Rerum Novarum promulgated by Pope Leo
XIII on 15 May 1891 is fundamental to Catholic Social Teaching. The encyclical
points to the new things or the revolutionary changes in the modern world. For
centuries the Church’s message was directed primarily to agricultural societies
characterized by cyclical rhythms. Industrialization coupled with the rise of
Marxism prompted the Church to consider the ever urgent worker question. Rerum
Novarum is a “defence of the inalienable dignity of workers, connected with
the importance of the right to property, the principle of cooperation among the
social classes, the rights of the weak and the poor, the obligation of workers
and employees and the right to form associations” (Compendium 119).
Human
work has two dimensions: objective and subjective. In the objective sense, “it
is the sum of activities, resources, instruments and technologies used by men
and women to produce things, to exercise dominion over the earth, in the words
of the Book of Genesis.” The objective dimension of human work is always
subject to change over time as well as under different political, social,
cultural and technological situations. However, in its subjective sense, “work
is the activity of the human person as a dynamic being capable of performing a
variety of actions that are part of the work process and that correspond to his
personal vocation: Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it,” because he is
created in the image and likeness of God. In this subjective sense, human work
represents a stable dimension, “since it does not depend on what people produce
or on the type of activity they undertake, but only and exclusively on their dignity
as human beings” (Compendium 120). In
Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII made it
clear that all men are created equal in the image of God, and so “there is here
no difference between rich and poor, master and servant, ruler and ruled, for
the same is Lord over all” (RN 40).
As such, the human dignity of the worker as a person must be respected. In
fact, Jesus, the Son of God, spent a great part of his life as a carpenter. In
his healing miracles, Jesus taught the crowd that “the Sabbath was made for
humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). He asked, “Is it
lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” (Mark
3:4) Healing to save a man’s life on the Sabbath is therefore a blessing for
both the one who heals and the one who is healed. Human person is always the
subject of work. And when Jesus healed
the paralyzed man (Mark 2:1-12), he used the miracle to show that he has the
power to heal both the physical and spiritual defects of man, and the latter
could only be visualized with the eyes of faith. It is evident that the healing
miracle is a sign or symbol for the believers of Jesus to appreciate its deeper
meaning under a sacramental worldview, i.e., man’s sins have been forgiven by
God through the salvation acts of Christ.
In
confronting Marxism which appeared to be attractive to the working class of his
time, Pope Leo XIII put special emphasis on the right to private property.
“Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own … the
principle of private ownership, as being pre-eminently in conformity with human
nature …” (RN 6-11). The Pope
affirmed that it is the right of man, the subject of work, to own private
property which is acquired through work. Nonetheless, property should not be
deemed the subject of work, but an object which is being used by the subject,
the human person to serve other people (other subjects) in need.
Pope
Pius X who succeeded Leo XIII, took a different track from his predecessor. His
papal motto was Instaurare omnia in
Christo – to restore all things in Christ. In 1905, He issued a decree Sacra Tridentina in support of frequent communion in order for a
layman “to please God, to be more closely united with Him by charity, and to
have recourse to this divine remedy for his weakness and defects.” He also
reformed the Liturgical Calendar and the Breviary, and urged the restoration of
Gregorian chant to help the faithful to participate more actively in the
liturgy. On the other hand, the Pope condemned the errors of Modernists’
thoughts in his encyclical Pascendi
Dominici Gregis (8 September 1907), which is often seen as a step back from
Leo XIII’s social vision. Yet from a
holistic perspective, Pius X has in fact supplied a much needed emphasis on
spirituality of the Church Social Teaching for its subsequent development.
