The Nature of Worship

Sisters and brothers. We returned to continue our reflections on the teachings that are given to us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or for us in the United States. In the United States, adult Catechism for the Catholic Church. Today we begin to reflect on liturgy, on the rights of the Church will eventually work our way through each of the sacraments.

When we talk about the word liturgy, the meaning of that word is it is the work of the people. It's a reminder for us that each of the rites, the public rituals of the Church that we celebrate the mass, Baptism, Confirmation, etc., that in each of those it’s an engagement not only of the minister and the recipient, but all of God's people gathered have things to do. To pray, to sing, to share, to interact in that holy work.

Ultimately, when we gather for a Rite of the Church, we are addressing the Father through the Son and the Spirit. The prayer is one of praise. We speak of worship.
The praise and adoration of the greatness of God, our Father and Creator.
we do so through His Son, who enabled us to connect with the Father through the visible presence of the Son, but who does so today, after the Ascension of Christ into eternal life, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, that special bond of love between the Father and the Son.

So every liturgy involves the Trinity, but they also involve the pastoral mystery, that theme that runs through the life of the Church, the life of every Christian. Then in every moment of our life, that's important. There's some suffering, death and Resurrection and eventually an Ascension, and a spreading of the good to a larger audience and community in the world.

Every ritual, every rite of the Church involves words that are said and also, some sensual reality material reality and a way every sacrament, every ritual of the Church is intended to help make the invisible God visible to us through material reality. And as much as Christ made God present through the Incarnation, taking on human flesh to the second person of the Trinity. So in the sacraments, the spirit takes on the flesh of the physical things water, wine, bread, oil, those elements of the sacraments that touch us in each of the rituals of the Church.

When we talk about the sacraments, one of the things that we'd say about them in sort of a classical definition is they are efficacious signs instituted by Christ. That is, every sacrament is rooted in the life and ministry of Christ. Whether we see it physically represented in the scriptures, or whether it evolves from the understanding of Christ in the life of the Church. But the important piece is that notion of an efficacious sign. That is one of the ways, a kind of shorthand we can say for each of the sacraments it delivers on its promise in Baptism, where promise the grace of being involved in the life of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit is our animating principle that promises fulfilled every hour, every minute, every second of our lives.

From the moment of our Baptism. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we're promised that sins are forgiven, and indeed they are. In the Eucharist we're promised that we are nourished and united to the Paschal mystery of Christ that leads us from Passion, Suffering, Death, to Resurrection and so it is.

The Sacrament of Marriage we're promised the grace of being able to bring two to become one. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the promise of the capacity to serve through the enrichment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick we are promised healing indeed, whether that is physical healing, we are promised indeed spiritual healing and wholeness as we journey through the limitations of suffering and death in our own lives.

So each sacrament is an efficacious sign that does one particular thing. It draws us into the life of God into and a participation into the divine nature that we're gifted by God. Not a work that we achieve. It's a work that God gives us. And so we come to every sacrament filled with the spirit of gratitude that God has and continues to love us, and expresses His mercy to us in such a way that we're able to participate in these incredible moments of strengthening, healing, wholeness, and gift.

One of the things that the Church has taught us a central teaching, Second Vatican Council will so often go to that great magisterial teaching. In the sacred Constitution on the liturgy there is a call for us, and it is the call in each sacramental celebration to full, conscious, active participation. What does that mean?

It means we are aware and understand what we are doing and participate willingly. Our full participation. We give our hearts, our lips, our minds, our wills to be engaged in this sacramental celebration, full, active that we're doing the things that we should do. When you look at the congregation from the altar and you see the beauty of the congregation at song singing the Gloria, responding and the responsorial psalm that we are indeed, participating full, active, conscious participation, that together, when all of us are doing that, those four things that we are indeed experiencing the full ness of the celebration that then enables us and prepares us for the full reception of what each sacrament offers. 

Imagine that, sisters and brothers, a world in which each of us approaches to every ritual, from Baptism to Marriage, to the Sunday Mass to the daily Mass with full, active, conscious participation. If we indeed do that, God will assure us that we will be renewed.

Reflection Questions:

1. How can we better engage in full, conscious, and active participation during the sacraments and liturgy?

2. In what ways do the sacraments make the invisible God visible through material elements like water, wine, and oil?

3. How does understanding the sacraments as "efficacious signs" deepen our appreciation of God's ongoing work in our lives?