185. Keeping in mind the whole mystery of Christ throughout the Liturgical Year

Keeping in mind the whole mystery of Christ throughout the Liturgical Year

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 185

Ave Maria series

185  Why does the liturgy repeat itself every year?

Just as we celebrate a birthday or wedding anniversary each year, so too the liturgy celebrates over the course of the year the most important events in Christian salvation history.  With one important difference, however: All time is God’s time.  “Memories” of Jesus’ life and teaching are at the same time encounters with the living God.  [1163-1165, 1194-1195]

Following a decision of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church revised the lectionary (a liturgical reading for a particular day) in 1969, adopting a three-year cycle of readings for Sundays and a two-year cycle for weekdays,  The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which can be signified by different ways of decorating churches, colors of vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching and even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home.

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, “Either we are contemporaries of Jesus, or we can have nothing at all to do with it.”  Following the Church year in faith makes us indeed contemporaries of Jesus.  Not because we can imagine ourselves so precisely as part of his time and his life, but rather because he comes into my time and life, if I make room for him in (my life), with his healing and forgiving presence, with the explosive force of his Resurrection.

“God’s eternity is not mere time-lessness, the negation of time, but a power over time that is really present with time and in time.”   Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, in “The Spirit of the Liturgy”

[1163-1165, 1194-1195]

WHEN IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED?

Liturgical seasons

1163 "Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ. . . . Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 102)³³  --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1164 From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church, between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ. --CCC

1165 When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit. (compare Matthew 6:11; Heb 3:7-Heb 4:11; Ps 95:7)³⁴ This "today" of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history: --CCC

Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover. (St. Hippolytus, De pasch. 1-2 Sources Chrẻtiennes 27,117)³⁵  --CCC

IN BRIEF

1194 The Church, "in the course of the year, . . . unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from his Incarnation and Nativity through his Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 102 § 2). –CCC

1195 By keeping the memorials of the saints - first of all the holy Mother of God, then the apostles, the martyrs, and other saints - on fixed days of the liturgical year, the Church on earth shows that she is united with the liturgy of heaven. She gives glory to Christ for having accomplished his salvation in his glorified members; their example encourages her on her way to the Father. –CCC

Liturgy  Roman rite