The word “liturgy” comes from
two Greek words meaning “people” and “work.”
Due to these roots, it has been popular in the last fifty years or more
to describe the liturgy as “the work of the people.” But is the liturgy our work? Is the liturgy
something we do? Who is it that acts in
the liturgy? In reality, the liturgy is primarily the work of God the Holy
Trinity.
God the Father is the source and the goal of the liturgy. Through
the liturgy the Father fills us with his blessings in Christ and pours the Holy
Spirit into our hearts. At the same
time, the Church blesses the Father by worship, praise, and thanksgiving, and implores
him for the gift of his Son and the Holy Spirit.
Christ also works in the liturgy. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the
Church makes present Christ’s work of
salvation through the Eucharist and the other sacraments, in which Christ
himself acts to communicate his grace to us.
The Second Vatican Council reminds us of this:
"To
accomplish so great a work Christ is always present in his Church, especially
in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not
only in the person of his minister, 'the same now offering, through the
ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,' but especially
in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so
that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is
present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures
are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings,
for he has promised 'where two or three are gathered together in my name there
am I in the midst of them’" (SC 7).
The Holy Spirit acts in the very closest
cooperation with the Church in the liturgy.
The Holy Spirit prepares the
Church to encounter her Lord. He recalls and manifests Christ to the assembly. He makes the mystery of Christ really present. He unites
the Church to the life and mission of Christ.
At Mass, the Epiclesis ("invocation upon")
is the intercession in which the priest asks God the Father to send the Holy
Spirit so that the bread and wine may become the body and blood of Christ, and
that we ourselves may become a living offering to God. You can
recognize the epiclesis at Mass because Father extends his hands over the
gifts, and often at Ss. Peter and Paul, the bells are rung to alert us to this
moment. In every liturgical action the Holy
Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and to form his
Body.
The liturgy is also our participation in Christ's own prayer
addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit.
How can we understand this participation? Think of a toddler “helping” his dad shovel
snow with a little toy shovel. The
toddler is participating in his father’s work, but is only doing so by the will
and the work of the father. The
participation is a true work, but relies totally on the father’s initiative,
and only in union with him.
In
the liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal: “The excellence of Christian prayer lies
in its sharing in the reverent love of
the only-begotten Son for the Father and in the prayer that the Son put
into words in his earthly life and that still continues without ceasing in the
name of the whole human race and for its salvation, throughout the universal
Church and in all its members.” (General
Instruction to the Liturgy of the Hours, 7)
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