The Church’s Liturgy — Who Celebrates?

By DON FIER

There is an ancient Latin saying in the Church that eloquently expresses what her members believe of the efficacy of the sacraments and their relationship to faith: lex orandi, lex credendi (“the law of prayer is the law of faith”).
Each of the seven sacraments, as we saw last week, can be classified in various categories. Yet regardless of classification, each not only presupposes and confesses the faith handed down to us by the apostles, but through word and ritual elements nourishes, strengthens, and expresses it (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], nn. 1123-1124). Faith tells us that the words and ritual elements with which the sacraments are celebrated truly confer the graces they signify.
Furthermore, as we saw at the close of last week’s column, the sacraments are Christ’s divinely instituted channels by which grace is communicated, making possible the attainment of eternal life. Thus, “the Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation” (CCC, n. 1129).
Not all are necessary for each person, but as explained by Fr. Kenneth Baker, SJ, in volume 3 of Fundamentals of Catholicism (FoC-3), “in the ordinary course of events, three of them are so necessary that without their use salvation cannot be attained” (p. 185). Baptism is necessary to enter the Church, Penance to regain sanctifying grace that has been lost, and Holy Orders so that the sacraments are available to all.
“The other sacraments,” Fr. Baker continues, “are necessary insofar as salvation cannot be easily gained without them. Thus, Confirmation is the completion of Baptism and Anointing of the Sick in one of its effects completes Penance. Matrimony is the basis of the family which perpetuates the Church in history, while the Eucharist is the end or crown or summit of all the sacraments” (ibid.).
In the 16th century, the Reformers denied the necessity of the sacraments with the claim that “faith alone” is sufficient. However, the Council of Trent responded by infallibly pronouncing: “If anyone shall say that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation, but are superfluous, and that, although all are not necessary for every individual, without them or without the desire of them through faith alone men obtain from God the grace of justification; let him be anathema” (Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 1604 [Canon 4]).
Having examined the doctrine common to each of the seven sacraments of the Church, the Catechism next considers their celebration: the who, how, when, and where of their liturgical expression (cf. CCC, n. 1135). It first considers what is common to all liturgical celebration (CCC, nn. 1136-1199) and follows with a shorter treatment of liturgical diversity across the tradition of the universal Church (CCC, nn. 1200-1209). What is liturgically proper to each sacrament is then covered when they are individually examined.
Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, makes an astute observation in his analysis of this section of the Catechism: “Immediately, a pointed question should be answered. Why speak of ‘celebrating’ the sacraments? Why not ‘administering’ or ‘receiving’ the sacraments?” (The Faith, p. 106). His perceptive answer is that to celebrate includes both conferral and reception of the sacrament. In addition, celebration “also adds the critical fact that the sacraments are acts of divine worship by which we honor God and in which the Church herself is liturgically involved” (ibid.).
The initial question asked by the Catechism is “Who celebrates?” Its first answer is that “liturgy is an ‘action’ of the whole Christ” (CCC, n. 1136). In other words, the liturgy is celebrated by Christ the Head along with all the members of His Mystical Body, the Church.
As explained by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn in Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church: The Sacraments (LC-S), “The ‘principal celebrant’ is Christ himself. And the liturgy he celebrates is his heavenly liturgy” (p. 29). His Eminence goes on to affirm that this is a concept that we cannot take “too deeply into our hearts.”
It is an idea to which the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, gave vivid expression:
“In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle; we sing a hymn to the Lord’s glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, until He, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with Him in glory” (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], n. 8; as cited in CCC, n. 1090).
As it continues to address the question “Who celebrates?” the Catechism draws inspiration from St. John the Evangelist’s Book of Revelation. Fr. Regis Duffy, OFM, in a work entitled Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, submits that “the purpose of this approach is to connect contemporary liturgical participants with the liturgy that has begun in the reign of God ‘where celebration is wholly a communion and feast’ (CCC, n. 1136)” (p. 237).
When members of the Church Militant on Earth celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments, they truly participate in the eternal heavenly liturgy that “is celebrated by the angels, by the saints of the Old and New Testament, particularly by the Mother of God, by the Apostles, by the martyrs, and by the ‘great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue’ (Rev. 7:9)” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 234). Do we not see in these words a striking testament to the doctrine of the Communion of Saints?
The Catechism underscores again that “it is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that celebrates” (CCC, n. 1040). As Vatican II teaches, “Liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church, which is the ‘sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united and ordered under their bishops.”
It is for this reason that the Church encourages that liturgical rites be celebrated communally and with the active participation of the whole assembly, so far as possible, rather than individually or quasi-privately (cf. SC, n. 27).
At the same time, liturgical services “concern the individual members of the Church in different ways, according to their differing rank, office, and actual participation” (SC, n. 26). However, this does not in any way lessen the obligation for laypeople who are in attendance to actively participate, for Holy Mother Church “earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which…is their right and duty by reason of their baptism” (SC, n. 14).
For the average person in the pew, what is meant by active participation? Many mistakenly think this refers only to the presiding priest and the servers, readers, and others who have visible roles. But active participation in the liturgy does not primarily mean outward activity; rather, it refers to “inward involvement, by attentiveness and faith, in what is happening in the liturgy” (LC-S, p. 30).
In other words, the faithful actively participate from the depth of their heart by interiorly entering into the mystery that is taking place before them.

The Unity Of The Spirit

Although all members of the faithful, by virtue of baptismal regeneration, share the common priesthood of Christ, they “do not all have the same function” (Romans 12:4). Certain men, called by God, “are chosen and consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the service of all the members of the Church” (CCC, n. 1142).
As such, the priest has an irreplaceable ministry in the sacramental life of the Church — as an ordained minister he is, as it were, “an ‘icon’ of Christ the priest” (ibid.). Through the ordained priesthood, “the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the midst of the community of believers” (CCC, n. 1549).
To assist bishops and priests in carrying out their ministries, the permanent deaconate was restored and renewed by the Second Vatican Council. Furthermore, other particular ministries, not consecrated by the Sacrament of Holy Orders, also exist “for the purpose of assisting the work of the common priesthood of the faithful” (CCC, n. 1143). For example, Vatican II teaches that “servers, lectors, commentators, and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function” (SC, n. 29).
In closing its catechesis on “Who celebrates?” the Catechism insists that each person “should carry out all and only those parts which pertain to his office,” but also affirms that “the whole assembly is leitourgos, each according to his function, but in the ‘unity of the Spirit’ who acts in all” (CCC, n. 1144).

+ + +

(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)