By DON FIER
Part 2
We began our examination of the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on the liturgy as the work of the Holy Trinity last week by focusing on the Father. We saw that God the Father is the “source and goal of the liturgy” and that the notion of blessing that the Catechism employs has a twofold direction.
The whole of God’s work from the beginning of time and what He continues to do for us until the end of time is a blessing (cf. CCC, n. 1078). In turn, our response to these manifold blessings is one of “faith and love” which is liturgically expressed by the People of God by our “adoration, praise, and thanksgiving” (CCC, n. 1083).
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its summary of nn. 1077-1083 of the Catechism, beautifully draws out not only the dual dimension of blessing in the Father’s gifts and our response, but also the trinitarian underpinning inherent in describing the Father as source and goal of the liturgy:
“Through the liturgy the Father fills us with his blessings in the Word made flesh [the Son] who died and rose for us and pours into our hearts the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the Church blesses the Father by her worship, praise, and thanksgiving and begs him for the gift of his Son and the Holy Spirit” (n. 221).
The Father is the source of the Word, through whom He acts and blesses us; in turn, it is through the Word that the gift of the Holy Spirit is poured forth.
The Catechism now focuses its attention on Christ’s work in the liturgy of the Church. This dense seven-paragraph section (nn. 1084-1090) employs the clever stylistic technique of utilizing subtitles — which might be combined to form a single sentence — as a means of dividing it into four subsections that emphasize various aspects of Christ’s work. Taken together, the subtitles express the encompassing affirmation: “Christ glorified…from the time of the Church of the apostles…is present in the earthly liturgy…which participates in the liturgy of heaven.”
Immediately in the opening paragraph of this section, it is noteworthy that the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity are intimately linked to each other: “‘Seated at the right hand of the Father’ [cf. Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69] and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace” (CCC, n. 1084).
Indeed, although it is the Son who “is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy” (CCC, n. 662), He does so from His place of glory at the right hand of the Father in Heaven and from there pours out the Holy Spirit upon the Church.
In the Baltimore Catechism, a sacrament is pithily defined as “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace” (volume 2, q. 136). In the same introductory paragraph that we have been considering, the Catechism expands that definition: “The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify” (CCC, n. 1084).
In the Glossary at the end of the Catechism, the word “sacrament” is defined as “an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit” (CCC, p. 898).
The Catechism, then, offers a more detailed explanation of what is meant by the simple definition that many of us learned as young children prior to Vatican II.
First of all, the outward signs are defined to be “words and actions” which are perceptible to our human senses. In other words, God is acting in a manner suited to our natural way of understanding. For example, the matter and form of Baptism are the pouring of water and the words: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” both of which are clearly distinguishable by us.
Secondly, the power of the Holy Spirit (alongside that of the action of Christ) is identified in the more comprehensive definitions.
Finally, the effects of the sacraments are defined as efficacious with regard to the grace which is dispensed through them. What does this mean? It indicates that “the visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions” (CCC, n. 1131).
In other words, since Christ is acting in them and the power of the Holy Spirit is present, the sacraments unfailingly deliver the grace that they signify as long as they are approached with the proper dispositions. What a great blessing it is to have this assurance!
The Catechism now categorically teaches that in the Church’s liturgy, “it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present” (CCC, n. 1085).
Referring again to the Catechism’s Glossary, the Paschal Mystery is defined as “Christ’s work of redemption accomplished principally by his Passion, death, Resurrection, and glorious Ascension, whereby ‘dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life’ (Easter Preface of the Roman Missal). The Paschal Mystery is celebrated and made present in the liturgy of the Church, and its saving effects are communicated through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which renews the paschal sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice offered by the Church” (CCC, p. 891).
Christ’s Paschal Mystery “is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past” (CCC, n. 1085). By becoming incarnate, the Word of God entered into human history; He was crucified and died under Pontius Pilate in one particular time and place. However, Christ rose from the dead and — filled with divine glory — took His place at the right hand of the Father “once for all” (Romans 6:10).
Since Christ destroyed death by His death, His Paschal Mystery cannot remain in the past. Rather, all that He is and all that He did and all that He suffered “participates in the divine eternity and so transcends all times while being made present in them all” (CCC, n. 1085). It is precisely in the Church’s liturgy that the Paschal Mystery of Christ is signified and made present in all times. Thus the Catechism is able to authoritatively affirm: “The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life” (ibid.).
Always Present
The Catechism now recalls for us a topic we covered earlier in this series in examining the four marks of the Church, particularly apostolicity (see volume 147, n. 43; October 23, 2014). “Just as Christ was sent by the Father,” teaches Vatican II, “so also He sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit” (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], n. 6). When Jesus met with the apostles after His Resurrection, He said to them: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21).
He then breathed upon them and continued: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The apostles, in turn, were given the authority to entrust this power to their successors. “This ‘apostolic succession’,” teaches the Catechism, “structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders” (CCC, n. 1087).
How is Christ present in the earthly liturgy? We refer again to the teaching of Vatican II: “To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, ‘the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross’ (Council of Trent, Session XXII [Doctrine on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass], chapter 2), but especially under the Eucharistic Species.
“By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matt. 18:20)” (SC, n. 7).
What about the fourth aspect of Christ’s work: participation in the heavenly liturgy? Christ is risen and has defeated death; thus, as we have seen, His cross and Resurrection are perpetual. He “permanently exercises his priesthood, for he ‘always lives to make intercession’ for ‘those who draw near to God through him’ (Heb. 7:25)” (CCC, n. 662).
“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 . . . [until] we too will appear with Him in glory” (SC, n. 8).
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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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