The homily is a time for a communication between God and his people

In his Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy the Gospel,” Pope Francis explains the meaning and the place of the homily during our Liturgical celebration, especially on Sundays. He quotes from St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, “that the liturgical proclamation of the word of God, especially in the Eucharistic assembly, is not so much a time for meditation and catechesis as a dialogue between God and his people, a dialogue in which the great deeds of salvation are proclaimed and the demands of the covenant are continually restated.”

It oftentimes happens that many of us have an expectation that the homily will address certain cultural, ideological or economic concerns that are present in our society today. Certainly there is a place for the church to address these very important topics. There are moments in which the church can, should and must address these issues. The homily, however, serves a different purpose. It is, as the Holy Father says, a time for a communication between God and his people.

To the people who are listening to the homily, it is important not to be listening or filtering the words of the homily through the lens of one’s own ideologies or one’s own issues, whatever they may be. If one does so, he or she will likely end up critiquing the homily according to those narrow parameters.

The homily is a time for one to open one’s heart and listen–as the pope says– to the great deeds of salvation reaffirmed and proclaimed in their lives. In the past our preaching oftentimes has appeared to be “moralistic and doctrinaire” where one received a lecture on the do’s and don’ts of living the Christian life rather than listening to God speak to the heart. This, the Holy Father says, “detracts from this heart-to-heart communication which takes place in the homily and possesses a quasi-sacramental character.”

Pope Francis also quotes from Chapter 10 of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, in which he says, “Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.” This must be the heart of our preaching today; it must be Christ-centered. We must preach Jesus Christ and the deeds of salvation in the Gospel each Sunday. We all need to hear him proclaimed.

The conversion of one’s heart comes from listening, and the homily every Sunday is the prime place where this is accomplished. The homilist–priest or deacon–should prepare himself well to want to proclaim God’s word and allow God to speak through him. The priest or deacon should not present his own issues and his own ideologies, but rather speak purely the word of God and let the grace of the teaching touch people’s lives.

It is for that reason, I believe, Pope Francis calls upon homilists to focus more on grace, meaning the Holy Spirit working through him and his words, rather than merely preaching with techniques; that the proclamation of the word be the teaching of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the homily is for the converted heart to continue his or her own conversion in the world applying what they have heard, applying the message of Christ to the particular issues and responsibilities that they face each day.

One final note regarding the homily, which is both from the point of view of the one who proclaims the homily and the one who hears the homily. The homily requires the humility of heart, which is able to recognize that God’s word is always beyond us and that, as Pope Paul VI said in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, “we are neither its masters or owners, but its guardians, heralds and servants.”

Therefore, as we continue our renewal of life for the New Evangelization let us look upon the homily as that moment in our week in which the Lord wants to speak to us and convert our hearts. As missionary disciples of Jesus Christ we can bring his love, his mercy and his truth to those whom we meet throughout the week and lead them also to Christ in a conversion of their hearts.