Liturgically Speaking: Entering into the Mysteries of Christ’s Death, and Resurrection

Catholicism often makes use of the term “mystery.”  In the Creed we profess the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  God’s plan for our salvation, hidden throughout the ages and fulfilled in history is what St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery” (Eph. 3:9).  The scriptures reveal to us the mystery of the Father’s will to give his Son and the gift of the Holy Spirit for our salvation.  This plan was accomplished principally through the Paschal Mystery.  “Paschal Mystery” is a kind of shorthand for the suffering, death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ – those central events of Christ’s life that save us from sin and eternal death.

Have you ever wondered, though, what the death and Resurrection of Christ, two thousand years ago, on the other side of the world, have to do with us in America in 2015?  How are we connected to a person and events that can seem so distant, remote, and even irrelevant to our daily lives? 

The answer is the liturgy.  In the liturgy, Christ’s death and Resurrection are not simply two thousand years ago, on the other side of the world.  Christ and his death and Resurrection are present and active here and now every time we celebrate the liturgy. In the liturgy, the Church celebrates above all the Paschal Mystery by which Christ accomplishes the work of our salvation.  In the liturgy of the Church, Christ’s Paschal Mystery is signified and made present.

How is this possible?  Christ’s Paschal Mystery is an event that occurred once in history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they are swallowed up in the past. Other historical events can simply be recalled and remembered.  The Paschal Mystery of Christ is different.  Since Jesus Christ is God, all that Christ did participates in the divine eternity.  All the works of Jesus transcend time while being made truly present in all times. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides.   

The work of our salvation is accomplished here and now by means of the sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life revolves. In the liturgy, we are not simply passive spectators; we are active participants in the saving work of Christ.  We participate in the Paschal Mystery as we recall it and celebrate it.  For instance, St. Paul says that in baptism we are plunged into the Paschal Mystery of Christ: we die with Him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him (cf. Rom 6:3-5).  This is not simply a metaphor or poetic language; it is reality.  Under sacramental signs, we receive the reality they signify.  In the fourth century, St. Cyril of Jerusalem said to the newly baptized:

O strange and inconceivable thing! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we were not really crucified and raised again; but our imitation was in a figure, and our salvation in reality. Christ was actually crucified, and actually buried, and truly rose again; and all these things He has freely bestowed upon us, that we, sharing His sufferings by imitation, might gain salvation in reality. O surpassing loving-kindness! Christ received nails in His undefiled hands and feet, and suffered anguish; while on me without pain or toil by the fellowship of His suffering He freely bestows salvation.

In like manner, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).  The Mass makes present, here and now, the one sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.  At the Mass, we stand at the foot of the cross and participate in Jesus’ perfect offering to the Father.

Hence, far from being distant, remote, or irrelevant, the liturgy makes the Paschal Mystery present here and now, and we directly encounter the person of and the work of Christ.