Neil Darragh describes the steps a homilist needs to consider in the “Synodal Way” movement in the Catholic Church which calls for greater involvement of all the baptised in the Church’s life and liturgy.

SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE particularly important for a healthy Christian community. Whether these are full Eucharists or some form of Liturgy of the Word they almost always include a homily or “sermon” or some form of reflection on the Scripture passages read in that liturgy. When someone is asked to give a “homily”, as distinct from just taking part in a Scripture “discussion” or “sharing”, there is usually a high expectation that the homily will be intelligent and insightful. The community is not looking here for a few off-the-cuff remarks or a replay of some well-worn phrases from the Bible or Catechism, nor even a homily lifted from the internet.

This expectation puts a heavy burden on our potential homilists who have not been trained to speak in this way. Catholic communities have usually relied on trained and ordained priests to carry this burden. But there are not so many of these available today. And no amount of "training" equips anyone, ordained or not, to produce a competent and insightful scriptural interpretation 52 times a year for 40 or 50 years. Homilies can go very badly; sometimes missing the point, sometimes tediously repetitive, and sometimes misinterpreting the meaning of the Scripture readings.

People who have not been formally trained in liturgy and Scripture are often nervous about taking on this task. Yet a synodal church cannot succeed unless many people (not just a clerical few) are prepared to undertake this task of scriptural interpretation. All of us need help to do that. This article is an attempt to help people to prepare a homily with some confidence in their own ability.

A homily (or sermon or Scripture reflection) in a contemporary liturgy is essentially an interpretation of preceding Scripture readings applied to a contemporary congregation.

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

FiRST STEP: What was this Scripture text saying to its 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 that takes into account the criteria normally used by contemporary Scripture scholars.

Most homilists will need access to recent Scripture commentaries to do this. 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. But it is not just whatever comes into your mind at first glance when you read that text more than 2,000 years later and from a substantially different culture from that of the original writers and readers.

SECOND STEP: Faithful to that original interpretation, what is its key message for this contemporary congregation?

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. The homilist asks: “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. A homily carries a message with some conviction. 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.

THiRD STEP: How can this message be presented to this congregation so that it changes them?

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. How does it apply to this 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 (eg, the importance of honesty, compassion, generosity, etc. in our daily lives and in our becoming fully human and Christian).

2. The Church itself and how it should live as a Christian community (eg, relationships within the community, leadership, ministries).

3. The mission or outreach of the Christian community into the wider society (eg, about social justice, peace, evangelisation, intercultural relations).

4. Christian responsibility towards the natural environment and within the planet Earth, “our common home”.

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 to be made in a 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, concretise, 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.

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. The homilist should ask: “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, then he or she must also ensure that the same message is not repeated often. And 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.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 303 May 2025: 6-7