¹ Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Philosophical Hermeneutics, trans. and ed. by Linge, David E. (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2008), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

² Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method (London: Continuum, 2004), pp. 366–7.Google Scholar

³ LG 28. At Presbyterorum Ordinis (hereafter PO), 4, we read that “it is the first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all men.”

⁴ LG 17.

⁵ LG 31.

⁶ LG 36. The words of Pope Francis at Evangelii Gaudium 102 call attention to the fact that the vocation of the laity to evangelize the temporal sphere has not been realized to the extent that one would wish since Vatican II: “Even if many are now involved in the lay ministries, this involvement is not reflected in a greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church, without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society. The formation of the laity and the evangelization of professional and intellectual life represent a significant pastoral challenge.”

⁷ DeLeers, Stephen Vincent, “The Place of Preaching in the Ministry and Life of Priests,” in Goergen, Donald L. and Garrido, Ann, eds., The Theology of Priesthood (Collegeville: Michael Glazier, Liturgical Press, 2000), p. 90Google Scholar.

⁸ LG 24.

⁹ LG 25.

¹⁰ PO 4.

¹¹ Bouyer, Louis: The Church of God: Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit, trans. Quinn, Charles Underhill (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1982), p. 167Google Scholar.

¹² See Lubac, Henri de, The Splendor of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999), 202Google Scholar: “The Church is a mystery, that is to say that she is also a sacrament. She is “the total locus of the Christian sacraments”, and she is herself the great sacrament that contains and vitalizes all the others. In this world she is the sacrament of Christ, as Christ himself, in his humanity, is for us the sacrament of God.” The logic of the Church's sacramental nature, de Lubac goes on to argue, means that “Her whole end is to show us Christ, lead us to him, and communicate his grace to us; to put it in a nutshell, she exists solely to put us into relation with him” (ibid., p. 203).

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Suppl., 36, 3, ad 2.

¹⁵ S.T., III, 73, 3, ad 3.

¹⁶ de Lubac, The Splendor of the Church, 133. Bouyer writes in a similar vein: “If the Church is the Body of Christ in more than a metaphorical sense, she is constructed and built within the celebration of the Eucharist, where the entire People of God participate in the same Body by which they were reconciled on the Cross, with God and with themselves, simultaneously” (Bouyer, Louis: The Church of God: Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit, trans. Quinn, Charles Underhill [San Francisco: Ignatius, 1982], 166.Google Scholar)

¹⁷ Ibid. For a distinction between the common priesthood of the faithful and the sacramental priesthood, see ibid., pp. 133 ff.

¹⁸ LG 35.

¹⁹ Mt. 28:18. The Jerusalem Bible: Popular Edition (London: Darton, Longman & Todd).

²⁰ Mt. 28:19–20. On this point, see LG 24.

²¹ Ratzinger, Joseph, “Biblical Foundations of Priesthood,” Origins 20 (October 18, 1990): 310–14, at 312Google Scholar. Quoted in Dulles, Avery S.J., The Priestly Office: A Theological Reflection (New York/Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulilst Press, 1997), p. 22Google Scholar.

²² Acts 1:8.

²³ Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology, trans. McCarthy, Sister Mary Frances S.N.D., (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), p. 148Google Scholar.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 150.

²⁵ Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, God is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life, trans. Taylor, Henry (San Francisco, 2003), p. 122Google Scholar.

²⁶ DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” p. 91.

²⁷ Dulles, S.J., The Priestly Office, p. 22. DeLeers reference to the “ministerial primacy” of preaching is unfortunate. Since preaching is ordered towards Eucharistic encounter with the Lord, the Eucharist arguably has in this respect primacy over preaching. Thus, writes John Paul II: “The priest fulfills his principal mission and is manifested in all his fullness when he celebrates the Eucharist” (Dominicae Cenae 2). This point is a simple application of the metaphysical dictum, finis est causa omnium causarum (“the end is the cause of all causes”). See St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Sent., lib. 1 d. 1 q. 4 a. 2 expos.; See also ST I, q. 5, a. 2 ad 1. It does not however negate the idea that “the prophetic office is more fundamental and more encompassing” (Dulles, The Priestly Office, 22). As we read at PO 6, “the preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and nourishment from the Word.”

²⁸ Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1996), p. 71Google Scholar.

²⁹ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger with Messori, Vittorio, The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church, trans. Attanasio, Salvator and Harrison, Graham (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1985), p. 160Google Scholar.

³⁰ Congar, Yves M.-J. O.P., Tradition and the Life of the Church (London: Burns & Oates), p. 83Google Scholar.

³¹ Quoted at ibid.

³² DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” p. 91.

³³ See Dei verbum (hereafter DV) 10: “It is clear … that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others.”

³⁴ See Gaudium et spes (hereafter GS) 4.

³⁵ DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” p. 97.

³⁶ See DV 8.

³⁷ GS 58.

³⁸ DV 25.

³⁹ Ibid. Quotation from St. Augustine, Serm. 179: PL 38, 966.

⁴⁰ See Decree on the Reform of Ecclesiastical Studies of Philosophy 13 and 15 (accessed on 16/10/2013 at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20110128_dec-rif-filosofia_en.html).

⁴¹ GS 44. The translation is from DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” 96. In n. 54 he explains why he departs from Flannery's translation: “Flannery has “this kind of adaptation and preaching,” which weakens the Latin: “accommodata praedicatio lex omnis permanere debet”.”

⁴² DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” p. 96.

⁴³ See GS 62: Psychology and sociology bring the faithful “to a purer and more mature living of the faith.” Literature and art, for their part, “seek to give expression to man's nature, his problems and his experience in an effort to discover and perfect man himself and world in which he lives; they try to discover his place in history and in the universe, to throw light on his suffering and his joy, his needs and his potentialities, and to outline a happier destiny in store for him. Hence they can elevate human life, which they express under many forms according to various times and places.”

⁴⁴ DV 8.

⁴⁵ DeLeers, “The Place of Preaching,” p. 98.

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 99.

⁴⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁸ St. Augustine draws upon the resources of classical rhetoric in this work in proposing the aims of teaching, delighting and persuading to the preacher. For a discussion of Augustine's theory of preaching, see Michael Dominic O'Connor, O.P., “Preaching to the Whole Person: Classical Wisdom for the New Evangelization,” Homiletic and Pastoral Review (October 25, 2012 [accessed 17/10/2013 at http://www.hprweb.com/2012/10/preaching-to-the-whole-person-classical-wisdom-for-the-new-evangelization/). O'Connor characterizes Augustine's theory as follows: “At the heart of Augustine's theory of preaching … we find Cicero's precepts on the role of rhetoric taken up and recast, so that the purpose of Christian eloquence is to “show truth, make truth pleasing, and make truth move the audience”