How the liturgy is celebrated

The Church teaches that the liturgical word and action are inseparable, writes Cathal Barry

A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“In keeping with the divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the person and work of Christ,” the document states.

In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being, the Catechism notes, man “expresses and perceives spiritual realities” through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, the Catechism states, man “needs signs and symbols” to communicate with others, through language, gestures and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God, the document says.

The Church teaches that God speaks to man through the visible creation. Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit “speak of God and symbolise both his greatness and his nearness”, the Catechism states.

Since Pentecost, according to Church teaching, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. 

“The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life,” the Catechism says. 

Further, they “fulfil the types and figures of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation wrought by Christ and prefigure and anticipate the glory of Heaven”. 

A sacramental celebration, according to the Church, “is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit”.

This meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them,” the Catechism states. 

Response

“The liturgical actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free initiative and his people’s response of faith.”

The liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations. To “nourish” the faith of believers, the Church teaches that the signs which accompany the Word of God should be emphasised: the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of the Gospels), its veneration (procession, incense, candles), the place of its proclamation (lectern or ambo), its audible and intelligible reading, the minister’s homily which extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly (acclamations, meditation psalms, litanies and profession of faith).

The liturgical word and action, according to the Church, are inseparable both insofar as they are signs and instruction and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. 

“When the Holy Spirit awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments also makes present the wonders of God which it proclaims. 

“The Spirit makes present and communicates the Father’s work, fulfilled by the beloved Son,” the Catechism states.