All of us know that we have a secular year beginning with the 1st of January and ending with the 31st of December. In our own country, there are many other ways of counting years, months, and days.
The Christian Church herself also has a way of reckoning days, weeks, and years. She has a particular way of envisioning the flow of time. The liturgical year of the Church is the annual cycle of seasons and feasts that celebrate the central mystery and the central event of salvation history namely, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The whole of Salvation history leads up to the Christ Event and all the events and movements of history, either point towards Jesus Christ or unfold the Christ Event.
The Liturgical Year re-tells, re-enacts, and re-presents the total Christ Event and together with it keeps the memory of Mary the Mother of Jesus, and also of the saints. Through the Liturgical celebrations, the Christ story, and the salvific events, become part of our universal and personal history. Vatican II in its Constitution on Sacred Liturgy says: "Holy Mother the Church believes that it is for her to celebrate the saving work of her Divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year."
Liturgical Year
In fact Vat.II clearly states: "Holy Mother the Church is conscious that she must celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse by devoutly recalling it on certain days throughout the course of the year. Every week, on the day which she has called the day of the Lord, she keeps the memory of his resurrection. In the supreme solemnity of Easter she also makes an annual commemoration of the resurrection. In the solemnity of Easter she also makes a commemoration of the passion of the Lord. Within the cycle of a year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, not only from his Incarnation and birth until his ascension, but also as reflected in the day of Pentecost, and in the expectation of a blessed, hoped-for return of the Lord. Recalling thus the mysteries of the redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits so that these are in some way made present at all times, and the faithful are enabled to lay hold of them and become filled with saving grace." (S.C. 102)
God Acts in History
One of the most essential parts of our faith is that God addresses humankind, interacts with us men and women in time and space. Creation, the choice of the People of God, God’s covenant with Israel – are all historical actions, that is, God’s actions which we experience in time and space. In these actions the freedom of God and the freedom of human beings come into play. The supreme and the definitive salvific action of God is experienced in the person and in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. His final revelation in glory will bring to the fore the goal and the end of all history.
The saving events of the Incarnation—the birth, life, passion, death and the resurrection—happened once for all for the salvation of humanity. They are operative now within the Church and are experienced in a unique though not exclusive way through liturgy. The saving acts of Jesus Christ transcend history in one way; yet they are experienced here and now through the action of the Spirit in the Christian community. Jesus’ saving acts are appropriated and experienced at particular feasts and seasons.
How We Enter into Salvation History
As each generation of human beings, as each individual human person enters the flux of time, the saving acts of God are present to each one, to each community. This happens when the memorial of the saving acts of God is kept in the power of the Holy Spirit and when in faith we refer the acts of God to Jesus and to his second coming.
Christian celebration is an act of thanksgiving centred around the saving acts of Jesus. This celebration is repeated because it is at once an announcement, a preaching, and a re-presentation of God’s saving acts. God’s acts are celebrated at fixed times as Scripture and tradition point them out to us. Liturgical celebrations certainly look back to the past. The saving events took place in space and time; but the faithful do think of the present and of the grace of God that becomes active here and now in the community. These celebrations have also a future thrust. The Lord will come at the end of time to transform and fulfil all realities. The faithful are preparing for the great day of the Lord’s second coming. Jesus, the high priest of the New Covenant is at the centre of all liturgical celebrations. His Spirit is active in the celebrating community and he transforms not merely the men and women who are celebrating the liturgy, but also the whole universe.
The Significance of Liturgy
Salvation in Christ is universal and definitive. The Christian community can now renew the anamnesis of this total mystery in every dimension of human life and in appropriate times and places.
Liturgy communicates the mystery of Christ in symbols
Liturgy expresses a pluriform meaning through verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. In liturgy, we have symbols, gestures, movements, and music. We can look at liturgy from the angle of sociology, psychology, phenomenology, and so on. When we so study liturgy, then we see that we in faith can explore the meaning of the many and pluriform images of God inherent in liturgy. These images of God have a relevance for our life and activity. The comparison of Christian liturgy with other forms of worship can give us an insight into other religions and their deep religious experiences. So the study of liturgy should not be kept within the four walls of the Church. It has significance for the whole Christian community and also for its relationship with other religious communities.
The annual cycle of seasons and feasts that celebrates the Christ Event is very important for Christian life and growth. The Council says: "In the course of the Year, the Church unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from the incarnation and nativity to the ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord." (102) "Recalling the mysteries of the redemption, the Church opens up to the faithful, the riches of Christ’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all time; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace."
The Various Seasons and Units of the Liturgical Year
The smallest unit of the liturgical year is the liturgical day made holy through the Eucharist, the liturgy of the hours, and often, through a feast. There are four types of liturgical celebrations: the solemnities, the feasts, the obligatory and optional memorials. The source and centre of the liturgical celebration, as we know, is the paschal mystery which the Church as the community of the faithful, celebrates in every Eucharist. But Sunday is the Lord’s Day: the first day of the week, the day of the Lord; the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. Sunday is the first of all the Holy days.
The liturgical year is divided into three parts or three seasons: Lent-Easter-Pentecostal Season called also the ‘Easter Cycle’; the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany-Baptism-of-the-Lord season, known also as the ‘Christmas Cycle’ and finally the Ordinary Time of the year with 34 Sundays, divided into two parts: the first between the Christmas and Easter cycles; and the second after the Easter cycle.
The liturgical year has grown slowly. The celebrations of the Lord’s feasts and of the saints grew gradually and they took on seasonal and finally an yearly form. In one way, the liturgical year has grown out of the Easter or Paschal celebration: the central feast of Christianity. On each Sunday and on each feast day we are celebrating our final liberation, our salvation. Each celebration has, as its high point, the Eucharist, the real presence and action of Jesus Christ in the midst of the faithful. The death-resurrection of Jesus which forms the central truth of Christian life brings to a climax the history of salvation.
Theologians still discuss how the liturgical celebration makes the mysteries of salvation present and effective for us. But it is clear that salvation is made present and effective when the salvific deeds of Jesus are liturgically celebrated with our eyes turned to the second coming of the Lord. According to Christian faith the liturgy is the peak and source of Christian life. The Christian community has the mission to keep the memory of the Lord, in all places, at all times, and in all the various circumstances of life.
The material things of the world witness to, and participate in the work of salvation, in our final liberation, because the sacraments and the sacramentals are rooted in matter. So also time is filled with grace and salvation because the hours, the days, and the seasons are taken up by God in his dealings with us and we human beings can reach out to Him only in time. The power of the Spirit is abiding in space and time and that is the reason why time already shares in the mysterious reality of eternity.
There is a connection between the annual celebration of the liturgical seasons and the yearly repetition of the seasons of nature; the phenomenon of equinox and solstice, the change from darkness to light are all natural phenomena. The Christian liturgical year is connected with these natural phenomena too. The change from the longer days of darkness to the shorter days of darkness, the winter solstice, and so forth are connected with Christmas. Spring is connected with Easter. So time and space enter into the celebration of the liturgy. The presence of the Spirit fills time and space and makes them the bearers of the grace of God.
Surely, the liturgical year does not recount the biography of Jesus. What really happens is that the Church enters into the saving events that make up the Paschal mystery, past, present, and yet to come – and we Christians are enabled to appropriate the grace that comes to us from the Christ event.
Fr Ignatius P.
