What is a homily?

“He interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures”(Lk. 24:27).  On the day Jesus rose from the dead, as two disciples and he walked along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.”  Then, at the end of the day, “he went in to stay with them….At table he took bread, broke it, and gave it to them.  With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”  And they said, “were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us” (Lk. 24:30-31,32).

At the celebration of the Eucharist, the homily is to the scriptures what the breaking of the bread and distribution of Communion is to the consecrated bread and wine.  One recognizes Christ only when one partakes of the blessed and broken-open scriptures and eats the Body and Blood of the Lord.  [“Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life within you” (Jn 6:53)].

To listen to Father Ed’s Sunday homilies, click here.