Cathal BarryTo accomplish the work of salvation, the Church believes Christ is always present in all liturgical celebrations, writes Cathal Barry
The Church teaches that 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,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
“Seated at the right hand of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his body which is the Church,” the Catechism states that Christ “now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace”.
“It is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present” in the liturgy of the Church, the document adds.
During his earthly life, the Church holds that Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions.
History
“When his hour comes, he lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away,” the Catechism states.
Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father “once for all” (Rom 6:10).
The Church teaches that 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 Catechism states.
“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 Church teaches that the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying (Jn 20:21-23). They became, therefore, “sacramental signs of Christ”. By the power of the same Holy Spirit, the Church holds that they entrusted this power to their successors. This “apostolic succession” structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders.
To accomplish this work of salvation, the Church believes Christ is always present in all liturgical celebrations, especially in the Mass in the Eucharistic species.
The Church teaches that, by Christ’s power, he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptises, it is really Christ himself who baptises. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst” (Mt 18:20). In these works, Christ always associates with himself the Church who worships the Father through Christ.
As the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium states: “In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.”