The essence of the
liturgy
YOUCAT Catechism +
Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 171
Ave Maria series
171 What is the essence of
every liturgy?
Liturgy is always in the first place communion or fellowship
with Jesus Christ. Every liturgy, not
just the celebration of the Eucharist, is an Easter in miniature. Jesus reveals his passage from death to life
and celebrates it with us. [1085]
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The Last
Supper was painted between 1495 and 1498. …..171
The most important liturgy in the world was the Paschal
liturgy that Jesus celebrated with his disciples in the Upper Room on the night
before his death. The disciples thought
that Jesus would be commemorating the liberation of Israel from Egypt. Instead, Jesus celebrated the
liberation of all mankind from the power of death. Back in Egypt it was the “blood of the lamb”
that preserved the Israelites from the angel of death. Now he himself would be the Lamb whose blood
saves mankind from death. For Jesus’
death and Resurrection is the proof that someone can die and nevertheless gain
life. This is the genuine substance of
every Christian liturgy. Jesus
himself compared his death and Resurrection with Israel’s liberation
from slavery in Egypt. Therefore, the
redemptive effect of Jesus’ death and Resurrection is called the Paschal
mystery. There is an analogy between the
life-saving blood of the lamb at the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 12) and Jesus, the true
Paschal Lamb that has redeemed mankind from the bondage of death and sin.
“The blood (of the lamb) shall be a sign for you, upon the
houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no
plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I strike the land of
Egypt.” Exodus 12:12-13f
Sacrament: (Latin sacramentum=military oath of allegiance;
the usual translation for the Greek mysterion=mystery) Sacraments are holy,
visible signs instituted by Christ of an invisible reality, in which Christians
can experience the healing, forgiving, nourishing, strengthening presence of
God that enables them to love in turn; this is possible because God’s grace
works in the sacraments.
Christ’s Work in the
Liturgy
1085 In the liturgy of
the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and
makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by
his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his Hour comes, he lives
out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is
buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father
"once for all."( Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27; Heb 9:12;
compare John 13:1; Jn 17:1)8 His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our
history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then
they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by
contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed
death, and all that Christ is - all that he did and suffered for all men -
participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being
made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward
life. –Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Second Edition
JT Last Supper by
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