Liturgical Man, Identity In Christ

Holy Communion | Photo by D. Duchesne

[ 7 minute read ]

Who or what is Liturgical Man?

Man's soul is fashioned in the image of God. The angels who love God love us, too!

Baltimore Catechism 

Q. Why did God make us?

A. God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9

The angels desire our good, our well being, because God loves us. The angels love God and love all that God loves. What about evil spirits? Do they will our good? No, not at all.

Liturgical Man, i.e., male and female, in the Age of the Holy Spirit,

1. prays for and lives by the grace that God offers to live according to the New Commandment in the furtherance of the Kingdom of God: St John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
2. seeks to live by the will of God, which is to live and love as God intends. St John 14:15-31 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.
3. acknowledges the Real Presence of Jesus and adores Him as Lord and Saviour. St John 6: 52-57 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.

Ritual

Q. Where does man receive the necessary formation in the Faith and in sanctification?

A. The Sacred Liturgy. The Mass is the supreme ritual instituted by Jesus Christ.

Man is by nature ritualistic. If not given ritual, he invents it. God has given man a share in His creative spirit. Man attaches himself to greater or lesser endeavors.

• When man is wed to God, his sense of ritual and of life is evangelical. He incarnates the charity and hope of God. 
• Conversely, when his ritualistic mind and heart are wed to sin, man will become at best materialistic and at worst a monster. Serial killers are ritualistic.

Man is made for relationship. Holy ritual identifies and corresponds to the God-given dignity of man, and through the sacraments, chiefly baptism, Jesus brings man into right relationship with God. Ritual, then:

• is art through which the Holy Spirit orients the worshipper to God.
• models the divine order and through the action of the Holy Ghost nurtures in us respect for and conformity to the divine order.
• "incarnates" the word of God.
• disposes the human heart, mind and spirit to the action of the Holy Spirit.

Dull Hearts Beget Dull Rituals

If only more people engaged in the ritual of hearing others, of hearing God! Man is distracted from hearing and responding to the heavenly song of God because he is preoccupied with lesser deities, with idols that tell man not what he needs but what he wants to hear.

St Matthew 9-17

"He who has ears, let him hear."

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says:

‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Liturgical Man's home is the temple, the parish church, for he himself - confirmed in Christ - is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Confirmation is a Sacrament in the Catholic Church through which believers receive the Holy Spirit to strengthen and perfect them as Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. This Sacrament is called Confirmation because its chief effect is to strengthen or render individuals more firm in their faith and religious duties. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace by rooting individuals more deeply in their divine filiation, uniting them more firmly to Christ, increasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in them, rendering their bond with the Church more perfect, and giving them a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith as true witnesses of Christ. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church further explains that the effect of Confirmation is a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, impressing on the soul an indelible character, producing a growth in the grace of Baptism, rooting the recipient more deeply in divine sonship, binding them more firmly to Christ and to the Church, and reinvigorating the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their soul, giving them a special strength to witness to the Christian faith. Moreover, Confirmation, like Baptism, is given only once, as it imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the "character," signifying that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit to empower him to be His witness.

References 

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine (The Baltimore Catechism No. 3) 670

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine (The Baltimore Catechism No. 3) 672

The human temple or ark is drawn to the temple of God wherein the one Sacrifice of Jesus upon Calvary is made present in the Mass. Liturgical Man is drawn to His Creator in Whose image and likeness he is created. Liturgical Man sees his true identity in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Therein that temple, that church, during Mass, heaven and earth unite. Liturgical man enters into the precincts of eternity, his true home with God.

[Celebrant] Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; ever more praising thee, saying:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts;

Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.

+ Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Time and eternity are united in the Person of Jesus Christ. In the Cross, time and eternity are united. In the Mass, Liturgical Man becomes present to Jesus, present to eternity.

Liturgical Man attends to his salvation by seeking the grace of God in the fellowship of the brethren, those in communion with the Lord, that in him may be nurtured reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

1. The rituals of God - i.e., the rituals given to us by God - are revelations of Divine Revelation. Rituals - if they be true rituals inspired by the Holy Ghost - are mirrors into which man may gaze and see clearly the nature of reality.
2. The ritual of the Sacred Liturgy speaks the word of God in ways complementary to the way God speaks to us in and through Holy Scripture. The Sacred Liturgy immerses us in Christ and His saving Gospel.

Beautiful liturgy makes for beautiful homes.

Because the temple of the Lord is the temple of Liturgical Man, he is able to bring to his home right orientation. The family home becomes a home for the Lord. The family, image of the Trinity, becomes a home of charity and truth, of beauty and goodness.

Liturgical Man embodies the commandments of Christ. He is a man of ritual; he is a man of God for the salvation of others.

The Church’s existence lives from proper celebration of the liturgy and…the Church is in danger when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy nor consequently in life. Benedict XVI

Further Reading

The Catholic Church teaches that the liturgy is not only a divine work but also a participation in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit [1]. It is the work of the whole Christ, head and body, celebrated unceasingly in the heavenly liturgy with the holy Mother of God, the apostles, all the saints, and those who have already entered the kingdom [2]. The liturgy is above all the worship of the divine Majesty, but it also contains much instruction for the faithful [3]. In the liturgy, God speaks to His people, Christ proclaims His Gospel, and the people respond to God through song and prayer [3]. The prayers addressed to God by the priest who presides over the assembly in the person of Christ are said in the name of the entire holy people and all present [3].

The liturgy nourishes the faith of those who participate and raises their minds to God, enabling them to offer Him their rational service and receive His grace more abundantly [3]. It is a sacred action of due worship to the eternal Lord, in which the priest and the ordinary faithful are united together [4]. The liturgy is not only a source and goal of all Christian prayer but also a means through which the inner man is rooted and grounded in the great love with which the Father loved us in His beloved Son [1]. It is a marvelous work of God that is lived and internalized by all prayer, at all times in the Spirit [1].

Furthermore, the liturgy is fittingly expressed in the culture of the people where the Church finds herself, although without being submissive to it. Moreover, the liturgy itself generates cultures and shapes them [5]. This means that the liturgy is not detached from the human experience but is intimately connected to it. It is made for man, taking into account the cultural context in which it is celebrated, while remaining faithful to its divine origins.

In conclusion, the liturgy is a divine work in which Christ's prayer to the Father is participated in by the whole Church. It is a source of instruction, nourishment of faith, and a means to offer due worship to God. The liturgy is intimately connected to the human experience and is expressed in the culture of the people, while remaining faithful to its divine origins [2 1 3 5 4].

References

1. CCC 1073
2. CCC 1187
3. Sacrosanctum Concilium 33
4. Mediator Dei 199
5. CCC 1207