The Role of the Sacred Liturgy in Developing a Catholic Conscience
+ Francis Cardinal Arinze
(Lecture delivered at “The Church Teaches” Forum in Louisville, Kentucky, l6 July 2016)
- Introduction
The sacred liturgy has a key place in the education of our conscience as followers of Christ. I have been asked to propose to this august assembly some reflections on The Role of the Sacred Liturgy in Developing a Catholic Conscience. We shall begin by saying a word on what the liturgy is and then what we understand by conscience and the need to educate it. Holy Scripture has a prominent place in the sacred liturgy and in educating us. The many acts of religion are nourished in us by the liturgy. The celebration of the sacraments, the ordering of the liturgical year and the place given to gestures in liturgical celebrations also contribute to the formation of right conscience. Our final consideration will be on how the Church celebrates the wonders of God’s grace in the lives of the Saints and thus also helps to develop our conscience.
- The Sacred Liturgy
Our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did the work of our salvation especially by His Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. He entrusted to the Church which He had founded the celebration of these mysteries for the glory of God and the sanctification of people. He is always present in His Church as she celebrates these sacred rites which we call the liturgy. The sacred liturgy is the full public worship which is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head, Christ, and His members. “It follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the Church can match its claim to efficacy, nor equal the degree of it” (Vatican II: Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], n. 7).
The liturgy is made up of three major elements: the seven Sacraments instituted by Christ, the Divine Office or the prayers of the Church for the different hours of the day and the Sacramentals or sacred rites instituted by the Church.
The primary aim of the sacred liturgy is to give glory to God, to adore Him, to give Him thanks, and to request pardon for our sins. By the fact of glorifying God, people grow in likeness to Christ to Whom they are incorporated by Baptism. The liturgy therefore also achieves a pedagogical effect, the transformation of Christians. Such an effect is achieved, not because the liturgy is used as a means, but because it leads people to “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Since Christ is the chief person who prays in the liturgy, by our conscious participation in liturgical celebrations we are formed as persons according to Christ. The Saint is the human being well formed after Christ Who is the model.
It should be remembered that “in the liturgy the sanctification of man is manifested by signs perceptible to the senses” (SC, n. 7). People’s sanctification is therefore a secondary aim of liturgical celebrations. That is why the Second Vatican Council says: “Although the sacred liturgy is above all things the worship of the divine Majesty, it likewise contains abundant instruction for the faithful. For in the liturgy God speaks to his people and Christ is still proclaiming his Gospel. And the people reply to God both by song and by prayer… When the Church prays or sings or acts, the faith of those taking part is nourished and their minds are raised to God, so that they may offer him worship which reason requires and more copiously receive his gifts” (SC, n. 33). That is why the Council stresses the importance of full and active participation by all the people in liturgical celebrations “for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit” (SC, n.14).
- Conscience
God created us. His divine will is inserted into human nature. Saint Pope John Paul II when he visited Mount Sinai in Egypt said that before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, He already wrote them into the human heart. A reasonable person is one who acts according to God’s will, according to how God created us, according to the Maker’s instructions. God’s law is the supreme and objective rule of right and wrong in human conduct.
“Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1778). Conscience is that immediate dictate of reason which tells a person: do this good, or avoid this evil. It also judges actions already posited, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.
The Second Vatican Council describes this faculty this way: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment… For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God… His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 16).
- Education of Conscience
Since conscience is not the supreme law of right and wrong, it has to be educated to relate correctly to God’s law on what is to be done or what is to be avoided. For this voice to function well, interiority, or deep reflection, is needed because in life people are often distracted and prevented from careful self-examination or introspection. “Return to your conscience,” Saint Augustine advises, “turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness” (In ep Jo. 8, 9: PL 35, 2041).
An upright conscience is one so trained that it perceives rightly the principles of morality, their application in given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and goods, and judgment regarding acts already performed or yet to be done. The prudent person judges rightly. But conscience can also be erroneous, or clouded, or obscured, or uncertain, or weakened, or eclipsed, or, worse still, deformed or deadened. Conscience has therefore to be educated or formed. Elements that go into its formation can be careful parental direction, prudent teachers, catechetical instruction, homilies, general Church teaching, the Bible especially the Gospels, prayer, lives of Saints and especially the sacred liturgy. These elements or places of formation can play a role because the fallen state of man after original sin has to reckon with the tendency to evil, fear, selfishness, sheer weakness, resentment arising from guilt, feelings of complacency or blatant pride (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1784).
