The Gospel and Homily

The Gospel is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word. Catholic teaching holds that all of Scripture is the Word of God, but the Gospels — the four accounts of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection — have a special place because they preserve, in the words of the Catechism, "the principal source of our faith in Christ." The proclamation is reserved to a deacon or priest precisely because of this dignity. A lay reader proclaims the First and Second Readings; only an ordained minister proclaims the Gospel.

The Gospel is proclaimed from a Book of the Gospels (an evangelary), often carried in procession at the start of the Mass and incensed on solemnities. The deacon or priest greets the assembly ("The Lord be with you"), announces the Gospel ("A reading from the holy Gospel according to..."), and the assembly responds with the threefold Sign of the Cross — on the forehead, lips, and breast — silently praying that Christ's words may be in their mind, on their lips, and in their heart.

After the proclamation comes the homily. The homily is not a separate teaching session inserted into the Mass; it is part of the Liturgy of the Word itself. The Second Vatican Council's liturgical reform restored the homily to its proper place: the preacher is to break open the Scripture readings of the day, drawing from them what the assembly needs to hear for their lives now. A good homily is brief, biblical, and connected to the lives of the listeners. It is not the priest's personal opinion but the Church's reflection on the Word.

For weddings and funerals, the homily is one of the most important moments of the entire liturgy. The celebrant has often known the couple or the deceased; he speaks the Word into the particulars of this love or this grief. Many Catholics remember the homily at their wedding or at the funeral of a parent for decades afterward.