Lawrence Abello was one of the spiritual guides and confessors,
homilist and consultant.
In contrast, the talmudic
homilists enumerated five transgressions on account of which Saul died.
The
homilist summons prophets both Jewish--Isaiah, David, Moses, John the Baptist--and pagan--Nebuchadnezzar, Virgil, the Erythraean Sibyl--and directs each to offer up a prophecy.
Father O'Connor's first appointment (1957-1960) was at Corpus Christi, Middlesbrough, where his fellow curate was Canon Michael Davern who was the
homilist at his Requiem Mass.
In a eucharist rich in symbolism--from the transporting of the gospel in a flower-bedecked mini-canoe by Melanesians to the choice of
homilist, music, and processional robes--Anglican bishops, their spouses and ecumenical participants gathered July 20 at the historic Canterbury Cathedral for the opening service of the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
Despite the fact that the
homilist goes on to state that "Matthew also aims the polemic at the constant temptation to this kind of heartless piety in his congregation (and ours)," the damage is already done.
The mass usually has political overtones, and the
homilist often takes swipes at separation of church and state--albeit sometimes in carefully couched language--and speaks out against legal abortion, stem-cell research, same-sex marriage or other issues of interest to the church's leadership.
It is the task of the
homilist to mediate this presence so that as the
homilist speaks, the community may apprehend the presence of Christ in the Holy Spirit.
The results are intriguing to modern scholars, who try to explain why what seems so obvious to readers now--a lack of inner coherence--seems to have been missed by the Anglo-Saxon
homilist. The explanation varies with the particular homily.
Going through this original source background one can easily notice that the Old English
homilist always made a conscious effort to give his audience and readers the meaning in a clear and digestible vernacular idiom.
Indeed Cahill the hip
homilist is at bottom rather old-fashioned.
But the artist as
homilist turned such sermons back on themselves.
