The homily is not simply an explanation of the scriptures, the fruit of research into the best scholarship. Nor is it the drawing of a moral from the scriptures, nor using the scriptures to back up the latest need for school support or abortion law reform. Nor is the homily a great a great literary creation "from nothing": the scriptures and Eucharist are its beginning and its ending. The homilist helps the assembly appreciate the wonderful web that links word and sacrament and daily living.

----from LITURGY WITH STYLE AND GRACE, by Gabe Huck and Gerald T. Chinchar.  (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1998), page 50.