By DON FIER
Having concluded our examination of Part One of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), in which we received in-depth instruction on what we as Catholic Christians profess to believe through faith, we now begin our journey through Part Two: “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery.”
Similar in structure to the other three parts of the Catechism, it begins with a general section devoted to the sacramental economy, or “the communication (or ‘dispensation’) of the fruits of Christ’s Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church’s ‘sacramental’ liturgy” (CCC, n. 1076). This is followed by a second section which covers the celebration of each of the seven sacraments of the Church as well as the sacramentals.
As noted by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Christoph Cardinal Schönborn in Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “the grand perspective in which the sacraments of the Church are viewed perhaps finds its most beautiful expression in the fresco which precedes this part [of the Catechism]” (p. 81). An early fourth-century image from the catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter in Rome, it depicts Jesus’ encounter with the woman who suffered for twelve years with a hemorrhage (see Mark 5:25-34).
The fresco can be seen to symbolize “the divine and saving power of the Son of God who heals the whole man, soul and body, through the sacramental life” (CCC, p. 276). She opened herself to Jesus’ divine healing touch as we must through our active participation in the liturgy.
The first question the Catechism addresses is “Why the liturgy?” and immediately refers to its trinitarian dimension: “The Father accomplishes the ‘mystery of his will’ (Eph. 1:9) by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name” (CCC, n. 1066). The Father is the “source and goal of the liturgy” (CCC, nn. 1077-1083), the Son “acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace” (CCC, n. 1084), and in the liturgy “the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of ‘God’s masterpieces,’ the sacraments of the New Covenant” (CCC, n. 1091).
Another reason for the liturgy’s importance is its powerful influence on the spiritual renewal of the People of God. In his 1980 apostolic letter entitled Dominicae Cenae, Pope St. John Paul II underscored this very point with the following words:
“A very close and organic bond exists between the renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church. The Church not only acts but also expresses herself in the liturgy, lives by the liturgy, and draws from the liturgy the strength for her life” (n. 13).
In other words, no other dimension of spiritual renewal in the Church has as powerful an impact as liturgical renewal.
As we continue our discussion of the sacred liturgy in the life of the Church, it should be no surprise, then, that a Second Vatican Council document to which we will have frequent recourse is the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” or Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC). It was the first document promulgated by the council and concerns the entire liturgy of the Church — not only the Mass, the seven sacraments, and the sacramentals, but also the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office). As such, it concerns all public acts in which the Church prays (as distinct from private devotional prayer and popular piety of the faithful).
The Catechism emphasizes that “the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation” (CCC, n. 1067). It goes on to explain that “it is this mystery of Christ [His Passion, death, and Resurrection] that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world” (CCC, n. 1068).
As expressed by the council fathers: “The liturgy, ‘through which the work of our redemption is accomplished,’ most of all in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (SC, n. 2).
It would be good at this point to look at the origin and meaning of the word “liturgy.” As Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, relates in The Catholic Catechism (TCC), its etymology comes from the “original Greek term leitourgia (from leos [people] and ergon [work]) and was used of any public duty or service” (p. 442). It was applied both to the performance of civic duties for the state and the fulfillment of religious duties for the gods in ancient Greece. By the time the Old Testament was translated into Greek at the end of the third century before Christ, its use applied particularly to services in the Temple. With the coming of Christ, it came to mean “the participation of the People of God in ‘the work of God’ (cf. John 17:4)” (CCC, n. 1069).
“The clearest way to understand the liturgy,” says Fr. Hardon, “is to see it as the exercise now on earth of Christ’s priestly office, as distinct from the Church’s teaching [office], which is Jesus continuing his prophetic ministry, and the Church’s rule and moral guidance, by which the Savior lives among his people as Christ the King. Since the priestly work of Christ concerns itself with worship and man’s sanctification, we should expect the liturgy to be specially directed toward giving due honor to God and making the faithful more holy and pleasing to God” (TCC, pp. 441-442).
It is through the liturgy that Christ “continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church” (CCC, n. 1069).
The Vatican II fathers accentuate the same concept in slightly different words:
“Rightly . . . the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree” (SC, n. 7 §§ 3-4).
In his 1947 encyclical entitled Mediator Dei (“On the Sacred Liturgy”), Venerable Pius XII gave the Church an explicit and comprehensive definition of the sacred liturgy:
“The sacred liturgy is . . . the public worship which our Redeemer as Head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father. It is, in short, the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the entirety of its Head and members” (n. 20).
The importance of the liturgy in the Church’s life cannot be overemphasized. The Vatican II fathers describe it as “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows” (SC, n. 11).
Motivated By Faith
In The Spirit of the Liturgy, which many scholars consider to be Pope Benedict XVI’s finest work on the liturgy, he describes it as “the animating center of the Church, the very center of Christian life . . . as the prayer of the Church, a prayer moved and guided by the Holy Spirit himself, a prayer in which Christ unceasingly becomes contemporary with us, enters into our life” (p. 7). The liturgy “makes the Church present and manifests her as the visible sign of the communion in Christ between God and men” (CCC, n. 1071).
Important to understand is that “in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1)” (SC, n. 11).
Likewise, it “involves the conscious, active, and fruitful participation of everyone” (CCC, n. 1071), which first and foremost is the participation of faith.
This does not mean constantly doing something, for an essential aspect of active participation is that “at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence” (SC, n. 30). All actions and gestures, even reverent silence, should be motivated by faith.
The sacred liturgy, moreover, is essential to the New Evangelization. “The Sacred Liturgy is absolutely the first act of the New Evangelization,” said Raymond Cardinal Burke during an interview.
“Unless we worship God in Spirit and in truth, unless we celebrate the Sacred Liturgy with the greatest possible faith in God and faith in the divine action which takes place in Holy Mass, we are not going to have the inspiration and the grace to carry out the New Evangelization” (see The Wanderer, volume 148, n. 1; January 8, 2015).
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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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