Forty years after Pope Leo
XIII issued Rerum Novarum, Pope Pius XI
promulgated his encyclical Quadragesimo
Anno on 15 May 1931. Besides reiterating Leo’s defence of private property,
the rights of workers for a fair wage to support one’s family and sound working
conditions, and formation of workers’ and professional associations, Pius XI
also pointed out the Catholic social thought actually addressed economic issues
better than the socialists who claimed to be able to solve them. This is
because the Church supplies the
spiritual component of social justice that Socialism obviously lacks. The Pope
stressed that the first and most necessary remedy for “the root of these many
evils” (of the capitalist economic regime) is “a reform of morals” (QA 98). On the one hand, he put
heavy emphasis on the need to attain “common good” of the society (by
mentioning the term 20 times in the encyclical), while on the other hand, he
considered the means to achieve common good is for all individuals to “return
openly and sincerely to the teaching of the Gospel, to the precepts of Him Who
alone has the words of everlasting life, words which will never pass away, even
if heaven and earth will pass away” (QA
136). Moreover, the Pope elaborated on the principle
of subsidiarity in his encyclical. Smaller and subordinate organizations
formed by individuals ought to play their own roles in the society and should
not be “absorbed” into the larger organizations. In the Pope’s view, the restoration of social
order depends largely on the practice of virtues by individuals as the
principal means of realizing common good as well as the reinvigoration of the
civil society through respect of the principle of subsidiarity by the State
(Benestad 156-158).
Pope
Pius XII, the successor of Pius XI, is well known not of his social vision, but
for his leadership in liturgical movement. The Pope promulgated his encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (29 June 1943)
to revive the theology of the Mystical Body with reference to the
patristic sources. In the encyclical, the Mystical Body, headed by Christ, was
depicted as the most sublime description of the Church. It “is not made up of
merely moral and juridical elements and principles” (MCC 63). In his encyclical Mediator
Dei (20 November 1947), he brought out the intrinsic relationship between
the liturgy and the Mystical Body.
The
sacred liturgy is, consequently, the public worship which our Redeemer as Head
of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community
of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father.
It is, in short, the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the
entirety of its Head and members (MD
20).
Mediator Dei sets out the
principles and norms to enable the lay faithful to participate more actively in
the liturgy, particularly in the Eucharist, so that the Mystical Body may
together offer a living and pleasing sacrifice to the Father. The Pope also
stated that the sacred liturgy contains both divine and human elements; while
the former was instituted by God and not subject to change, the latter may be
modified by the ecclesiastical hierarchy under guidance of the Holy Spirit (MD 50).
While Pius XII did not put emphasis on
social doctrines, his encyclicals have in fact afforded the much needed
theology for the Church to function as one single entity and unity to witness
the faith of Christ in the world, and such faith can be most readily
illuminated and cultivated in the liturgy where the Paschal Mystery of Christ
is re-presented among the individual members of the Church community.
During
the brief pontificate of John XXIII from October 1958 to June 1963, the Pope
was most recognized for convening the Second Vatican Council which commenced in
October 1962. This was emphasized by the aggiornamento
(a bringing up to date) theme that characterized the discussions and teachings
arising from the Council. Although John XXIII died in the middle of the Council
in June 1963 and was unable to see it to completion, the Council has
far-reaching implications on the reform of the Catholic Church in the areas of
liturgy, ecclesiology, central role of the Scripture, and the Church’s teaching
on humanity’s relationship to society. Indeed, Pope John XXIII’s contribution
to bringing the Church in positive dialogues with the modern world has been
widely acknowledged. His encyclical Pacem
in Terris (11 April 1963) is the first encyclical addressed to “all men of
good will,” in addition to addressing conventionally to bishops, clergy and the
lay faithful. Until John XXIII, popes were often seen as shepherds for the
flock within the Catholic Church. But John XXIII saw his role as the shepherd
of the Church and the world, with the
mission to bring peace to the world through a consolidation of efforts from all
fronts.
The
Pope began Pacem in Terris with the
dignity of man who is created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ. As such, it is by the natural law that “every man has the right
to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the
proper development of life” (PT 11).
