Pastoral Letter on Liturgy
By sacramental grace, we participate in the sacrifice of the new Law, in the Great Liturgy of which Christ is at once the priest and victim and by which the entire Church is priestly. Priesthood and sacrifice go hand in hand; it consists in offering in order to maintain or restore mankind's proper relation to God. Christ the High Priest restores all creation to its right relationship with God. Through his priesthood, realized in the priestly activity of the Church, the double current of love rises from the earth to heaven and descends from heaven to the earth. Christian holiness consists precisely in imitating Christ, the High Priest, principle and cause of salvation for all. We realize the universal call to holiness according to a properly priestly modality "“ "a priestly people" – as priests and victims of spiritual sacrifice through Christ, with him and in him: "like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 2:4-5). Like Christ, therefore, the Church, and every one of us, makes an offering of self for the salvation of the world. In the Sacrament of the altar, in what we offer, we are ourselves offered. In this way, we become what God has called us to be: "You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Ex 19:6). "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 2:9), "made to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father" (Rev 1:6).
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
As the Liturgy moves into the Eucharist, all attention is focused on the altar. The "sacrificial gifts" of the community are collected and, together with bread and wine, are brought forward and presented to the minister of the Eucharist. This is one of the responses in faith that the people of God are moved to offer in praise and thanksgiving to the source of all gifts. Financial gifts are offered for the carrying out of the Church's mission and upkeep and for the poor. In the prayers of the preparation of altar and gifts, the priest prays: "Pray my sisters and brothers that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God the almighty Father." The "sacrifice" is not only the bread and wine about to become Body and Blood of Christ, but also the sacrificial gifts offered by the community. All is given to God in praise and thanksgiving. After the prayer over the gifts, the community is invited to "Lift up your hearts." The Eucharistic prayer has begun – the central prayer of the Mass in which we give thanks and praise for the powerful deeds of our God, and ask him to once again send his spirit – that these gifts may become for us the Body and Blood of Christ and that "all who receive the Body and Blood of Christ from this altar may become one body, one spirit in Christ." It is a real challenge to join the community together in this central act of worship.
The core of the mystery of Christian worship is the once and for all sacrifice of Christ. It is by participating in this sacrificial act that we form a "royal priesthood" as a people characterized by selfless love. Sacrifice is not only the highest expression of love, but (also) the way of reconciliation, of transcending ourselves, of detaching us from ourselves and of giving ourselves entirely to God. Sacrifice is transfiguration, not destruction. The Cross itself is a splendorous display of human transfiguration, of love. The Cross and Resurrection go together. They are as two stages of a single redemptive act. Redemption implies the restoration of human kind to the order originally intended by God, it implies a real and interior transformation of the human person who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is able to commend his whole being unto God so that God himself may be all in all. In this lies true perfection and beauty. Real "beautification" consists of submission to a higher principle, submission to something which surpasses us in order to be truly refigured. By the wholesale sacrifice of her own will to that of God, Mary became the highest expression of the "Art of God;" creaturely beauty becomes divine. In a spirit of humble acceptance, we transform death, here and now, into life. The idea of sacrifice has been totally re-dimensioned by the God of love. Jesus' act of self-abandonment, in which he is both the offerer and the one offered, demonstrates the simultaneously passive and active quality of genuine sacrifice, sacrifice which stems from the depths of oneself: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God Å’ what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:1-2). Our entire lives should become sacrifice. This sacrifice takes on incalculable significance when inserted into the great sacrifice of Christ. There, for us, to offer is to abundantly receive. This is yet another reason to glorify and give thanks to the Lord. "Eucharist" itself means "thanksgiving," and we join to the sacrifice of the Cross mystically reproduced in the Mass a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the indescribably good things God has done for us.
The sung acclamations are a normal part of our Eucharist, but there are other elements that can perhaps enhance the people's conscious and active participation in the prayer. Traditionally the prayer was chanted, and in a solemn way, people were involved in this with the preface dialogue and the song of the angels (Holy, Holy). The "Great Amen" is sung by the entire assembly as an affirmation and a strong "yes" to the prayer proclaimed by the presiding celebrant. Through preaching on the Eucharist, occasional parish bulletin articles and encouragement of prayer, the people can come to a deeper appreciation of this Eucharistic prayer – this praise and thanksgiving – in which all take part. The people can come to see how much their lives need to be filled with thanksgiving to the giver of all gifts. It is God's Spirit, given to us in Jesus Christ that enables us to even give thanks and praise. The Great Eucharistic Prayer draws us together and joins us to the sacrifice of the Cross, the communion of saints and the universal Church. The power of this prayer changes us and forms us ever more into the Body of Christ. The ancient patristic saying: "The Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the Church" is powerful in our meditation on this sacred action. Certainly, the Eucharist is such a great gift that this brief reflection can only awaken a minimal theological reflection. I would include here, the Church's teaching on Eucharist as found in the Catechism (1376): The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Be-cause Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
