Preaching the Mystery of Faith

can illumine the latter through recourse to the former. The birth of a child today is an echo of the Birth of Christ; a time of suffering in the hospital right now is in some way connected to the suffering of Jesus on the Cross; a summons to a vocation heard by a young woman in a parish is not unlike the call heard by Mary of Nazareth from the angel Gabriel; a failure of integrity by a business executive is reminiscent of the Israelites’ failure in the desert; a struggle for justice in our society is supported by Amos’s cry of protest on behalf of the poor, and so on. Thereby the Scriptures give voice to our deepest longings and aspirations. Along with a profound love of the Scriptures the homilist should also have knowledge of and religious adherence to the Church’s Sacred Tradition and its essential link to Scripture. From the perspective of Catholic faith, the one word of God is expressed both in Scripture and in the Church’s Tradi tion. 50 Blessed John Henry Newman said that the teaching of the Bible is like a seed, which has gradually unfolded across space and through time. 51 Theology, spirituality, the liturgy, the lives of the saints, the formal teach ing of the Church, great Catholic art, architecture, and poetry—all of these constitute the unfolding of the word of God within our Catholic heritage. Tradition along with Scripture, therefore, is an important source from which preachers can draw inspiration. 52 Preachers should have the habitus of the ology: the steady practice of reading the theological masters (both ancient and modern) and meditating on the great questions that they entertain. They should cultivate a real love for the writings of the doctors of the Church and study with eagerness the manner in which the Church’s life and teaching have developed. The Preacher as a Man of Tradition

The Preacher as a Man of Communion

Effective preaching also entails a thoughtful and informed understanding of contemporary culture. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council made this

50 See Dei Verbum , nos. 9-10. 51 Blessed John Henry Newman, An Essay of the Development of Christian Doctrine (New York: Christian Classics Inc., 1968), 80. 52 CIC, c. 760.

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