The encyclical essentially echoes the “rights language” of Rerum Novarum promulgated by Pope Leo XIII. Yet John XXIII also put
special emphasis that rights come with corresponding duties, and most obviously
are acknowledging and respecting the rights of others. “Those, therefore, who
claim their own rights, yet altogether forget or neglect to carry out their
respective duties, are people who build with one hand and destroy with the
other” (PT 30). Similar to Pius XI,
John XXIII also appealed to the moral nature of individuals for building a
well-ordered society. The Pope extended the moral order to the whole human
family and urged different nations to seek “universal common good” and “lend
mutual assistance to others in their efforts for improvement.” But to achieve
this end, the Pope stressed that although “individuals will be found to differ
enormously, in knowledge, power, talent and wealth, no justification is ever
found for those who surpass the rest to subject others to their control in any
way” (PT 87). The Pope strongly
advocated that “there can be no peace between men unless there is peace within
each one of them” (PT 165).
Pacem in Terris certainly has a strong
influence on the Magisterium social teachings of the Second Vatican Council,
especially Gaudium et spes (7
December 1965) which stipulates the Church constitution on humanity’s
relationship with the society. Just two years earlier, Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963), which was promulgated
as the first constitution of the four during the Second Vatican Council, sets out the principles and norms
concerning the promotion and reform of the liturgy along the path laid down by Pius
XII and other theologians on the liturgical movement. Sacrosanctum Concilium stipulates that although the liturgy does
not cover the full activities of the Church, it is nevertheless “the summit
toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the
font from which all her power flows.” This is especially true for the Eucharist: grace as from a font is poured
fourth upon the faithful, such that sanctification of men and glorification of
God are achieved in the most efficacious way (SC 10). Through her
sanctified actions as epitomized in the liturgy, the Church and her members can
better function as the salt of the earth and the light of the world as
commanded by her Founder (c.f. Matthew 5:13-14). She stimulates and advances human
and civic culture to combat errors and evils of the world, and seeks to elevate
the morality of peoples and lead them toward interior liberty (GS 58).
After
the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI issued the
encyclical Populorum Progressio (26
March 1967) on the developments of peoples, with a particular emphasis on the
poor and marginalized to appeal for “a more active improvement of their human
qualities.” Again addressing to “all men of good will,” the Pope stated that in
the light of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, the Church develops “a
renewed consciousness of the demands of the Gospel, (which) makes it her duty
to put herself at the service of all, to help them grasp their serious problem
in all its dimensions, and to convince them that solidarity in action at this turning point in human history is a
matter of urgency” (PP 1). The Pope
echoed the social doctrines of his predecessors on the importance of
recognizing human and work dignity as well as moral progress and spiritual
growth on top of purely economic and technological developments: “economics and
technology have no meaning except from man whom they should serve. And man is
only truly man in as far as, master of his own acts and judge of their worth,
he is author of his own advancement, in keeping with the nature which was given
to him by his Creator” (PP 34).
Pope
John Paul II, who succeeded John Paul I after his very brief pontificate,
invented a new metaphor: “theology of the body” in a series of his teachings
from 1979 to 1984. He emphasized on the married couple’s physical
complementarily as an important part of God’s creation plan as well as their
procreation through conjugal acts as participation in God’s creation of a new
life. As such, artificial birth control acquires a spiritual significance –
because it is a “direct denial of God’s gift to life.” Sex is not merely a
material and physical encounter or otherwise persons will become “objects,” but
married couples are “gifts” to each other with their children being another
precious gift to both of them. The “subject” and “object” themes are thus not
only confined to human work, but to the entire human person – body and soul in
unity. The Pope also extended this understanding to the family, the smallest unit
of human community. In his encyclical Centesimus
Annus (1 May 1991) to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, he described the family
as the “sanctuary of life,” which is the place “in which life – the gift of God
– can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it
is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human
growth” (CA 39).
