Preaching the Mystery of Faith

The Essential Connection Between Scripture, the Homily, and the Eucharist

Looking at this fundamental pattern of preaching in the Emmaus narrative illustrates the essential connection between Scripture, the homily, and the Eucharist; for it was in the “breaking of the bread” that the disciples ulti mately recognized their Risen Lord, and it was then they realized that their hearts were burning within them “while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us” (Lk 24:32). This is why virtually every homily preached during the liturgy should make some connection between the Scriptures just heard and the Eucharist about to be celebrated. Depending on what oppor tunities the texts in question provide, such a connection might be very brief or even only implicitly indicated, but at other times a firm connection should be established and drawn out. From the vantage point of Christian faith, the center of the Scriptures is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice that brought redemption to the world. The sacrifice of the Eucha ristic liturgy is the memorial of the Lord’s Death, during the course of which we recognize that “the Lord has truly been raised” (Lk 24:34), is present to us and recognized by us in the breaking of the bread. When this connection is consistently made clear to the Christian people, they will understand the Scriptures and the mystery of the Eucharist ever more deeply. This is what the Council Fathers were speaking about when they said, “The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord, in so far as she never ceases, particularly in the sacred liturgy, to partake of the bread of life and to offer it to the faithful from the one table of the Word of God and the Body of Christ.” 36 Constructing homilies in such a way that this vision is actually achieved is, of course, a challenging project. But homilists should not be daunted by the task and should be encouraged by the grace of their ordination and by the great tradition of preaching that belongs to the whole Church. Their theological studies were geared toward helping them to move knowledgeably among the Scriptures 37 and to understand deeply the sacraments, which are

36 Dei Verbum , no. 21. See also Presbyterorum Ordinis , no. 18; Sacrosanctum Concilium , nos. 51, 56. 37 See Sacrosanctum Concilium , no. 24; CIC, c. 252 §2; CCEO, c. 350 §2.

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