The LITURGICAL YEAR

179 Who celebrates the liturgy?

In all earthly liturgies, Christ the Lord himself is the one who celebrates the cosmic →LITURGY, which encompasses angels and men, the living and the dead, the past, present, and future, heaven and earth. →PRIESTS and believers participate in different ways in Christ’s divine worship. [1136-1139]

When we celebrate the →LITURGY, we must prepare ourselves interiorly for the great thing that takes place in it: here and now Christ is present and, with him, all of heaven. There everyone is filled with unspeakable joy and at the same time with loving care for us. The last book of Sacred Scripture, Revelation, portrays in mysterious images this liturgy to which we here on earth join our voices.

184 How does the liturgy affect time?

In the liturgy time becomes time for God. Often we do not know what to do with our time—we look for a pastime. In the liturgy, time becomes quite dense, because every second is filled with meaning. When we celebrate the liturgy, we experience the fact that God has sanctified time and made every second a gateway into eternity.

185 Why does the liturgy repeat itself every year?

Just as we celebrate a birthday or a wedding anniversary each year, so too the →LITURGY celebrates over the course of the year the most important events in Christian salvation history. With one important difference, however: All time is God’s time. “Memories” of Jesus’ life and teaching are simultaneously encounters with the living God. [1163-1165, 1194-1195]

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Either we are contemporaries of Jesus, or we can have nothing at all to do with it.” Following the Church year in faith makes us indeed contemporaries of Jesus. Not because we can imagine ourselves so precisely as part of his time and his life, but rather because he comes into my time and my life, if I make room for him in this way, with his healing and forgiving presence, with the explosive force of his Resurrection.

186 What is the liturgical year (the Church year)?

The liturgical year, or the Church year, superimposes the mysteries of the life of Christ—from his Incarnation to his second coming in glory—on the normal course of the year. The liturgical year begins with Advent, the time of waiting for the Lord, and has its first high point in the Christmas season and its second, even greater climax in the celebration of the redemptive suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ at Easter. The Easter season ends with the feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the → CHURCH. The liturgical year is repeatedly interrupted by feasts of Mary and the saints, in which the Church praises God’s grace, which has led mankind to salvation. [1168-1173, 1194-1195]