It is important that a person’s conscience be formed to be sensitive to what God wants and to recognize sin as evil to be avoided. It is a major disaster for conscience when the sense of sin is lost or obscured. “This sense is rooted in man’s moral conscience and is as it were its thermometer,” says Saint John Paul II. “It is linked to the sense of God, since it derives from man’s conscious relationship with God as his Creator, Lord and Father. Hence, just as it is impossible to eradicate completely the sense of God or to silence the conscience completely, so the sense of sin is never completely eliminated” (Reconciliatio et paenitentia [ReP], n. l8).
Since everyone has the duty to act according to right conscience, and also the right to do so, no one, says the Second Vatican Council, “is to be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters” (Dignitatis Humanae, n. 3). We are now in a position to ask ourselves how the sacred liturgy can contribute to the formation of the Christian and indeed Catholic conscience.
- Holy Scripture Forms Our Conscience
Holy Scripture has a prominent place in the sacred liturgy. From the Bible the lessons are read and are explained in the homily. From the Scripture the psalms are sung and by it the prayers, collects and liturgical songs are inspired. Moreover, actions and signs often derive their meaning from the Bible (cf. SC, n. 24).
Holy Scripture, proclaimed in the sacred liturgy, has a key place in forming our conscience. In the Bible God speaks to us. It is the Word of God for us today. It makes known to us the ways of God. Psalm 118, for instance, sings of the ways, the precepts, the will, the word, or the laws of God. Hatred of sin, repentance, humility of heart, readiness for reparation, petition, spirit of gratitude, and especially thanksgiving and adoration are all inculcated by the Sacred Scripture proclaimed in liturgical celebrations. It is the Bible that encourages us to follow the ways of the Lord: “For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off… But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deut. 30:11, 14).
Careful listening to the word of God proclaimed in a liturgical celebration can become for many people a moment of grace. Many sinners have at such moments received divine help to repent, confess their sins and recover peace of soul. Some Saints have risen to a higher degree of openness to God because of what they heard from the sacred text. Saint Augustine advises us not to delay to listen to God’s call, but rather to fear Jesus knocking and passing by, because we do not know if He will return (cf. Sermo, 88, 13).
Since we are celebrating an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is proper to select, among the many other teachings, the biblical teaching on divine mercy. “Patient and merciful. These words often go together in the Old Testament to describe God’s nature,” writes Pope Francis in his Bull of Indiction of this Jubilee Year (Misericordiae Vultus, n. 6). “For his mercy endures forever. This is the refrain that repeats after each verse in Psalm 136 as it narrates the history of God’s revelation… With our eyes fixed on Jesus and his merciful gaze, we experience the love of the Most Holy Trinity” (Misericordiae Vultus, nn. 7, 8).
Saint John Paul II underlines that God’s mercy calls on us to be merciful to our neighbor: “Jesus Christ taught that man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but that he is also called ‘to practice mercy’ toward others: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’ (Mt. 5:7)… Man attains to the merciful love of God, his mercy, to the extent that he himself is interiorly transformed in the spirit of that love towards his neighbor” (Dives in Misericordia [DM], n. 14).
There is no doubt that Holy Scripture proclaimed in liturgical celebrations goes a long way in educating our conscience in the ways of the Lord.
- The Sacred Liturgy Forms Conscience in Acts of Religion
The liturgy is God-centered. It leads us to put God first and at the center of our worship. Adoration of God and propitiation for our offenses are given priority. In the liturgy, Christocentric and theocentric piety are harmonized. Since Jesus Christ as Head of His Church is our leader in all liturgical acts and also our Lord and God, we can truly say with Saint Augustine that in the sacred liturgy the Church “does not separate its head from itself: it is the one Savior of his body, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who prays for us and in us and is himself the object of our prayers. He prays for us as our priest, he prays in us as our head, he is the object of our prayers as our God” (Commentary on Ps. 85, 1: CCL 39, 1176; also as second reading in Office of Readings, Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent). Attention to God as our Creator is an antidote against the prevalent modern virus of secularism, which is a living and acting as if God did not exist.
