Mystery of the Catholic Faith in Liturgy

God is the Creator of the universe, source of all moral authority, and shepherd of human fortunes with a saving plan for all His creation. As a systematic religion, Christianity is unique among all the religions of the world. The reason for this is that the Christian Faith believes there is a real interaction with the divine—we are seeking to know and love God in a real and tangible way. We are also seeking to understand God’s intention for the cosmos, the Church, and the individual. Part of the theological task of the Christian faith is to seek to understand something that is ineffable. The Christian Faith is, in a word, a “mystery.” A mystery, by definition, is something that is difficult to understand or explain. That’s a unique quality of Christian Faith and Liturgy. Inasmuch as Christian Liturgy is mankind’s expression of faith in and prayer to its Creator, Liturgy is a celebration of that Faith and of God’s plan of Salvation, and that Salvation is enacted in that celebration. Mankind fell from the relationship with God that He originally intended for it. After the Fall, the mystery of Salvation began. That mystery would later be appropriated to the Cross and find fulfillment in Christ’s victory over death. In light of this, the gap between Liturgical Celebration and ordinary life is merged.

Jean Corbon’s The Wellspring of Worship (San Francisco: Ignatian Press, 2005) explains the nature and meaning of Christian Liturgy in terms of our participation in God’s Trinitarian life. In his book, Corbon defines the Liturgy as a profession of faith and participation in the mystery of the Trinity. As the source and summit of Salvation History, Christ’s saving work is made present to all of history down through the ages in the Liturgy. Using a stream of life-giving water, Corbon explains how God’s kenosis is His self-giving love in Creation—the fulfillment of which is the Divine Word’s humbling Incarnation, life, Death, and Resurrection. The finality of God’s plan is realized in the Pentecost-outpouring of the Holy Spirit to His Church. The life-flowing water is the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Liturgy is the enactment of mankind’s union with God and eventual return to the Father.

In focusing on Sacramental Economy, Corbon then explains how “the Blessed Trinity pours out its divinizing energies and is glorified” (161). This is bestowed to the Church and to each individual as a gift from the Holy Spirit. Each Sacrament is distinguished by a particular epiclesis (invocation of the Holy Spirit) that “corresponds in a vital way to the three moments in the growth of the body of Christ” (162). These have direct correlations to the Trinitarian nature of God and His plan for Salvation.

Corbon synthesizes his vision by explaining how appropriation of the Christian faith and our sacramental celebrations complete the economy of Salvation. This appropriation occurs in the individual and the ecclesial community. Corbon states,

The eternal liturgy in which the economy of salvation reaches completion 'is accomplished' by us in our sacramental celebrations in order that it may in turn be accomplished in us, in the least fibers of our being and of our human community. (199)

He further states that as we believe this to be true, we must be cognizant of our Christian lives. The liturgy can continue far beyond the sacred realm of the sanctuary and walls of the church, but there is a gap in the lives of Christians between the liturgical celebration and daily Christian life. This gap can be created by sin and ingratitude, but it can be merged by worshiping adoration of God (cf. 201). Here the Old Testament notions of faith are fulfilled by the outpouring love of Christ, which is the love of the Father.

In light of this, Corbon moves to notions of how the Church can be missionary. He states that the “Christ whom we celebrate is the identical Christ by whom we live; his mystery permeates both celebration and life” (204). The Holy Spirit kinetically energizes us in the "sacramental epiclesis," but sin grounds that energy in individualism (236). Christ’s energized ecclesial body is made up of individuals and communities. Corbon asks,

When communities living by the divine communion desire to extend this communion to the environments in which they live, what other first step can they take except to present the human groups in which they live for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? It is then that the kingom comes through the Church. The epiclesis of the lived liturgy extends the Eucharistic epiclesis to our societies. (237)

The Kingdom of God was Christ’s proclamation in life. He proclaimed it to God the Father’s people all the way to His death on the Cross. In this, the Father is incorporated into the flesh of His Son out of loving desire (237). In response, the Church offers “to the Father the social body to which it belongs according to the flesh” (237). So when the Holy Spirit descends at the Church's epiclesis, it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Corbon calls this the “epicletic life of the Church” (238). This is how the Church “lives out its saving priesthood through all its members” (238). The Trinitarian God accomplishes what He intended to do. That accomplishment occurs in the Lamb's last breath on the Cross and in His Resurrection. The evangelist explains this to us in writing Christ’s final words on the Cross—"It is accomplished" (John 19:30).