One person stands in front of a gathered group and says, in an earnest voice, how people ought to live. The oldest setting for that picture is a church: a passage is read aloud, and then someone explains what it asks of you this week. Three things are in the picture — an audience that is already sitting there, a serious tone, and advice about behaviour. Take the picture out of the church and the same tone becomes everyday moralising; wear the phrases down by and what is left are the comfortable lines people reach for when they have nothing new to say.
From the word’s history
The word travels from Ancient Greek homilia, a talk or instruction, which itself comes from homilos, a crowd or throng, through Late Latin homilia and Old French. So the oldest picture is speaking to people who have gathered — which is exactly the church talk the core sense names.
這個字從希臘文 ὁμιλία（homilia，「講話、教導」）來，而 ὁμιλία 又來自 ὅμιλος（「聚在一起的人群」），經過拉丁文 homilia 和古法文才進到英文。所以它最早的畫面可以想成「對著聚在一起的人說話」，正好對上今天教堂裡那段講道。
Wiktionary, "homily" (etymology 1)
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