In his
encyclical Veritatis Splendor (6
August 1993), the Pope specifically strengthened the importance of the natural
law in Catholic moral teaching and the inseparability of body and soul in
determining the morality of an act. He condemned moral relativism of various
natures as well as totalitarianism resulted from both Socialism and a
“democracy without values” (VS 101). He called for a spiritual response to the
difficult situation modern men are facing. Only with the help of divine grace
as a result of the saving power of Jesus, we would be able to obey God’s
command, overcome our weaknesses and evangelize the world (VS102-106). In his encyclical Evangelical Vitae (25 March 1995), the Pope combined the Church’s
teachings in a number of social issues, including abortion, euthanasia, birth
control and death penalty. Under the theme of “Gospel of life,” the Pope taught
that every person of good will “should come to recognize in the natural law
written in the heart the sacred value of human life from its very beginning
until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this
primary good respected to the highest degree” (EV 2). Again, he put the human person at the center of his
teaching, and a human person, in his entirety, should never be “used” as an
object, but be respected and loved. On the other hand, in the proclamation of
the Gospel of life, the Pope told Christians that “we must not fear hostility
or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might
conform us to the world's way of thinking. We must be in the world but not of
the world, drawing our strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection
has overcome the world” (EV 82). In other words, “the Christian views the
world through the eyes of the Gospel, not the Gospel through the eyes of the
world” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 11). Just like the early Christians who bore
witness to their faith in Christ to the extent of becoming a martyr, Christians
in the modern world should not fear hostility or unpopularity in order to
evangelize the world by promoting human dignity and life in a world of
exaggerated individualism and utilitarianism. “The new evangelization is a call
to a new kind of martyrdom” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 11). Again, the liturgy
being the source and summit of the Church’s actions has an important role to
play. “Together we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to
celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with
the various programmes and structures which support and promote life” (EV 79), the Pope remarked.
While
Pope John Paul II is a prominent public figure putting the Church’s voice and
presence before the world, his successor Benedict XVI adopted a quieter and
more intellectual approach to his papacy. In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (25 December 2005), the
Pope reflected on the three Greek words on love: eros, philia and agape.
While philia is used to express the
relationship between Jesus and his disciples, the Pope noted that New Testament
writers prefer the use of agape to eros in describing Christian
understanding of love. However, he taught that eros, which is normally used to describe the love between a man and
a woman, is nothing bad unless it is “reduced to pure sex, has become a
commodity, a mere thing to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself
becomes a commodity” (DC 5). In fact,
he saw agape – descending, oblative
love (typically Christian) and eros –
ascending, possessive or covetous love as inseparable. “Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and
ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to
the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the
happiness of the other” (DC 7). In
other words, eros, which is rooted in
man’s very nature for sex and marriage, can be purified to become love with agape. It is “in the Church's Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community
of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we
thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives” (DC 17). In a certain way, Pope Benedict XVI further adds to the
spiritual repository of marriage of John Paul II from the love perspective.
In his
encyclical Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), Pope Benedict XVI used an
Augustinian approach to emphasize that love must be guided by truth, or else
true integral human development cannot be achieved. “Without truth, charity
degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in
an arbitrary way … It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and
opinions, the word love is abused and
distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite” (CV 3). Discussing on economic
development, the Pope stressed that “the economy needs ethics in order to
function correctly – not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred.” For genuine development,
business ethics must be built on two pillars: respecting human dignity and
recognizing the transcendent value of the natural law (CV 45). The Pope also saw the need for the principles of
subsidiarity and solidarity to work together: “the principle of subsidiarity
must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa, since
the former without the latter gives way to social privatism, while the latter
without the former gives way to paternalist social assistance that is demeaning
to those in need” (CV 58). On the new
developments such as globalization, social media and more critically bioethics,
the Pope reiterated that economic and technological developments are grossly
insufficient, but rather “development must include not just material growth but
also spiritual growth, since the
human person is a unity of body and soul,
born of God's creative love and destined for eternal life” (CV 76).
