Jul 28 2008
Reflections on Sacrosanctum Concilium, Part 4: Growing Up in Christ
Sacrosanctum Concilium, 2: The liturgy daily builds up those who are in the Church, making them a holy temple of the Lord, a dwelling-place for God in the Spirit, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ. At the same time it marvelously increases their power to preach Christ and thus show forth the Church, a sign lifted up among the nations, to those who are outside, a sign under which the scattered children of God may be gathered together until there is one fold and one shepherd.
In previous posts we have seen that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council believed that the four goals of the Council could only be achieved through the renewal of the liturgy, for only through the liturgy does the Church receive the supernatural power to witness to Christ in word and deed. A supernatural power is absolutely necessary to witness to Christ because the Church, having both a human and divine element, can only preach the gospel if its human element has been transformed by and is oriented to its divine element. That’s the background for the passage we’ll be considering today.
This passage speaks of the two effects of the liturgy in the lives of believers. First, the liturgy enables us to grow into mature Christians. The phrase, “mature measure,” is drawn from Ephesians 4.13; read in context, this passage tells us that the Lord gives his gifts so that we “may no longer be children, tossed to an fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” but, rather, that we might “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (cf. Eph 4.14-15).
If there’s one thing lacking in the Church today it is spiritually mature Christians. In a natural sense, we call someone mature who shoulders his responsibility without complaint, who sacrifices his own wants and desires for those around him, who works hard, who avoids wasting time, who has a serious mind and does not spend his energy on trivial things. Do not the same principles apply in the spiritual life? Do we shoulder the responsibilities laid upon us by the gospel of Christ without complaint? Are we willing to sacrifice our own licit wants and desires for the love of God and neighbor? Do we work hard, not only in our secular occupations as if for Christ but also in the spiritual exercises to which the Lord has called us? Are we good stewards of the time the Lord has given us? Do we have a serious mind formed by intelligent and assiduous study?
This is the kind of examination of conscience we should submit ourselves to on a weekly basis. And if we find that we are not living a mature Catholic life, then we should offer up the next Holy Mass we attend for the grace to leave childish things behind and “grow up” in Christ.
Only mature Catholics have the power to “to preach Christ and thus show forth the Church.” Though I don’t recall the reference off hand, Aristotle says that the only way to know the beauty of a thing is to see it in its perfection. If you want to convince someone of the beauty of the piano, you don’t take them to a 2nd-grade piano recital; rather, you have them listen to a master pianist performing the work of Bach, Mozart, and Chopin. In the same way, the world will only be convinced of the beauty of Christianity if we can show them that beauty in our very lives. The only hope for our civilization and the world if is we become saints, and that’s possible only through a spiritual life that is rooted deeply in the liturgy.