The liturgy nourishes reverence for God. This is no feeling of being crushed by God’s majesty nor is it an annihilating disdain of ourselves. Rather, it is a recognition of God’s infinite greatness and at the same time of the great favor He has done us in adopting us as his children in Jesus Christ. “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy” (Ps. 43:4). “For his mercy endures for ever” (Ps. 136:1). “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8). “So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I pay my vows day after day” (Ps. 61:8). These are all psalm verses which the liturgy happily sings. This sense of reverence shows itself in liturgical gestures which we shall discuss later, in the respect which we give to persons or things dedicated to God (like priests, religious, altars, altar vessels, and the Bible), and in how we relate to the angels, the Saints, and even God’s creation. The Easter Vigil chant, Exsultet, is a magnificent liturgical sample of reverence. Reverence for God is an important requirement in our lives. It shows an inner attitude, not of military discipline or athletic drill, but of profound respect. “The man without reverence is necessarily flat and limited. This lack is an essential mark of stupidity,” says Dietrich von Hildebrand (Von Hildebrand: Liturgy and Personality, Manchester, 1993, p. 51).
The sacred liturgy increases our longing for God, our seeking of the face of God, our desire for the everlasting hills, our attentive waiting for the day and the hour which we do not know when the Lord will come. All this is most positive for the formation of conscience.
The liturgy educates in us the spirit of offering oneself to God. Saint Paul teaches us that we must always carry about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus too may be made manifest in our bodily frame (cf. 2 Cor. 4:10–11). “This is why we ask the Lord in the sacrifice of the Mass that ‘receiving the offering of the spiritual victim,’ he may fashion us for himself ‘as an eternal gift’” (SC, n. l2).
The liturgy helps us to accept that we are sinners, that we need God’s forgiveness and that we should repent and do penance in reparation. In the forty days of Lent, repentance and penance are greatly stressed. Moreover, every celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice begins with a penitential act in which we confess that we are sinners and we ask pardon of God and the intercession of our Blessed Lady, the Saints and our brothers and sisters. All this is highly conducive to the formation of conscience.
The liturgy educates the Christian to the sense of communion in the Church. All the baptized are incorporated into Christ and the Church. The liturgy is the public prayer of the Church, of Christ, and His members. We adore, thank, make reparation, and pray for our needs together as the Mystical Body of Christ. At Mass we beg the Lord not to consider our personal unworthiness, but to look on the face of His whole Church. This is a medicine against our innate tendency to egocentricity. The liturgy brings us to pray with others, to sing with them, to listen to the word of the Lord with them and to be part of a praying community.
In the sacred liturgy, the Church prays for the whole world. She appeals to God for His mercy on humanity because of the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. She offers to God the adoration and loving worship of all men and women. “In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, in the spirit of his messianic mission, enduring in the history of humanity, we raise our voices and pray that the Love which is in the Father may once again be revealed at this stage of history, and that, through the work of the Son and Holy Spirit, it may be shown to be present in our modern world and to be more powerful than evil: more powerful than sin and death” (John Paul II: DM, n.15). This universal vision of liturgical prayer educates us to rise to the needs of the world and not to get stuck by our narrow personal requirements.
The liturgy orients us positively in matters touching the virtue of chastity and of the correct attitude towards sexuality. The Annunciation speaks respectfully and in a healthy way of the birth of the Son of God as man by the Virgin Mary. The prudent virgin asks the Archangel how this was going to be since she was a virgin. A woman in the Gospel praises the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts that He sucked. The liturgy accepts the Song of Solomon and applies it to the relationship between God and the soul. In the liturgy we find no prudishness, no disastrous purely neutral treatment of sexuality, no irreverence, no lack of understanding of the mystery of the coming into existence of a new human being, and no treating of sexuality as a play object. Indeed, God is presented as the mystic Spouse of Israel, Christ as the Spouse of the Church and in a sense of every soul in the state of grace.
The homily, when it is well delivered in liturgical celebrations, relates the sacred texts from the Holy Scripture and from the liturgy to the concrete life of the congregation and helps the people to live what they celebrate. This is very helpful for the formation of conscience. “By means of the homily,” says the Second Vatican Council, “the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year. The homily, therefore, is to be highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself” (SC, n. 52).
- The Sacraments and Conscience Formation
“Since they commemorate and renew Christ’s paschal mystery, all the sacraments are a source of life for the Church and in the Church’s hands they are means of conversion to God and of reconciliation among people” (John Paul II: ReP, n. 1l). Let us now say a word on how each of the seven sacraments helps to form the conscience of the Christian.
Baptism purifies the new Christian from original sin, incorporates him or her in Christ and the Church, and equips the soul with the graces necessary to live the new life in Christ according to the law of Christ.
