Sacred Liturgy in God'S Plan of Salvation: Fray John Louis S. Ricamora, OSA

SACRED LITURGY
IN GOD’S PLAN OF
SALVATION
Fray John Louis S. Ricamora, OSA
BSN, RN, MN, SThB, MAT
University of San Agustin – Iloilo City
Theology Deparment
INTRODUCTION
 Liturgy (Etymology):
Greek ergos “work”
leiton [leos-laos] “the people”
 Hellenistic culture: “public work” ─ any work performed
for the common good
 Septuagint version of the Old Testament: leitourgia
designates the duties that were to be carried out in the
tabernacle of God by the tribe of Levi, of the ancient
nation of Israel. They became the Levitical priesthood,
and performed sacrifices on behalf of the people (cf.
Numbers 3:5–10). Lay people’s performance of acts of
worship was referred to as latreia and douleia.
INTRODUCTION
 The term liturgy was used rather infrequently in the
writings of the early Christians. Perhaps they found it too
poor a word to designate the “mysteries,” the
“sacraments,” the worship “in spirit and truth” (John
4:23) of the Church.
 Later, Christian tradition used the term to denote that the
people of God took part in the mission or “work of God”
(cf. Jn 17:4).
WHAT IS THE LITURGY?
 Liturgy is the priestly action of Jesus Christ, continued in
and by the Church under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
 In it, signs perceptible to the senses signify and
accomplish man’s sanctification in ways appropriate to
each of these signs. Thus, the Mystical Body of Jesus
Christ, that is, the Head and its members, performs full
public worship.
 Our high priest celebrates it unceasingly in the heavenly
liturgy, with the holy Mother of God, the apostles, all the
saints, and the multitude of those who have already
entered the kingdom (CCC, 1187).
THE LITURGY: A WORK OF THE
BLESSED TRINITY
 God the Father is the origin and end of the liturgy.
 The glorified Christ is present in the earthly liturgy of
the Church of the apostles, which participates in the
heavenly liturgy.
 God the Holy Spirit brings about the mystery of Christ
in the Church’s liturgy.
THE LITURGY: A WORK OF GOD THE
FATHER
 God the Father has blessed us in his Son and given us, as
his children, the Spirit of adoption.
 The act of blessing is a divine action that gives life; its
origin is God the Father. From the beginning, God
blessed all created beings, especially man and woman.
Divine blessings manifested marvelous events for the
salvation of mankind: the birth of Isaac, the deliverance
from Egypt, the gift of the Promised Land, and the return
of the “little remnant.”
 In the liturgy of the Church, the blessing of God the
Father is revealed and communicated.
THE LITURGY: A WORK OF GOD THE
FATHER
 In a reciprocal manner, in the liturgy of the Church, God
the Father is blessed and adored as the source of all the
blessings of creation and salvation. Therefore, the
Christian liturgy is the response of faith and love to the
“spiritual blessings” with which the Father constantly
enriches us.
THE LITURGY: AN ACTION OF
CHRIST THE PRIEST
 Before the fall, Adam ordered his acts according to the
will of God; he was the priest of his own existence.
Through the fall, humanity’s relationship to God was
severed. Mankind needed a mediator.
 The Incarnation of God the Son was God’s design. Thus,
Jesus (without leaving off his being God the Son)
assumed human nature in his divine Person. Jesus—true
God and true man—was to be the sole Mediator and
priest. All the events of his life—his years in Nazareth,
his public ministry, the paschal mystery of his Passion,
death, and Resurrection—are an uninterrupted priestly
action.
CHRIST THE PRIEST
This action is not merely something that happened in the
past without affecting our present life; it continues in the
liturgy of the Church, where Christ brings about the force
of the salvation caused by his death and Resurrection and
accomplishes the perfect worship of God.
CHRIST THE PRIEST
 Pope Paul VI points out that Christ is present in the
Church in several ways:
o when she prays (Mt 18:20);
o as she performs works of mercy (cf. Mt 25:40);
o as she travels on her pilgrimage through faith (cf. Eph
3:17) and charity (cf. Rom 5:5);
o as she preaches;
o as she rules and governs the people of God;
o as she administers the sacraments; and
o as she offers the sacrifice of the Mass.
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY OF CHRIST
BECOMES PRESENT IN THE LITURGY
From the very beginning, God decided to save humanity.
His mysterious plan unfolded in stages.
1. The Old Testament is the first stage of the history of

