“Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to
communicate his grace.”
YOUCAT Catechism +
Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 174
Ave Maria series
174 Why is faith in Jesus
Christ not enough? Why does God give us
the sacraments, too?
We can and should come to God with all our senses, not just
with the intellect. That is why God
gives himself to us in earthly signs—especially in bread and wine, the Body and
Blood of Christ. [1084, 1146-1152]
People saw Jesus, heard him, could touch him and thereby
experience salvation and healing in the body and soul. The sensible signs of the sacraments show
this same signature of God, who desires to address the whole man—not just his
head.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness…by which he has granted to us his precious and very great
promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the
world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:3
[1084,
1146-1152]
CHRIST'S WORK IN THE LITURGY
1084 "Seated at the
right hand of the Father" and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body
which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to
communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions)
accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the
Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second
Edition
HOW IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED?
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. –CCC
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 14:17)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
People Nature
Creation
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