Confirmation is a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, an increase and deepening of baptismal grace and a sending of the confirmed to give witness to Christ with greater courage in society.
As a sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist verifies in an eminent way the four acts of religion: adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and petition. The Eucharistic celebration, or Holy Mass, begins with a penitential act, goes on to praise God in the Gloria in excelsis Deo, nourishes the congregation on the word of God, and then moves on to offer their gifts of bread and wine to God and to beg him that they may become the Body and Blood of His Son. The central moment is reached with the Eucharistic Prayer which summits in the consecration and in the offering. The congregation prays the Lord’s Prayer and is fed with the Body and Blood of their Redeemer. The liturgical assembly is concluded with the blessing by the celebrant and a sending forth of the participants to live what they have prayed, heard, celebrated, and shared. The daily life of the Christian should be permeated, directed, and enlivened by the Eucharistic celebration. The Votive Masses in the Roman Missal are an indication on how the Eucharistic Sacrifice should influence our daily lives. There are, for example, 19 Votive Masses in honor of God and the Saints, 20 Votive Masses for inner Church events, 17 Votive Masses for civil or societal needs, 12 Votive Masses for other occasions, and 21 various Masses for the dead. Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council says, “the renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them afire” (SC, n. 10). As a sacrament, the Holy Eucharist nourishes our souls so that, more closely united with Christ, we may better live the call to follow Him.
The Sacrament of Penance is God’s merciful offer of pardon and peace to the sinner who has offended Him after Baptism. When well administered and received, this sacrament sharpens the moral sense and religious conscience and sensitivity to evil as an offense against God and neighbor, convinces of the need for repentance and penance, and encourages the effort to live an authentically Christian life. The conscience is thus being educated. A person cannot come to true and genuine repentance until he realizes that sin is contrary to the ethical norm written in his inmost being, until he admits that he has had a personal and responsible experience of this contrast, until he can say “I have sinned,” until he admits that sin has introduced a division into his conscience which then pervades his whole being and separates him from God and from his brothers and sisters. What we call an examination of conscience is an act which must not become an anxious psychological introspection, but “a sincere and calm comparison with the interior moral law, with the evangelical norms proposed by the Church, with Jesus Christ himself, who is our teacher and model of life, and with the heavenly Father, who calls us to goodness and perfection” (ReP, n. 3l § 3). This sacrament is highly conducive to conscience formation because it urges and helps us to make “an effort to put off the old man and put on the new; an effort to overcome in oneself what is of the flesh in order that what is spiritual may prevail; a continual effort to rise from the things of here below to the things of above, where Christ is” (ReP, n. 4). That we have to confess our sins to a priest and receive God’s pardon through his ministry helps us to appreciate that sin not only offends God, but also damages the holiness of the Church. Blessed Isaac of Stella puts it this way: “The Church can forgive nothing without Christ and Christ does not wish to forgive anything without the Church. The Church can forgive nothing except to a penitent, that is to say, to a person whom Christ has touched with his grace: Christ does not wish to consider anything forgiven in a person who despises the Church” (Sermo II in Dominica II post Epiphaniam l: PL 194, 1729).
The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick strengthens the sick, gives grace and courage to overcome the difficulties of illness and old age, helps the sick to be united with the Passion of Christ, can bring bodily healing if it is God’s will, and prepares the sick for the final journey if the time for that has come. By this sacrament the sick is being formed in the image of Christ, our model.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders configures the recipient to Christ so that He may serve as Christ’s instrument for his Church and preach the word, celebrate the sacred mysteries and gather the people of God together. In his life he is urged to live what he celebrates and to be a model to other followers of Christ.
The Sacrament of Matrimony sanctifies human love and equips the Christian husband and wife with grace to grow in mutual love, to raise and educate children in the faith and to exhibit in their family a domestic church.
From these considerations, it is clear that the sacraments are very conducive to the formation of a good Christian conscience.
- Liturgical Seasons and Gestures
The liturgical seasons are a help to the formation of conscience. The Church has wisely ordered the celebration of the mysteries of Christ during the year of 12 months into such major seasons as Advent, Christmastide, Lent, Paschal Time, and Ordinary Time. In Advent there is preparation for the coming of Christ and a reminder of the end of the world which will come someday. In Christmastide, joy in the nativity of Christ calls for faith and an ordering of life in harmony with it. Lent stresses repentance, penance and union with the Passion of our Savior. Eastertide calls on Christians to live their new life in Christ and to raise their minds to heaven where Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. The 34 weeks of Ordinary Time throughout the year are filled with the presentation of various dimensions of the call to follow Christ, since the Christian life is a demanding call to conversion. A Christian who faithfully goes along with the Church all through the liturgical year is being educated in the required Christian conscience.
