Faith and liturgy

ONE crucial point we, as Christian believers, ought to know and live is that there is an intimate, mutual relationship between our faith and the liturgy that we are asked to celebrate and participate in.

            To be sure, Christian life is not only a matter of knowing the doctrine of our faith. It’s not just an intellectual affair. It’s not even attempting to live that doctrine just by ourselves.

            Christian life is both faith and liturgy together. One cannot be without the other without emptying the substance of Christian life. Why is that?

            That’s simply because Christ has wished that the mystery of our salvation, revealed and fulfilled by him, be made present all throughout time in the liturgy, giving life to those who participate in it.

            His redemptive work just cannot be swallowed up in the past. Christ is God. He is also man. As God, he has all his activities carried out in time infused to his eternity, such that his historical acts would be made present due to the eternal dimension of his life. Eternity is continuing present. It has no past, no future. Everything is in the present.

            This is a truth of faith that we need to relish very deeply and should be made a driving principle of our life. Without the liturgy and the sacraments, we cannot fully profess our faith, since we would lack the grace, which comes from the liturgy, to sustain our Christian life.

            Without the liturgy, we could never have faith, since it is the “Mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates so that the faithful may live in it and bear witness to it in the world.” (CCC 1068) In short, in the liturgy, we are placed directly in front of the Mystery of Christ so we may with him and show him to others.

            Faith is also necessary, since it makes the celebration of the liturgy in accord to the will and design of God. Without faith, the liturgy would be deprived of its essence. Without faith, the celebration of the sacraments would end up mere theatrics.

            An effective realization and appreciation of this truth is necessary because otherwise we would validate the accusation that we are just playing games and playing make-believe when we celebrate or participate in the Holy Mass, for example.

            This realization would produce many practical considerations. Like, those of us priests who celebrate the Mass should be keenly aware that we are assuming the mind and heart of Christ as he goes through his passion, death and resurrection which the Mass is supposed to sacramentalize.

            We should also see to it that when we give the homily, we effectively are transmitting the Word of God and not just coming up with some lecture about philosophy, sociology, politics, or worse, with petty gossips and unsolicited display of one’s talents in singing, oratory or dramatics.

            Homilies that run longer than 10 minutes and are not clearly prepared tend to be counter-productive as they tend to be rambling, with many audible pauses, grammatical errors and faulty reasoning. They also give the impression the people are taken for a ride with no specific destination in sight.

            We need to see to it that the faithful who attend Mass get the right idea that the Mass is more of a sacrifice than just a banquet, that it is the most privileged place to have an encounter with Christ rather than just a social obligation to fulfil, that it is an invitation of Christ to join him in the dynamic of love for his Father and for one another, etc.

            There certainly is a lot of catechesis needed in this regard. Let’s hope that we priests and the religious brothers and sisters and committed laity feel the growing need to explain this important truth of our faith that figures in the very core of our Christian life.

            We need to make this vital connection between faith and liturgy felt and appreciated by more and more people. Especially the lay faithful who are immersed in the middle of the world, they need to realize more deeply that their daily occupations can only have true meaning and ultimate purpose when united with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that is renewed in the Holy Mass.

            We have to construct the appropriate culture around us that would faithfully reflect this vital link between our faith and liturgy, as shown, among other things, in the way we celebrate and participate in the Holy Mass.