| SEEING AND RESPONDING TO CHRIST IN THE LITURGY
Last year, the Church celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Constitution
on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. Pope John Paul II rightly
praised this Document of the Second Vatican Council which has proven so
important for the Church and her development.
The Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia of 17 April 2003 plays an
eminent role because of its special character as a magisterial Document,
as does the Apostolic Letter Spiritus et Sponsa, published in
honour of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Sacrosanctum
Concilium, which spotlights the lasting value and dedicated work of
the Constitution.
The liturgy, key to Christian life
The Council felt it was particularly important to give prominence to
the liturgy as an integral part of Christian life. The liturgy is not a
secondary cultural event or a rite imposed on the profession of
Christianity from outside. On the contrary, it is through the liturgical
actions and "especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist", that
"the work of our Redemption is accomplished" (Sacrosanctum Concilium,
n. 2).
The liturgy is the expression of our faith in Christ, the High Priest,
and the visible and sacramental actualization of the affirmation of
salvation, brought about by God in the sacrifice of his Son on the Cross.
From the very first phase of the liturgical reform, the ecclesiastical
Magisterium endeavoured to reaffirm the interiorization and deepening of
Christian life among the faithful (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n.
1). It did not focus its attention exclusively on the improvement of
liturgical forms but on the renewal of Christian life and of life in
general at the living sources of the liturgy (cf. A. Jungmann, Das
Grundanliegen der Liturgischen Erneuerung, in Liturgisches Jahrbuch
11, 1961, pp. 129-141).
Protecting the liturgy from abuses
The Constitution on the Liturgy has therefore become a reference point
for theology, spirituality and the pastoral practices of the Church. Yet
if we look at the history of its reception, now more than 40 years ago, we
are presented with a fairly widespread image of different theoretical
approaches to the liturgy; these seem to have done away with its essential
nucleus.
People have approached the text of the Constitution with their personal
pastoral opinions and subjective presuppositions, using it to legitimize
their own ends improperly. This procedure does not do justice to the
primary purpose of the Constitution.
The consequences are particularly serious: without reference to
superior authoritative bodies, the liturgy is treated with subjective
preference by those in charge according to their whim. The Instruction
published by the Congregation for Divine Worship aims instead to
re-establish the liturgy and its external accomplishment in order to
ensure that it conforms to its sacramental essence.
In harmony with the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican
Council, the Document stresses the holy character of the liturgy and its
visible actions that cannot be toyed with by subjective caprice. It is the
Church's pastors who are ultimately responsible for the liturgy,
especially the Bishop as moderator, promoter and guardian of her whole
liturgical life (cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 19) in his own
diocese.
No changes to Eucharistic Prayer
The provisions concerning the correct way to celebrate the Eucharistic
sacrifice largely reflect already existing norms (cf. chap. III, nn.
48-79): the texts of the Eucharistic Prayer must be recited without any
changes, without invented insertions and without modifications; they are
to be spoken exclusively by an ordained priest; lay people are prohibited
from preaching at Mass; no rites pertaining to another religion are to be
included.
The fact that the liturgy is an action of God with man is emphasized:
the liturgy is "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is
directed" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 10). The sacred character of
the liturgy that is not subordinate to personal whim expresses what it
most deeply involves: "The liturgy is the work of God, otherwise it would
not exist at all; the priority of God and of his action, sought in earthly
symbols, constitutes its universality and the public character of every
liturgy, which cannot be expressed by words such as 'community', but only
by terms like 'People of God' and 'Body of Christ' (J. Ratzinger, Ein
neues Lied für
den Herrn. Christusglaube and Liturgie in der Gegenwart, Freiburg,
1995, p. 170).
The repeated reference to the usual liturgical regulations does not,
therefore, aim at improving or changing measures that already exist in the
prescribed liturgical actions, but puts the precepts into a soteriological
and Christological context. The liturgy must not be exposed to human
manipulation.
