By DON FIER
Part 2
Liturgical time, as we saw last week, refers to certain days and seasons specially dedicated to the corporate worship of God. Dating back to the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament, the People of God have unfailingly observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover. The liturgy and liturgical time, however, took on new meaning with the coming of Christ and the age of the Church.
“Between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the kingdom of God,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), liturgical celebrations on fixed days and seasons now bear “the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ” (n. 1164). The events and mysteries of salvation history are recalled throughout the liturgical year and in some way made present for all time (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], n. 102).
Moreover, special days are also reserved in memory of the close followers of Christ. Thus, as articulated by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ: “The Church has consistently set aside certain days or seasons for believers to express their common profession of faith and devotion to the Savior, His Mother, and the holy ones of God” (The Faith, p. 108).
Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is “the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year” (SC, n. 106). In the words of St. Justin Martyr, writing in the second century, it is “the day on which we all gather in a common assembly, because it is the first day, the day on which God, changing darkness and matter, created the world; and it is the day on which Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead” (Apol. 1, 67).
Not only is it the pre-eminent day of the week when the faithful are bound to come together to hear the Word of God and take part in the Eucharist, but it is to be “a day of joy and of freedom from work” (SC, n. 106). So vitally important is proper observance of the Lord’s Day, explains Fr. Hardon, that it “serves as a fair barometer of the intensity of Christian faith in a given society” (The Catholic Catechism, p. 316).
Sadly, it is a solemn obligation that has widely been set aside in our secularized society. In his 1961 encyclical Mater et Magistra, promulgated more than 50 years ago (shortly before Vatican Council II), Pope St. John XXIII lamented and deplored “the growing tendency in certain quarters to disregard this sacred law, if not to reject it outright” (n. 252).
He went on to plead with all “public authorities, employers, and workers” to recognize and observe their grave responsibility before God and society in this matter. Unfortunately, has not observance of the sacred precept to “keep holy the Sabbath” declined even further in society as a whole? Is it not the exception rather than the rule to see stores closed for business on Sunday? Are not billion-dollar sports stadiums packed to capacity each Sunday while churches have to close their doors?
The Catechism now speaks more specifically about the liturgical year and the cycle of feasts during which “the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold” (CCC, n. 1171). Just as the year has four seasons and a typical calendar has 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, and includes holidays and commemorative days, so too does the Church’s liturgical year and calendar utilize similar terms and measurements.
But it is for an entirely different purpose — not simply to mark the passage of time but rather to enable the faithful to more fully grasp the entire mystery of Jesus Christ “from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord” (SC, n. 102 § 2).
The Church’s year is marked by special seasons: Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Paschal Triduum, Easter, and Ordinary Time (which is divided into two periods). The season of Advent marks the start of a new liturgical year and begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and concludes on the eve of Christmas. It is a time of preparation and expectant waiting for the birth of our Savior.
The next season begins with the birth of the Lord on Christmas and is a time of boundless rejoicing. The magnitude of this feast is so great that it is celebrated by the Church as an octave which extends from Christmas Day until the beginning of the new solar year on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. On the Church’s liturgical calendar, the season of Christmas does not officially end until the Sunday on which the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated.
On the following Monday, the first segment of Ordinary Time begins. Important to note is that “ordinary” does not mean “plain.” The true meaning of the designation comes from the Latin ordinalis, and means “showing order” or “denoting an order of succession.” Thus, in the Church’s calendar, it refers to an “ordered succession of weeks.” Ordinary Time following the Christmas season focuses on the early life and childhood of Jesus into His public ministry.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a forty-day penitential period which includes fasting and abstinence in preparation for Easter. It recalls the forty days that Jesus spent fasting prior to His public ministry and the forty years of wandering in the desert by the Israelites. Ashes are etched in the form of a cross on the forehead of the faithful to begin this time of repentance.
At the end of this season comes the Paschal Triduum which begins on Holy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
During the Triduum’s three-day observance — which ends on Holy Saturday evening with the Easter Vigil — the ceremonies commemorating the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus are celebrated.
“Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light,” teaches the Catechism, “the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy” (n. 1168).
Next comes the season of Easter which begins with the Vigil Mass and concludes 50 days later with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Like Christmas, Easter is celebrated as an octave and the season is one of great joy and celebration during which the faithful rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ and His victory over death. “Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the ‘Feast of feasts,’ the ‘Solemnity of solemnities’” (CCC, n. 1169).
At that time of the year, it is not uncommon to hear comments that Lent and Easter are either coming early or late. This begs the question: “How is the date of Easter calculated?” It was at the First Council of Nicea in 325 that the Church made the determination “that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox” (CCC, n. 1170).
Even though this calculation fixes each year’s date for the Western Church, Easter is not celebrated universally on the same date. While Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar, the Eastern Church continues to use the older Julian calendar.
Exemplary Models
The last segment of Ordinary Time, the longest season on the liturgical calendar, begins on the Monday after Pentecost and continues until the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent. The final Sunday of the Church year is the Feast of Christ the King. The primary focus during this period is the reign of Christ the King and the age of the Church in which we now live, the age between apostolic times and the second coming of Christ for the Final Judgment.
As specified by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, readings for the liturgical year are divided into two cycles, one for Sundays and the other for weekdays. The cycle for Sundays covers a three-year period (A, B, and C) and a two-year period for weekdays (I and II). Gospel readings for Year A are mostly from St. Matthew, St. Mark and chapter 6 of St. John in Year B, and St. Luke in Year C. They are primarily taken from St. John during all three years during the Easter season. First readings are usually taken from the Old Testament to reflect Gospel themes and second readings from the epistles.
Weekday Gospel readings during Ordinary Time are the same for both years, proceeding semi-continuously from St. Mark to St. Matthew to St. Luke, from St. John during Easter, and to reflect the season during Advent, Christmas, and Lent.
Interspersed repeatedly within the liturgical year are feasts dedicated to Mary and the saints (along with suitable readings). As expressed by the Vatican II Fathers: “In celebrating this annual cycle of Christ’s mysteries, holy Church honors with especial love the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, who is joined by an inseparable bond to the saving work of her Son. . . . The Church has also included in the annual cycle days devoted to the memory of the martyrs and the other saints” (SC, nn. 103, 104; as cited in CCC, nn. 1172, 1173).
Indeed, Mary and the saints are proposed by Holy Mother Church as exemplary models for the faithful to imitate.
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(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.)
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