Here is a try...
>Could someone out there define for me the difference between a
>sermon and a homily? I know that homilies were based on traditional
>liturgical sources and usually tied to a particular day of the liturgical
>calendar but so to were the majority of fourteenth century sermons so what
>exactly is the difference?
In Latin church writings (eg Augustine, Leo) sermo is the usual word
for what we now call a homily, that is discourse, long or short,
explaining or drawn form a passage of scripture heard in the
liturgy. The Greek word was homile, which appears in breviary Latin
as homilia.
Original meaning of Latin sermo is any discourse or speech, with some
degree of formality: of Greek homile is crowd or gathering.
The duty of the bishop is to preach: the great models were people
like Chrystostom and Augustine. And the function of the homily was to
link the word of God as listened to with the life of those who made
up this particular Christian assembly. Since liturgy moved (roughly
speaking) from Greek into Latin (I am speaking of medieval times in
a broad sense), the two words became more or less intergchangeable,
but sermon got into common English (and I think European languages)
as the norm.
Reformed churches made more of the sermon, and the
counter-reformation tended to follow suit: thus the recent reforms of
the liturgy have attempted to remove the sermon, as a great
discourse or even a book by itself (eg Newman's sermons) back into a
homily that is relevant directly to the readings used and the people
present. I was doing this yesterday morning, and the day before. But
you can see how the two words have acquired separate meanings to
suit a perceived difference of function. The fairly sharp modern
distinction is very largely a result of correction of practice: but
the difference in linguistic root certainly helps.
You coiuld perhaps compare the Greek *charis* with Latin *gratia*:
originally more or less equivalent, they have given rise to a whole
series of derivatives (or successors) which serve to carry quite
a wide variety of meanings.
a.c.
Anselm Cramer OSB
Ampleforth Abbey, York
GB - YO6 4EN
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