Theological Outlines • by • Francis J. Hall

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September 19, 2005

Ch. XXVIII. Q. 151. What is the Liturgy?

THE LITURGY is the public and corporate service which the Church has set forth from time immemorial, wherein the Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered and the Sacrament administered with clue solemnity and reverence, in such wise that the true Faith concerning the Sacrament is preserved, and the faithful are edified.1

2. The Liturgy preserves the same rudimentary outline, whatever variations of phraseology have occurred, in every Communion of the Catholic Church, and in the Nestorian and Monophysite Communions of the East. This agreement is remarkable in view of the wide divergences of these Communions, caused by race peculiarities and ancient jealousies, long-continued divisions and mutual isolation. Such a phenomenon not only shows that the Liturgy ante-dates all the internal divergences of Catholic Christendom, but also suggests the thought that a special Divine Providence has preserved the Liturgy from corruption, and has marked it with the stamp of Divine approval, as the best service possible for the purpose. There is no reason to doubt that it dates from the Pentecostal age, and is the same with " the prayers " referred to in the New Testament in connection with "the breaking of the Bread."2

3. The Liturgy opens with the pro-anaphora, in which Holy Scripture is read and the Faith is recited and expounded. The sacrificial action which follows consists primarily of two parts, viz.: (a.) the Minor Oblation of Bread and Wine—the "Pure Offering," in which the sacrifice of ourselves to God is signified: (b.) the Greater Oblation in which the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, in union with which our souls and bodies are made worthy and are both offered and accepted through the merits of Christ's death, a memorial of which is made. Around these two actions are grouped the liturgical devotions of the Faithful, consisting of acts of preparation, adoration, praise, thanksgiving and prayer. The reception of the Sacrament follows the Greater Oblation and its accompanying devotions.3

4. The Greater Oblation is immediately followed, in the Eastern, Scottish and American forms of the Liturgy, by an Invocation of the Holy Ghost, that He may convert the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ and thus bless and sanctify our Sacrifice. Some writers are misled and troubled because the Liturgy compels us to pray that the conversion may be consummated after it has already been achieved. There should be no difficulty. The seeming paradox is due to (a.) the desirability of conforming to the logical order of Sacrifice, which, as can be seen by students of the Mosaic ritual, requires that the blessing of God's Holy Spirit, of which fire is the Old Testament symbol, should follow rather than precede the Oblation4: (b.) the order of the Divine economies, which requires that the Encharistic operation of the Father, Who provides the creaturely elements, should be remembered first; of the Son. Who consecrates these elements and offers His Body and Blood, second; and of the Holy Spirit, Who blesses and consummates the Sacrifice thus offered, third. The limitations of human utterance make it impossible to complete the verbal expression of these elements of the mystery, in their proper order, within the time of their sacramental consummation by the Words of Institution.5

5. The Divine economies (Q. 70) make it convenient that the Eucharistic Sacrifice should be offered to the Father through the mediation of the Son, and by the operation of the Holy Ghost. This also determines the manner of ordinary devotional approaches to God. Yet the faithful cannot contemplate either of the Divine Persons except in an attitude of worship; and, when one Person is contemplated in distinction from the other Two, that Person is adorable as thus distinct. Such adoration does not involve tritheism, but is an acknowledgement that each of the Three personally possesses the indivisible Godhead, although in a different manner (Q. 64. 5-7). "We worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity." It is fitting, therefore, that, in the Holy Eucharist, we should contemplate and adore with a distinct act of adoration that Person, Jesus Christ, through Whom we approach the Father, since the Father and the Holy Ghost exist indivisibly in Him (Q. 67). This adoration is guided by the visible sign but does not terminate in it. Nor does it terminate in anything which is or can be isolated from the Person of Christ, but in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who, in inseparable union with His body and Blood, is sacramentally and adorably present under the consecrated species of Bread and Wine.6

6. The liturgical action is not complete unless the celebrating Priest, who represents the whole body of the faithful, partakes of the Sacrament. It is not essential to this completeness, however, that any one else should receive or even be present. But every Catholic Liturgy implies that others will be present and partake of the Sacrament. To discourage such presence and participation, except to meet some passing emergency, violates every Catholic precedent.7

7. The saints of every age have been glad to express their reverence and sense of the august nature of the Eucharistic Mystery by celebrating it with solemn and significant ceremony and by making use of splendid ornaments. But even such adjuncts are governed by well defined and Catholic principles; so that a real unity can be discerned in the different uses of various Communions, and Catholic precedents are recognized everywhere as having a certain binding force.8

Posted by Trevor at September 19, 2005 07:30 PM

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