Essentially, the Pope argued that “the practice of the virtues by all
participants in modern economies is more important for a functioning market
than the pursuit of self-interest or any set of structures devised by policy
makers” (Benestad 466). “Only in charity,
illumined by the light of reason and faith, is it possible to pursue
development goals that possess a more humane and humanizing value” (CV 9). Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy was culminated in a Year of Faith, which
began on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council. In his apostolic letter Porta
Fidei (11 October 2011) to announce the Year of Faith, the Pope explained:
“Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the
Church that is the primary subject of faith. In the faith of the Christian
community, each individual receives baptism, an effective sign of entry into
the people of believers in order to obtain salvation” (PF 10). He appealed to the faithful to make good use of the Year of
Faith to intensify the celebration of faith in the liturgy, especially in the
Eucharist, which is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is
directed. In fact, “without the liturgy and the sacraments, the profession of
faith would lack efficacy, because it would lack the grace which supports
Christian witness” (PF 11).
Pope
Francis, the successor of Pope Benedict XVI, puts even heavier emphasis on the
human person, especially for sinners, the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and
the suffering, since all these were the original target groups for the
miraculous signs and teaching of Jesus during his earthly ministry in revealing
the mystery of divine love in its fullness. The Pope also introduced a
relatively new social theme in the modern world – environmental protection. His
encyclical Laudato si’ (24 May 2015)
is a good example of the Church’s concern on our “common home,” in particular
on environmental and climate change issues which are impacting the entire human
race. Pope Francis may well be the first pope to relate the Eucharist with
environmental protection:
The
Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation. The
world which came forth from God’s hands returns to him in blessed and undivided
adoration: in the bread of the Eucharist, creation is projected towards
divinization, towards the holy wedding feast, towards unification with the
Creator himself. Thus, the Eucharist is
also a source of light and motivation for our concerns for the environment,
directing us to be stewards of all creation (LS 236).
He proclaimed in his papal bull Misericordiae Vultus (11 April 2015) an Extraordinary Jubilee of
Mercy which commenced on 8 December 2015, expecting that during the Holy Year
the witness of believers may grow stronger and be more effective. The Pope
stressed that our salvation depends on the mystery of mercy. It is mercy that
“dwells in the heart of every person who looks into the life of his brothers
and sisters.” It is also mercy that “connects God and man, opening our hearts
to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness” (MV 2). The Pope highlighted that when
Jesus was “instituting the Eucharist as an everlasting memorial of himself and
his paschal sacrifice, he symbolically placed this supreme act of revelation in
the light of his mercy” (MV 7). It is apparent that Pope Francis sees the
liturgy, the source and summit of the Church’s activities, as an integral part
of God’s transformation power of forgiveness and mercy in the world. Charged
with the task of new evangelization, the Church must proclaim the Gospel, which
in its own way penetrating the heart and mind of every person, and inspire the
modern world once more to find the road that leads to the Father (MV 12).
We see
a progressive development of the papal social teaching since Pope Leo XIII
introduced the concept in human work and right to private property in the late
19th century – from more material based discussions to putting
heavier emphasis on the integral development of the full human being in body
and soul, with the spiritual component further strengthened by the three recent
popes; and from more personal or individual-based to a more community-based
model, highlighting the imminent need for the Church to evangelize the modern
world by Christian charity and faith.
On the other side of the coin, despite the rapid social,
cultural, scientific and technological developments over the past century,
modern people have become more and more individualistic, materialistic and
utilitarianistic. These consequences are not conducive to full human growth and
development as advocated by the papal social doctrine. Christians are not
immune from the negative influences. As time goes by, many Catholics do not
attend Church service because they find the liturgy dull and unrelated to their
lives. The lack of sacramental grace results in many seldom practice faith in
their daily lives. As for the “church-goers,” most of them do not understand
the sacramental signs and appreciate the underlying meaning of the liturgy. As
a result, for the “average church-goers,” especially the younger generation,
they often view the Sunday Mass as a social function or for better or worse, an
obligation to attend Sunday service. To them, the liturgy is seen as a God’s affair, the
purpose and meaning of which inaccessible by human reason and intellect. While
they may still believe in God, their religious beliefs unfortunately do not
particularly “drive the majority’s priorities, commitments, values and goals”
(O’Malley 48). Moreover, individualism also affects how they pray in the
liturgy, with the prayers very often becoming self-centered and "my
prayers" to God. This rather selfish attitude is very different from that
of the early Christians who offered gifts used for the Eucharistic sacrifice
while at the same time left a large portion to the needy and the poor. “The two
were integral parts of one and the same service to God” (Michel 154). Jesus’
parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) seldom has a profound
impact on the modern world Catholics.
