Hermeneutics of Eschatological Texts in the Service of Liturgical Proclamation

Abstract

The article’s contents faces the issue associated with liturgical proclamation (preaching a homily) based on eschatological texts that are constructed on the richness of their syntactic-semantic meaning and theological and pragmatic contents. Just as achieving the desired results requires using the adequately chosen method of proceedings, so too the good, that is, theologically deep preparation of the homily can be achieved by the appropriate method of interpreting texts, treated as an inspirational source for liturgical proclamation. The intent of the study was to draw attention to the need to explain in homilies the wealth of the contents of eschatological texts (not just biblical texts included in the Mass readings in a given liturgical celebration). This is done for the benefit of using the methods of interpreting literary texts, which also includes the texts of the prayers of a particular Mass. The proposal contained in the article mentions the historical-critical method, which makes it possible to read the text according to the diachronic key that accurately acquaints us with the linguistic method (by theoretical description and re-ference to the example). This allows us to examine the text according to synchronous keys, subjecting it to syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyses. An attempt to be more sensitive to the need to work on the contents of homilies based on the hermeneutic method discussed in the article is all the more timely since liturgical theology methods have already existed for some time. It is also worth using them based on homiletics and in the preparation of the homily to be preached during the liturgy, since the theological aspect should play an important role in homiletic preaching.