Sunday, April 22, 2012
222. What is the work of Christ in the liturgy? (part 1)
(Comp
222) In the liturgy of the Church, it is his own paschal mystery that Christ
signifies and makes present. 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 of all times and places
throughout the world.
“In brief”
(CCC 1111) Christ's work in the liturgy is sacramental:
because his mystery of salvation is made present there by the power of his Holy
Spirit; because his Body, which is the Church, is like a sacrament (sign and
instrument) in which the Holy Spirit dispenses the mystery of salvation; and
because through her liturgical actions the pilgrim Church already participates,
as by a foretaste, in the heavenly liturgy.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 1084) "Seated at the right hand of the
Father" 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.
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 1085) In the
liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ
signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his
Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his
Hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away:
Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of
the Father "once for all" (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12; cf. Jn 13:1; 17:1).
His 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. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot
remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that
Christ is - all that he did and suffered for all men - participates in the
divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them
all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life.
On reflection
(CCC 1086) "Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the
Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did
so that they might preach the Gospel to every creature and proclaim that the
Son of God by his death and resurrection had freed us from the power of Satan
and from death and brought us into the Kingdom of his Father. But he also
willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set in train
through the sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life
revolves" (SC 6). (CCC 1087) Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy
Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying (Cf. Jn
20:21-23): they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same
Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This "apostolic
succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is
itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders. [IT CONTINUES]
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