Is a homily a priests opinion or church teaching?

[reeink]

What does the church instruct their priest to be the content and subject of the daily homily

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Redemptionis Sacramentum

[67.] Particular care is to be taken so that the homily is firmly based upon the mysteries of salvation, expounding the mysteries of the Faith and the norms of Christian life from the biblical readings and liturgical texts throughout the course of the liturgical year and providing commentary on the texts of the Ordinary or the Proper of the Mass, or of some other rite of the Church…

Homiletic Directory

1. …this does not mean that topical themes, biblical exegesis, doctrinal instruction, and personal witness have no place in preaching; indeed, they can be effective as elements in a good homily. It is very appropriate for a preacher to relate the texts of a particular celebration to the events and questions of the day, to share the fruits of scholarship in understanding a passage of Scripture and to demonstrate the connection between the Word of God and the doctrine of the Church. Like fire, all of these things make good servants but poor masters: if they serve the purpose of the homily, they are good; if they take the place of the homily, they are not. Furthermore, the preacher needs to speak in such a way that his hearers can sense his belief in the power of God. He must not lower the standards of his message to the level of his own personal witness, fearing that he will be accused of not practicing what he preaches. Since he is preaching not himself, but Christ, he can, without hypocrisy, point out the heights of sanctity, to which, like every other individual, in his pilgrim faith he is aspiring.

1. It should also be emphasized that the homily should be tailored to the needs of the particular community, and indeed draw inspiration from it…

The context and content is always to be Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Sometimes that means simply laying out Church teachings, other times it means giving an opinion on how those teachings apply in the here and now of the local community.