Each week, a Dominican member of the Provincial Preaching Advisory board prepares this Preacher’s Sketchbook in anticipation of the upcoming Sunday Mass. The idea of the Preacher’s Sketchbook is to take quotations from the authority of the Church–the Pope, the Fathers of the Church, documents of the Councils, the saints–that can help spark ideas for the Sunday homily. Just as an artist’s sketchbook preserves ideas for later elaboration, so we hope the Preacher’s Sketchbook will provide some ideas for homiletical elaboration.

Sketchbook

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2578

“In expectation of that day, the believer’s body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the suffering: ‘The body [is meant] for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? …. You are not your own; …. So glorify God in your body.’”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #878

“Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a personal character. Although Christ’s ministers act in communion with one another, they also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally: ‘You, follow me’ in order to be a personal witness within the common mission, to bear personal responsibility before him who gives the mission, acting ‘in his person’ and for other persons: ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…’; ‘I absolve you…’”

Bl. Charles de Foucauld

“How good you are, my Lord Jesus, to be willing to be called the Lamb of God, which means that like a lamb you are a victim, and as meek as a lamb…and that you belong to God, so that whatever you do, you do for God! Following your example, we too are victims, O beloved Jesus; we are victims on account of your love, holocausts that burn in your honor through mortification and prayer, pouring ourselves out in absolute renunciation of self for you alone, utterly forgetting ourselves and dedicating every moment to trying to please you as much as possible. …O Jesus, your first word to your disciples is: ‘Come and see,’ that is to say ‘follow and observe’ which means ‘copy and contemplate’… Your last word is ‘Follow me’ … How tender and sweet and beneficial and loving is this word! ‘Follow me’…, that is ‘imitate me!’ … What can be sweeter to hear for one who loves? What more salutary, from the moment that imitation is thus intimately joined to love?”

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 292

In the mystical sense, he says, Come and see, because the dwelling of God, whether of glory or grace, cannot be known except by experience: for it cannot be explained in words: ‘I will give him a white stone upon which is written a new name, which no one knows but he who receives it’ (Rev 2:17). And so he says, Come and see: Come, by believing and working; and see, by experiencing and understanding.