development of the people within the congregation
2. the church itself and how it should live as a Christian community (e.g. relationships within the community, leadership, ministries)
3. the mission or outreach of the Christian community into the wider society (e.g. about social justice, peace, evangelisation)
4. Christian responsibility towards the natural environment and within the planet Earth.

A homilist will seldom be able to make applications to all four of these areas in a single homily, but does need to decide which are actually to be made in this particular homily. Be worried too if, over time, one or several of these areas has been consistently ignored.

The homily presentation can then be concerned with ways to illustrate, concretize, and bring home the message to this congregation: stories, contemporary events, role models (ancient or contemporary) are important here. People listen most easily to stories. But homilists are better to avoid stories that have little to do with the message of the homily and in fact distract from it. Similarly, personal confessions of the homilist can be used sometimes, but occasionally is better than often.

Relevance to my Congregation

Sometimes websites can also help with stories, role models, and applications. But most of those sites are speaking to a different congregation with different needs and different strengths. Is this relevant to my congregation?

Key phrases or even slogans that focus the main message of the homily can also be effective. And homilies are usually more memorable when they finish with a brief conclusion that similarly focuses its main theme or message.

If the homilist preaches frequently to the same congregation, this is also the point where s/he needs to make sure that this is not essentially the same message that has been delivered repeatedly on earlier occasions. If it is, this is a cue to return to the scripture readings to look for another message – there is never just one message there.

Script

Homilists need also to decide about how they use their backup script: to write it out in full and read out the whole homily? To write it out in full, and then speak mainly from memory? To write it out in note form, and then speak from memory? These are decisions where homilists try to play to their own strengths rather than regard one style as desirable for all.

Feedback

Feedback is important for the homilist. Relying on spontaneous feedback at end of the liturgy results very often in no feedback at all, and in any case people are likely to be compassionate rather than honest. Sometimes, feedback is just critical and dispiriting with no indication of how widespread that criticism is. It is better if feedback is sought in some kind of organised and friendly yet honest way. If you yourself want to offer a criticism to another homilist, don’t do it at the end of the liturgy when the homilist can’t do anything about it anyway, and their enthusiasm may be dashed. Give it at a later time, preferably when the homilist is preparing for another homily and can do something constructive about it.

Neil Darragh is a priest of the Diocese of Auckland, a writer, theologan, and ecologist.

Published in Tui Motu InterIslands, March 2012. pp 22-24.