A
liturgy for the whole man and for the whole cosmos
11. In the
liturgical experience, Christ the Lord is the light which illumines the way and
reveals the transparency of the cosmos, precisely as in Scripture. The events
of the past find in Christ their meaning and fullness, and creation is revealed
for what it is: a complex whole which finds its perfection, its purpose in the
liturgy alone. This is why the liturgy is heaven on earth, and in it the Word
who became flesh imbues matter with a saving potential which is fully manifest
in the sacraments: there, creation communicates to each individual the power
conferred on it by Christ. Thus the Lord, immersed in the Jordan, transmits to
the waters a power which enables them to become the bath of baptismal
rebirth.(29)
Within this
framework, liturgical prayer in the East shows a great aptitude for involving
the human person in his or her totality: the mystery is sung in the loftiness
of its content, but also in the warmth of the sentiments it awakens in the
heart of redeemed humanity. In the sacred act, even bodiliness is summoned to
praise, and beauty, which in the East is one of the best loved names expressing
the divine harmony and the model of humanity transfigured,(30) appears
everywhere: in the shape of the church, in the sounds, in the colors, in the
lights, in the scents. The lengthy duration of the celebrations, the repeated
invocations, everything expresses gradual identification with the mystery
celebrated with one's whole person. Thus the prayer of the Church already
becomes participation in the heavenly liturgy, an anticipation of the final beatitude.
This total
involvement of the person in his rational and emotional aspects, in
"ecstasy" and in immanence, is of great interest and a wonderful way
to understand the meaning of created realities: these are neither an absolute
nor a den of sin and iniquity. In the liturgy, things reveal their own nature
as a gift offered by the Creator to humanity: "God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Though all this
is marked by the tragedy of sin, which weighs down matter and obscures its
clarity, the latter is redeemed in the Incarnation and becomes fully
"theophoric," that is, capable of putting us in touch with the
Father. This property is most apparent in the holy mysteries, the sacraments of
the Church.
Christianity does
not reject matter. Rather, bodiliness is considered in all its value in the
liturgical act, whereby the human body is disclosed in its inner nature as a
temple of the Spirit and is united with the Lord Jesus, who himself took a body
for the world's salvation. This does not mean, however, an absolute exaltation
of all that is physical, for we know well the chaos which sin introduced into
the harmony of the human being. The liturgy reveals that the body, through the
mystery of the Cross, is in the process of transfiguration, pneumatization: on
Mount Tabor Christ showed his body radiant, as the Father wants it to be again.
Cosmic reality
also is summoned to give thanks because the whole universe is called to
recapitulation in Christ the Lord. This concept expresses a balanced and
marvelous teaching on the dignity, respect and purpose of creation and of the
human body in particular. With the rejection of all dualism and every cult of
pleasure as an end in itself, the body becomes a place made luminous by grace
and thus fully human.
To those who seek
a truly meaningful relationship with themselves and with the cosmos, so often
disfigured by selfishness and greed, the liturgy reveals the way to the harmony
of the new man, and invites him to respect the Eucharistic potential of the
created world. That world is destined to be assumed in the Eucharist of the
Lord, in his Passover, present in the sacrifice of the altar.
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