Vatican City, 21 February 2014 (VIS) –
The fiftieth anniversary of the conciliar Constitution “Sacrosanctum
Concilium” on the Sacred Liturgy – the first document promulgated
by Vatican Council II – is an cause for “gratitude for the
profound and wide-ranging renewal of liturgical life, made possible
by the conciliar Magisterium … and at the same time urges
relaunched commitment to welcoming and more fully implementing this
teaching”.
Thus began Pope Francis' message to
Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on the occasion
of the conclusion of the symposium “Sacrosanctum Concilium.
Gratitude for and Commitment to a Great Ecclesial Movement”,
organised by this dicastery in collaboration with the Pontifical
Lateran University.
“Sacrosanctum Concilium”,
promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963, and the further
developments of the Magisterium in the furrow it has traced “have
improved our understanding of the liturgy in the light of the divine
Revelation, as the 'exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ'
in which 'the whole public worship is performed by the mystical body
of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and His members'. Christ is
revealed as the true protagonist of every celebration, and He
associates with Himself 'the Church … His beloved Bride who calls
to her Lord, and through Him offers worship to the Eternal Father'.
This action, which takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit,
possesses a profound creative force able to attract every man and, in
some way, the whole of Creation”.
“To celebrate true spiritual worship
means to offer oneself as a living sacrifice, sacred and agreeable to
God. A liturgy detached from spiritual worship would risk becoming
empty, declining from its Christian originality to a generic sacred
sense, almost magical, and a hollow aestheticism. As an action of
Christ, liturgy has an inner impulse to be transformed in the
sentiments of Christ, and in this dynamism all reality is
transfigured”. The Pontiff quoted Pope emeritus Benedict XVI who,
in his Lectio divina to the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary in 2012,
explained that “our daily life ... must be inspired, profuse,
immersed in the divine reality, it must become action together with
God. This does not mean that we must always be thinking of God, but
that we must really be penetrated by the reality of God so that our
whole life — and not only a few thoughts — may be a liturgy, may
be adoration”.
To our gratitude to God for what it has
been possible to achieve, the Pope stated that it is necessary to
unite “a renewed willingness to go ahead on the path indicated by
the Council Fathers, as there remains much to be done for a correct
and complete assimilation of the Constitution of the Holy Liturgy on
the part of the baptised and ecclesial communities. I refer, in
particular, to the commitment to a solid and organic liturgical
initiation and formation, both of lay faithful as well as clergy and
consecrated persons”.
No comments:
Post a Comment