In the liturgical action of the Church, Christ continues his priestly
work (cf. O. Nussbaum, Die Liturgie als Gedächtnisfeier,
in J. Schreiner, ed., Freude am Gottesdienst. Aspekte ursprünglicher
Liturgie, Stuttgart, 1983, pp. 201-214). We human beings are not
authorized to intervene arbitrarily to eliminate the Christological
presuppositions important for human salvation.
The holy character of the liturgy, which is not at the disposal of
subjective arbitrariness, does not only refer to the order of regulations
and rubrics. Nor must the doctrinal presupposition be exchanged with
autonomous legitimization. In ecumenical discussion, in striving for the
full unity that Christ desired, the Eucharistic celebration must not
become a means and instrument for what appears to be unity and is purely
external.
To use the celebration of the Eucharist as a platform for artificially
uniting separated Christians is contradictory to the fundamental
disposition of our profession of faith. The Church is both the subject and
object of faith. To arrange the content of the Eucharistic celebration
differently would be to destroy its theological and sacramental character.
Participation in the Eucharist implies accepting the identity of the
faith as an expression of the Church as a sacrament and by the profession
of the transubstantiation of the gifts of bread and wine into the
sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. Faith in the transubstantiation
cannot be optional. Ignoring the central mystery of the Eucharist to
achieve an apparent union cannot be the way to a successful ecumenism,
that is, one that is oriented to the truth.
The profession of Christ's saving action and of his continuation in the
Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1) demands the inner acceptance of
the Church's external (hierarchical) structure.
Thus, it becomes obvious that the sacred character of the Eucharist,
which is not available to arbitrary action, concerns both the external
rite and the internal content of the celebration. This results from its
intimate nature as "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is
directed" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 10), the efficacy of whose
"sacred action" "no other action of the Church can equal... by the same
title and to the same degree" (ibid., n. 7).
Unity without reductions is vital
It is possible for non-Catholic Christians to participate in the
Eucharist through the readings and the spiritual life of the gift of self
to God. By their participation, they witness to being inwardly disposed to
venerating God together with Catholic Christians, praising and exalting
him.
For full participation, however, which is also expressed in the
acceptance of the sacramental realities of the Church, full and unlimited
membership in the Church is required. The Eucharist is the expression of
our common faith, the visible profession of the People of God, as it were,
constituted by Jesus Christ as his body. The sacraments as well as the
ministerial priesthood, the primacy of the Pope, etc., are part of this
faith.
Hence, unity in faith and in the profession of faith is a
presupposition, while external liturgical action becomes a mirror image of
the same profession of faith. In the sacramental sign it is possible to
fulfil only what corresponds to the content of the sacraments. Here, the
form of the prayer corresponds to the form of the faith and its profession
(lex credendi
—
lex orandi; cf. DS 246). Unity, with no reductions, with the
doctrine of the faith and with the sacramental structure of the Catholic
Church, has fundamental importance for full participation in the
Eucharistic action of the Church.
The Instruction is also addressed to those who, in liturgical actions
and especially in the Eucharistic celebration, put the main accent on
their own private aesthetic ideas. The liturgy must not become a vehicle
for individual, spontaneous or regional tastes. The dignified celebration
of the Eucharist depends on the exact rules of the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and on the interior
disposition of the faithful.
Thus, the Eucharistic celebration is protected from attempts to use it
as a pedagogical means. Its sacred character protects it from the
presumptuous use of elements of worship as a means for individual
pedagogical, social or political purposes. The precepts for the correct
celebration of the Eucharist allow no room for such misuse.
Understand and obey the norms
There is no doubt that the correct approach to the Instruction consists
in perceiving the theological dimension of the norms referred to and
scrupulously obeying them. For the most part, they are not additional
precepts or prohibitions, but are intended to lead the liturgy back to its
proper goal of sacrificial action in which Christ welcomes us and atones
for us with the Father.
First and foremost, it is Christ who acts. The sacred character of the
external and internal elements of the Eucharistic celebration derive from
interweaving ecclesiology, Christology and sacramental theology. The
Instruction's aim is to help people to rediscover this dimension: once
again to perceive Christ in the liturgy, and to respond to this invitation
with one's life and with inner participation in the Eucharist.
|
