Folia Canonica 2. (1999)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. - Vladimir Filo: Homily as a Specific Duty of Ordained Persons
294 VLADIMIR FILO part of the liturgy. The result of this discussion was that lay people24 could not preach the homily. 3. The Recent Situation The teaching of the Church that c. 767, § 1 does not contain merely disciplinary law appears now in the Code. This is a constitutive law of the Church, as it defines the essential constituents of the homily. We also have to mention that the homily is not an essential constituent of liturgy, for if it was, there could be no liturgical celebration without it. Based on § 2 and 3 it is obvious that the homily is not an essential constituent of the liturgy since both liturgical celebrations and a Holy Mass can be held without it. It raises the question: if it is possible to hold a liturgical celebration without a homily, why should ordained people be substituted by lay persons? Why should this problem be solved by delegating a non-ordained person to preach a homily? Thus it is not necessary to preach a homily either at all liturgical celebrations or at all Holy Masses. The canon we discuss does not define the constituents of liturgy but it defines the essential constituents of the homily as a juridical institute. If a law is constitutive in this sense we shall have to define the essential constituents of the homily (cf. c. 86). Our canon defines the essential constituents of the homily indeed, by giving answer to the following questions: • What is a homily? • Who can preach a homily? • What should a homily contain? • What is the aim of a homily?25 A homily according to the canon is “a part of the liturgy itself“ (causa formalis), therefore it is a liturgical action. The liturgy is the public action of the Church. Only those, who act under holy orders in persona Christi Capitis can perform these actions. By this statement we have already offered an answer to the second essential constituent of the homily, namely that “who can preach a homily”. The people allowed to preach a homily are “priests and the deacons” (causa efficiens), i. e. consecrated persons. The enumeration of these persons is not accidental, since it defines to whom the homily is reserved and at the same time it defines who may not preach a homily. The content of the homily (causa materialis) is expressed in the words of the canon: "in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of Christian living are to be expounded from the sacred text throughout the course of the liturgical 24 Cf. Communicationes 18 (1987) 247. 25 Cf. Fox, Cornelia (cf. nt. 7), 28.
