180 The Mass as a Worship Service, part 1

YOUCAT Lesson 180, part 1 of 11 parts

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

…….Woodcut: …..The Lord Directing Abram to Count the Stars….. woodcut by Julius Schnorr 1860….. Bible in Pictures.....180

180  Why is the Mass sometimes referred to as a “worship service”?

A worship service is in the first place a service that God performs for us—and only then is it our service offered to God.  God gives himself to us under the form of holy signs—so that we might do the same: give ourselves unreservedly to him.  [1145-1192]

Jesus is there in Word and sacrament—God is present.  That is the first and most important thing about every liturgy.  Only then do we enter the picture.  Jesus sacrifices his life for us so that we might offer to him the spiritual sacrifice of our life.  In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us, so that we might give ourselves to him.  Thus we take part in the redeeming and transforming sacrifice of Christ.  Our little life is burst open and led into the kingdom of God.  God can live his life in our lives.

And whoever would be the first among you must be the slave of all.  For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Mark 10:44-45

…….Numbered related paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Second Edition, follow:

…….HOW IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED?

          Signs and symbols

…….1145   A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. 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. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1146 Signs of the human world.   In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God. –CCC

…….1147  God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. (compare  Wisdom 13:1; Romans 1:19 f.; Acts of the Apostles 14:7) ¹⁶ Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness. –CCC

…….1148  Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator. –CCC

…….1149  The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ. –CCC

…….1150  Signs of the covenant. The Chosen People received from God distinctive signs and symbols that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations of cosmic cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of God's mighty deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant. –CCC

…….1151  Signs taken up by Christ. In his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs of creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. (compare Luke 8:10) ¹⁷ He performs healings and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures. (compare John 9:6; Mark 7:33 ff.; Mk 8:22 ff) ¹⁸ He gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to the Exodus and the Passover, (compare Luke 9:31; Lk 22:7-20) ¹⁹ for he himself is the meaning of all these signs. –CCC

1152  Sacramental signs. Since Pentecost, 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. Further, they fulfill 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. --CCC