A Beacon Of Light . . . Journeying Through All The Sacraments

• 2 years ago

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON JR.

(Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn. He received his BA in religious studies and his MA in dogmatic theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.)

• + + This week we continue our journey through the Catechism’s chapter on, “The Sacramental Celebration of the Paschal Mystery.” This incorporates the celebration of all the sacraments.
  
  Last week we answered the questions, who celebrates the liturgy and how is it done. This week we will move another step further into our understanding by asking: When is the liturgy celebrated?
  
  There is often a misconception that the liturgy is only celebrated on Sundays. For most of the faithful, this is understandable considering that most participate in the liturgy on Sundays. By asking our question of when is the liturgy celebrated, you might be surprised by the answer because it isn’t as simple as you might think.
  
  Answering the “when” includes the liturgical seasons, the Lord’s Day, the liturgical calendar, and the Liturgy of the Hours. Each of these are part of “when” the liturgy is celebrated. Since the liturgy is alive, as the living memorial of salvation, its celebration can never be reduced to a specific time frame. So really, in asking when the liturgy is celebrated, we are actually asking, when is it not!
  
  Holy Mother Church, in her great wisdom, has provided that the “living character” of the liturgy be celebrated throughout the year. This is accomplished through liturgical seasons.

The Season Of Advent

Each year, we the faithful participate in seasons that enable us to experience the history of salvation in our lives. Each year we celebrate the Season of Advent as a time of waiting, in anticipation of the moment of the Incarnation, when our lives would be changed forever.

In this season we are called to prepare ourselves, not only for the coming of Christ at Christmas, but even more important to be prepared for His Second Coming. The Christmas season is a time to rejoice at the birth of our salvation. For Christ’s birth was to set us free! The Christmas season forces us to reflect on how humanity was forever changed by the birth of our Redeemer.

The season of Lent is quite different, however, because it is a season that requires us to look deep within. Lent is a season of evaluation and penance. During Lent we are invited to look deep into ourselves and examine our faults, with the intention of undergoing a conversion of heart. The Easter Season is a time of great rejoicing!

For through the Passion, death, and Resurrection, along with His Ascension into Heaven, we have been redeemed and promised a share in everlasting life. Ordinary Time introduces us to the working of Jesus’ public ministry. Each encounter during this time reveals a lesson for us to follow in our own lives.

Another way the liturgy is celebrated is on Sundays. Sundays have a preeminent place in the lives of the faithful. The Catechism reminds us of this when it says:

“By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.”

“The day of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the ‘eighth day,’ on which Christ after His ‘rest’ on the great Sabbath inaugurates the ‘day that the Lord has made,’ the ‘day that knows no evening.’ The Lord’s Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounter the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet” (CCC, n. 1166).

In this way the “living character” of the liturgy is maintained so that the faithful may participate each Sunday, commemorating the Lord’s Day.

In the same way that the liturgical seasons help us to celebrate the liturgy, the liturgical calendar also assists us. The calendar puts into perspective the celebrations of the church’s seasons. During the course of the year we celebrate the entirety of the life of Christ. This is accomplished through the sequential placement of solemnities, feasts, memorials, and ferial days.

We know that each celebration completes the work of the paschal mystery, but the arrangement assists us in our ability to remain focused on the mystery of our salvation. The Catechism explains this by placing special significance around the celebration of Easter.

Easter is the purpose for which Christ came, to release us from sin and death, and to establish for us the means for our salvation. All of the other celebrations revolve around the Resurrection.

In the same way, the solemnity of Christmas, the birth of the Savior, links us to the Passion, death, and Resurrection celebrated at Easter.

The Role Of Mary

There is, however, another who also plays a pre-eminent role and participated in the plan of salvation; this person is Mary. The solemnities of Mary, like the Annunciation, are connected to the Incarnation. Mary’s fiat paved the way for the birth of Christ and became an example to us of how to interact with the Lord. The feasts of martyrs and saints offer us an example to follow in commemorating their holy lives. In the same way, they become for us models of holiness to follow on our path to everlasting life.

Lastly, the liturgy is always alive when the Church is at prayer. In this way, the Liturgy of the Hours plays a great role in maintaining the living character of the liturgy. Imagine, every day throughout the whole world the Liturgy of the Hours is prayed as an extension of the Eucharistic Liturgy. In this way the entire Church participates in the responsibility of making the liturgy alive. Each person participates, however, in different ways.

Priests are participating by their promise of devotion to prayer and word, by their pastoral ministry. Religious are participating by their charism of religious life. The faithful are invited, as much as possible, to also pray the hours:

“Pastors of souls should see to it that the principal hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and on the more solemn feasts. The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually” (CCC, n. 1175).

At All Times

So, as we have seen, the liturgy is not an event that exists for a particular moment in time. The liturgy is the living and breathing aspect of the Church where she finds her life. The liturgy, celebrated everywhere at all times, is the portal through which the Church is constantly connected to the Divine, the divine liturgy of Heaven.

This is why so much debate has gone on regarding liturgical styles. For some there is a preference for the Traditional Latin Mass, as allowed in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, where there exists a more tangible and visible element of the sacred. For others, the Novus Ordo, or Ordinary Form of the Mass, may resonate more.

Both are, however, living, breathing occasions for the faithful to unite themselves more perfectly to the Lord and His Church.

So when we are asked the question: When is the liturgy celebrated? Our answer should be . . . at all times!

Every time any aspect of the liturgical life of the Church is celebrated whether in the liturgical seasons, the yearly calendar of solemnities, feasts, memorials, the Lord’s Day on Sunday, and even in the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours; the liturgy continues and gives glory to God.

All of us are participants of this and have a role in maintaining the life of the Church.