salvation. It is the time of the prophecy, or
announcement, of God’s mystery (cf. Col 1:26).
2. With Jesus, the announcement became reality. This was
the fullness of time in which Christ reconciled humanity
with God and performed a perfect act of worship with
his sacrifice—passion, death, and resurrection.
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY OF CHRIST
BECOMES PRESENT IN THE LITURGY
3. The third stage is the time of the Church, in which the
Church—Christ’s body—communicates God’s salvation
to humanity in the liturgy through the sacramental
system. Thus, these three realities (paschal mystery,
salvation, and liturgy) are inseparable.
THE LITURGY: AN ACTION OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
1. The Holy Spirit prepares the Church to receive the life of
the risen Christ.
Old Covenant Sacraments
Noah’s Ark saved from the Salvation through Baptism
Deluge (cf. 1 Peter 3:20–21)
Crossing of the Red Sea
Manna of the Desert Prefigured the Eucharist
“the true bread from
heaven” (John 6:32)
HOLY SPIRIT
Thus, all these events were preparation for the mystery
of Christ. In the liturgy of the Church, through the readings
of the Old Testament and the singing of the Psalms, the old
events are remembered and revived. This preparation of the
hearts is a work of the Holy Spirit.
HOLY SPIRIT
2. The Holy Spirit manifests the mystery of Christ, eliciting
the faith of the believers.
o The Eucharist (and the other sacraments
analogously) is a memorial of the mystery of
salvation.
o The announcement of the word is not merely
“information”; it demands a “response of faith,”
which implies a personal commitment. The Holy
Spirit gives the right dispositions to the listeners to
understand the word of God and make it part of their
lives.
HOLY SPIRIT
o The liturgical celebrations often remind the faithful
of God’s interventions throughout the history of
salvation; the Anamnesis of the liturgy is this
“bringing to our memories” of these events. Thus,
the Holy Spirit gives the grace of faith to the
faithful, and the liturgical assembly becomes a
community of faith that praises God—Doxology.
HOLY SPIRIT
3. Through his own transforming power, the Holy Spirit
makes present and brings about the work of Christ’s
salvation.
o The Epiclesis (“invocation over”) is the intercession
by which the priest asks God the Father to send the
sanctifying Spirit so that he may transform the
offerings into the body and blood of Christ. He also
asks that the faithful, upon receiving these,
transform themselves into a living gift to God.
HOLY SPIRIT
4. The Holy Spirit unites the Church to the life and mission
of Christ. Through the liturgy, the Holy Spirit implants
in the Church the spirit of communion of people among
themselves and with the Blessed Trinity which produces
its fruits in the life of the faithful: the new life according
to the Spirit, commitment to the mission of the Church,
and service to her unity.
THE LITURGY: A SANCTIFYING
REALITY
On the day of Pentecost, the Church was manifested to
the world. The Holy Spirit inaugurated a new era—the time
of the Church. During this time, Christ manifests, brings
about, and communicates his work of salvation through the
liturgy of the Church—the sacramental system—“until he
comes” (1 Cor 11:26).
In obedience to her Founder’s behest, the Church
prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by
means of the sacred liturgy specifically at the altar, where
the sacrifice of the cross is constantly reenacted.
THE LITURGY: A SANCTIFYING
REALITY
The major element of the Christian liturgy is not what
man does, but what God accomplishes in Jesus Christ
through the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is an error to
think that the liturgy is only the outward or visible part of
divine worship, or that it is just an ornamental ceremony
with a list of laws and prescriptions according to which the
ecclesiastical authority orders the sacred rites to be
performed. God cannot be honored worthily unless the
mind and the heart turn to him in quest of the perfect
life, which unites work and adoration. The liturgy, then,
is the most efficacious means of achieving sanctity
(Mediator Dei, 25-26).
THE LITURGY: A SACRAMENTAL
REALITY
Theoretically, human salvation could have been
accomplished through subjective relations of God and
mankind. In reality, God wanted to dispense his salvation
through objective and symbolic (i.e., sacramental) realities.
Through these realities—the sacraments—God
communicates his life and salvation to mankind, and
mankind has access to God. Christ’s body (the Church) is
a kind of sacrament (i.e., sign and instrument) in which and
through which the Holy Spirit bestows the mystery of
salvation.
THE LITURGY: A SACRAMENTAL
REALITY
“Seated at the right hand of the Father” and pouring the
Holy Spirit over his body, the Church, Christ acts now
through the sacraments. Instituted by Christ, the sacraments
are sensible signs (words and actions) that actually confer
the grace that they signify.
THE LITURGY: A DIDACTIC
REALITY
A sacramental celebration is intertwined with signs and
symbols. The significance of the sacraments is rooted in the
work of creation and in human culture, outlined in the
events of the Old Covenant and fully revealed in the Person
and work of Christ. Such is the divine pedagogy of salvation
(Cf. CCC, 1145–1152, 1189).
THE LITURGY: A DIDACTIC
REALITY
The pedagogical aspect of the liturgy is conveyed
through:
o its content: the great themes of the history of salvation
and revelation,
o its structure: the Liturgy of the Word prepares the
faithful to understand the essence of the sacrament,
o its language, which is addressed to the entire person
(intelligence, will, emotions, and intuition) through
various elements (words, songs, meditation, postures,
gestures, movements, vestments, and colors),
o its “climate” of prayer and active participation, which
helps to elicit, transmit, and strengthen the faith.
SOURCE:
Belmonte, Charles. “Sacred Liturgy.” In Faith Seeking
Understanding Volume I. Edited by Charles Belmonte.
Philippines: Studium Theologiae Foundation, Inc., 2006.
SACRED LITURGY
IN GOD’S PLAN OF
SALVATION
Fray John Louis S. Ricamora, OSA
BSN, RN, MN, SThB, MAT
University of San Agustin – Iloilo City
Theology Deparment

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SACRED LITURGY

1. The Old Testament is the first stage of the history of

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