By DON FIER
Part 3
Just as we saw two weeks ago that the Father is the source and goal of the liturgy, we similarly saw last week that Jesus Christ is the center of the liturgy. It is in His Paschal Mystery, which is recalled during the memorial acclamation at each Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the words: “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again,” where this is signified and made present.
His “once-for-all” sacrifice on Calvary and His glorious Resurrection are not merely commemorated, but made present in sacramental form.
We have in Christ, then, who is risen and “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1), an eternal High Priest who “is still ‘our advocate with the Father’ (1 John 2:1), who ‘always lives to make intercession’ (Heb. 7:25) for us” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 519). The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church expertly summarizes the manner by which Christ continues His liturgical work from Heaven:
“By giving the Holy Spirit to his apostles he entrusted to them and their successors the power to make present the work of salvation through the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments, in which he himself acts to communicate his grace to the faithful at all times and places throughout the world” (n. 222).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), having thus far dealt with the Father and the Son in its instruction on the liturgy as the work of the Holy Trinity, now focuses on the crucial role of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life.
So important is the Advocate in the Church’s liturgical life that Christoph Cardinal Schönborn positively affirms: “Everything in the Church that is truly alive, that lives with the life of Christ, has been raised to life by the Holy Spirit” (Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church [L-CCC], p. 17). This statement, in essence, underscores what St. Augustine stated so many centuries ago: “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church” (Sermo 267, 4; as cited by CCC, n. 797).
More than twice the length of earlier segments on the Father and the Son, this 19-paragraph section entitled “The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy” consists of two introductory paragraphs followed by four short subsections that enumerate the works by which we can know the presence of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy in a special way: “he prepares men for the encounter with Christ; he manifests him and his words to men; he makes Christ present; and he unites men with Christ” (L-CCC, p. 17; cf. CCC, n. 1092).
It is interesting to note that this section of the Catechism (in contrast to the two prior sections on the Father’s and the Son’s role in the liturgy) considers the work of the Holy Spirit together with the Church. It is stated in the opening paragraph that “the desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live from the life of the risen Christ” (CCC, n. 1091). It is the Holy Spirit, explains Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, “[who] is the Teacher whom Christ promised. He enlightens our faith and inspires our response” (The Faith, p. 103).
“When the Spirit encounters in us the response of faith,” teaches the Catechism, “the liturgy becomes the common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church” (CCC, ibid.). In other words, provided that we respond with living faith to the inspirations and illuminations of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier unites us in a loving community in the Church; we are thereby enabled to share in the life of Christ now risen (cf. The Faith, ibid.). “By his transforming power, [the Holy Spirit] makes the mystery of Christ present here and now” (CCC, n. 1092).
The Catechism proceeds at this point to provide illumination on each of the four previously mentioned workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church’s liturgy. First, it is the Spirit who prepares the People of God to encounter Christ. To use an analogy, just as any professional athlete or renowned concert pianist cannot perform with excellence without extensive preparation, so too must faith be awakened and hearts opened in preparation for an authentic encounter with Christ.
When did this period of preparation commence? “Already from the beginning of the world the foreshadowing of the Church took place,” maintain the Vatican II fathers. “It was prepared in a remarkable way throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant” (Lumen Gentium, n. 2).
In the events of the Old Testament, God was continually preparing a people for Christ’s coming: remotely when He called Abraham and promised that he would become the father of a great people, and immediately with Israel’s election as the People of God (cf. CCC, n. 762). It is for this reason that “the Old Testament dimension must never be absent from the Church’s liturgy” (L-CCC, p. 18).
As the Catechism explains, “In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant” (CCC, n. 1093). Since “the Old Covenant has never been revoked” (CCC, n. 121), the Church “has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable, adopting them as her own” (CCC, n. 1093).
Three specific elements are mentioned that are prominent in the Church’s liturgy: reading of the Old Testament, praying of the Psalms, and recalling many of the saving events and significant realities of salvation history (which are fulfilled by the Holy Spirit in our very midst). The Holy Spirit enables those who are properly disposed to see the Old Testament as a preparation for the New as they attentively participate in the liturgy.
The paschal catechesis of the Lord, then, is built “on this harmony of the two Testaments” (CCC, n. 1094), as are the teachings of the apostles, the Church fathers, and the magisterial office of the Church. “God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New” (Dei Verbum, n. 16).
In other words, the “figures” and “types” (e.g., the great flood and Noah’s Ark as prefiguring Baptism, manna in the desert as prefiguring the Eucharist, etc.) that are prominent in the Old Testament are unveiled and revealed in the New Testament.
That is precisely why the Church, in her liturgy, continues to celebrate the great deeds of God from Israel’s past. In the words of Cardinal Schönborn, the Old Testament readings are “the school by which God guides us to the point of being ready for the coming of Christ” (L-CCC, p. 18).
And as the Catechism explains: “Especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, [the Church] re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the ‘today’ of her liturgy” (CCC, n. 1095).
Yet a demand is placed upon those assembled — they must open themselves up to God’s grace and allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith and enlighten their minds so they might grasp a spiritual understanding of the word they hear.
The Catechism goes on to explain that, in its characteristic structure, the Liturgy of the Word and even the prayers of the Liturgy of the Eucharist have their origin in Jewish prayer. The same can be said for the Liturgy of the Hours and many other liturgical texts and formularies that are so familiar to us. Moreover, the Church’s liturgical calendar is strongly influenced by the great festivals of the Chosen People; however, there are significant differences in content.
Interior Conversion
Perhaps most apparent and striking is the Feast of the Passover: “Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ” (CCC, n. 1096).
The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, in a commentary on the Catechism’s teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy, emphasizes an incalculably vital point about our preparation for the liturgy.
It must not primarily be seen as “an intellectual reception of the theological truths but an interior affair of the heart wherein conversion is best expressed and the conviction towards a life in union with the will of the Father most vividly recognized. . . . Docility to the Holy Spirit is the precondition for the graces received during the celebration itself and for their subsequent affects and effects (cf. CCC, nn. 1097-1098).”
Our preparation, in other words, must not aim first at outward works but interior conversion; otherwise, our exterior works will remain sterile and false (cf. CCC, n. 1430). Only in this manner will we become receptive to the graces that will move us to love one another in a manner that transcends “racial, cultural, social — indeed, all human affinities” (CCC, n. 1097).
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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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