Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 181 - Part II.

  

YOUCAT Question n. 181 - Part II. Why are there so many signs and symbols in the liturgies?       

(Youcat answer - repeated) God knows that we men are not only spiritual but also bodily creatures; we need signs and symbols in order to perceive and describe spiritual or interior realities.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1147) God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator (Cf. Wis 13:1; Rom 1:19 f; Acts 14:17). Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.           

Reflecting and meditating    

(Youcat comment) Whether it is red roses, a wedding ring, black clothing, graffiti, or aids armbands—we always express our interior realities through signs and are understood immediately. The incarnate Son of God gives us human signs in which he is living and active among us: bread and wine, the water of Baptism, the anointing with the Holy Spirit. Our response to God’s sacred signs instituted by Christ consists in signs of reverence: genuflecting, standing while listening to the Gospel, bowing, folding our hands. And as though for a wedding we decorate the place of God’s presence with the most beautiful things we have: flowers, candles, and music. In any case, signs also require words to interpret them.      

(CCC Comment)       

(CCC 1148) Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator.          

 
(This question: Why are there so many signs and symbols in the liturgies? is continued)