The sacred liturgy effects much conscience formation also through gestures. Taking seriously the fact that the human being is a composite of body and soul, liturgical law in the Latin Rite provides for gestures such as the following. Kneeling is a sign of humility, repentance, and fasting. Saint Basil says that to kneel “is to show by our action that sin has cast us to the ground” (Traite’ de Saint Esprit 27, quoted in Martimort: The Church at Prayer, Vol. I, Collegeville, 1986, p.181). Bowing is done out of respect for the sacred names of Jesus and Mary, or by a person who requests a blessing. Prostration is prescribed for those who are to receive a consecration, like at priestly ordination or at a final religious profession ceremony during the Litany of the Saints. Striking the breast is a gesture of repentance and humility. Sprinkling with holy water is a reminder of the paschal mystery and of our Baptism. The holy water font at the entrance of churches is a similar reminder, inviting the faithful to sign themselves as they enter the house of God.
- The Liturgical Celebration of the Saints Educates Conscience
By the liturgical celebration of the memorial of the Saints, the Church proposes these holy men and women to the faithful as models on how to follow Christ and live the Christian ideal. Example is more powerful than precepts. Let us name some beatified or canonized holy people according to the following classifications.
The martyrs are those who sacrificed their lives in defense of the faith. Examples are Saints Stephen, Lawrence, Perpetua and Felicitas, Cyprian, the Ten Martyrs of Korea and those of Japan, John Fisher and Thomas More, Charles Lwanga and the other 21 Martyrs of Uganda, Maria Goretti, Maximilian Maria Kolbe, and Blessed Clementine Anuarite and Isidore Bakanja of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The conscience of these martyrs was so well formed that they did not hesitate to make the supreme sacrifice of their lives for Christ and His Gospel.
The Church celebrates monastics and other consecrated religious and virgins such as Saints Antony of Egypt, Benedict, Scholastica, Bernard, Francis of Assisi, Clare, Ignatius of Loyola, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi. These saints show us how to be radically dedicated to the following of Christ.
Among pastors we can mention Saints Athanasius, Augustine, Cyril, Methodius, Patrick, Charles Borromeo, Philip Neri, Alphonsus Maria de Ligouri, John Mary Vianney, and, in our times, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. They were model instruments of Christ in the carrying out of the priestly office.
Model spouses were, for example, Saint Monica the mother of Saint Augustine, Saint Louis of France, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, Saint Margaret of Scotland and, in our times, Saint Gianna Beretta Molla who died after childbirth because she refused to abort her baby, and especially husband and wife Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi who were beatified in 2001 and Louis and Marie-Zélie Martin, parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who were canonized last year. It is necessary to underline the powerful message of the canonization of husband and wife in the same ceremony. As Saint John Paul II put it: “There is a need to foster the recognition of the heroic virtues of men and women who have lived their Christian vocation in marriage. Precisely because we are convinced of the abundant fruits of holiness in the married state, we need to find the most appropriate means for discerning them and proposing them to the whole Church as a model and encouragement for other Christian spouses” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, n. 37).
Among saints who demonstrated extraordinary love for their neighbor, we can mention Saint Martin who clothed the poor, Saint Camillus de Lellis who looked after the sick, Saint John Bosco who picked up and educated street children, Saint Katharine Drexel who served the poor and oppressed especially African American and Native American people, and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who founded a congregation for the service of the poorest of the poor, and whose canonization is expected in September this year.
The sacred liturgy, in presenting these Saints for our veneration, thereby educates our consciences in the various ways of living the Christian vocation. It is instructive that the Roman Missal, apart from the texts for Mass for the memorial day of each of these Saints, also provides in the section for the Common of the Saints: 8 Masses for Martyrs, 7 for Pastors, 4 for Religious, and one each for those who practiced works of mercy, for educators, and for holy women.
Your Excellencies, dear brothers in the priesthood, consecrated women and men, and distinguished Christian ladies and gentlemen, there is not a doubt that the sacred liturgy plays a powerful role in developing our Catholic conscience. Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Savior, to obtain for us the grace to respond with open hearts and constant will to this appeal.
+ Francis Cardinal Arinze
16 July, 2016.
