192 Can the Church Change and Renew the Liturgy?

YOUCAT Lesson 192

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

192  Can the Church also change and renew the liturgy?

There are changeable and unchangeable components of the liturgy.  Unchangeable is everything that is of divine origin, for instance, the words of Jesus at the Last Supper.  Then there are changeable parts, which the Church occasionally must change.  After all, the mystery of Christ must be proclaimed, celebrated, and lived out at all times and in all places.  [1200-1209]

…….Photo above: …..Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI  consecrates the bread  during the offertory of the Mass using the words in the tradition passed on to the Catholic Church by St. Paul. …..192

Jesus effectively addressed the entire person: mind and understanding, heart and will.  That is precisely what he wants to do today also in the liturgy.  That is why it has different characteristics in Africa and in Europe, in nursing homes and at World Youth Days, and differs in appearance in parishes and monasteries.  But it must still be recognizable that it is the one liturgy of the whole worldwide Church.

There is…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.  Ephesians 4:5-6

“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  -- 1  Corinthians 11:23-25

…….LITURGICAL DIVERSITY AND THE UNITY OF THE MYSTERY

…….Liturgical traditions and the catholicity of the Church

…….1200   From the first community of Jerusalem until the parousia, it is the same Paschal mystery that the Churches of God, faithful to the apostolic faith, celebrate in every place. The mystery celebrated in the liturgy is one, but the forms of its celebration are diverse. –Catechism of the Catholic Church

…….1201   The mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its expression in any single liturgical tradition. The history of the blossoming and development of these rites witnesses to a remarkable complementarity. When the Churches lived their respective liturgical traditions in the communion of the faith and the sacraments of the faith, they enriched one another and grew in fidelity to Tradition and to the common mission of the whole Church. (compare Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi 63-64)⁶⁶ –CCC

 …..1202   The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church's mission. Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterized by the culture: in the tradition of the "deposit of faith," (2 Timothy 1:14 (Vulgate))⁶⁷   in liturgical symbolism, in the organization of fraternal communion, in the theological understanding of the mysteries, and in various forms of holiness. Through the liturgical life of a local church, Christ, the light and salvation of all peoples, is made manifest to the particular people and culture to which that Church is sent and in which she is rooted. The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity, while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures. (compare Lumen Gentium 23; Unitatis Redintegratio 4)⁶⁸  --CCC

…….1203 The liturgical traditions or rites presently in use in the Church are the Latin (principally the Roman rite, but also the rites of certain local churches, such as the Ambrosian rite, or those of certain religious orders) and the Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite and Chaldean rites. In "faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity, and that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 4)⁶⁹ –CCC

…….Liturgy and culture

…….1204   The celebration of the liturgy, therefore, should correspond to the genius and culture of the different peoples. (Sacrsanctum Concilium 37-40)⁷⁰    In order that the mystery of Christ be "made known to all the nations . . . to bring about the obedience of faith," (Romans 16:26)⁷¹   it must be proclaimed, celebrated, and lived in all cultures in such a way that they themselves are not abolished by it, but redeemed and fulfilled: (compare Catechesi Tradendae 53)⁷²    It is with and through their own human culture, assumed and transfigured by Christ, that the multitude of God's children has access to the Father, in order to glorify him in the one Spirit. –CCC

…….1205 "In the liturgy, above all that of the sacraments, there is an immutable part, a part that is divinely instituted and of which the Church is the guardian, and parts that can be changed, which the Church has the power and on occasion also the duty to adapt to the cultures of recently evangelized peoples." (John Paul II, Vicesimus quintus annus, 16; compare  Sacrosanctum Concilium 21)⁷³ –CCC

…….1206 "Liturgical diversity can be a source of enrichment, but it can also provoke tensions, mutual misunderstandings, and even schisms. In this matter it is clear that diversity must not damage unity. It must express only fidelity to the common faith, to the sacramental signs that the Church has received from Christ, and to hierarchical communion. Cultural adaptation also requires a conversion of heart and even, where necessary, a breaking with ancestral customs incompatible with the Catholic faith." (John Paul 11, Vicesimus quintus annus, 16)⁷⁴ –CCC

…….IN BRIEF

…….1207 It is fitting that liturgical celebration tends to express itself in the culture of the people where the Church finds herself, though without being submissive to it. Moreover, the liturgy itself generates cultures and shapes them. –CCC

…….1208   The diverse liturgical traditions or rites, legitimately recognized, manifest the catholicity of the Church, because they signify and communicate the same mystery of Christ. –CCC

…….1209 The criterion that assures unity amid the diversity of liturgical traditions is fidelity to apostolic Tradition, i.e., the communion in the faith and the sacraments received from the apostles, a communion that is both signified and guaranteed by apostolic succession. --CCC