On the
other hand, the papal teachings all along emphasize on the importance of the
liturgy, particularly the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Church’s
activities, in which God’s salvation is celebrated, realized, rendered present
and communicated to the lay faithful as members of the Mystical Body, not simply
as a doctrine but as a live experience of the Triune God through an
understanding of the hidden meaning of the sacramental signs. It is therefore
important for the church-goers to recognize that the liturgy “both signifies
and makes real that unity of love, of self-gift, which is the destiny of all of
humanity in Christ.” Members of the Church will then be “enlightened by
communion with the Lord, seeking to offer this gift of self to each person they
encounter” (O’Malley 33). In other
words, through realizing the underlying meaning of love and salvation of the
liturgical signs with the eyes of faith, Christians would in turn become signs
and symbols themselves with the people they encounter. And this Mystical Body
of Christ, witnessing charity, sharing, service, sacrifice and hope among her
members, would also be the ideal model and inspiration of today’s
individualistic and materialistic world.
“For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). The purpose of
Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is for the forgiveness of sins and to
re-establish man’s relationship with God. The communication between God and man
in the Eucharistic celebration is bi-directional. Christ is the Head of the
Church, his Mystical Body. He pours out his grace upon members of his Mystical
Body who have prepared well to accept it, particularly through proclaiming the
Word of God to them in the liturgy of the Word and their participation in the
liturgical banquet by receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood. On the receiving
end, the sacrifice of Christ also becomes the sacrifice of the celebrating
assembly. “The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and
work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so
acquire a new value” (CCC 1368).
Where the two ends meet, the faithful with the right disposition will be able
to receive the abundant grace of Christ. Apart from the above
“vertical communication” between God and man in the Eucharistic celebration,
there is also a horizontal dimension of the communication. “The celebrating
assembly is the community of the baptized who, by regeneration and the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a
holy priesthood, that . . . they may offer spiritual sacrifices.” This common
priesthood is that of Christ the sole priest, in which all his members
participate (CCC 1140). Christ's
sacrifice on the altar makes it possible for all Christians to be united with
his offering. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to the
Mystical Body of Christ. Holy Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens our
incorporation into the Church, already achieved initially by the sacrament of
Baptism (CCC 1396). In fact, this
horizontal communication among members of the faithful should be further
extended outside the Church to the world, so that non-believers may also be
attracted to join this communion. In
this way, the Eucharistic sacrifice becomes a beautiful image of the Cross –
the vertical pole forms the communion between God and man, while the horizontal
pole is made up of the communion among the faithful of the Church united in
Christ, who have the right and the duty to proclaim the good news to the world
– there is no stronger bond than the Sign of the Cross!
By
virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the liturgy can thus become the source of
power for Christians to evangelize and transform the world, even though we may
face rejection or even persecution in view of the highly dissimilar values
between the Gospel and the modern world. “If the world is considered the enemy,
the Christian loves the enemy, making friends (even brothers and sisters) in
the process, and bringing about the kingdom of God. We fight the enemy with
love, not so the enemy dies, but so that he may have life” (Lecture Notes of
Lesson 11). Sacrosanctum Concilium was promulgated over half a
century ago. Thanks to it, the
modern liturgy has indeed undergone key reforms to enhance participation by the
faithful. However, as Pope John Paul II pointed out in Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), “unfortunately, alongside
these lights, there are also shadows” (EE
10). It may be timely to reinvigorate the liturgical movement to promote
a full, conscious and active participation in the liturgy by moving towards the
right way of celebrating the liturgy inwardly and outwardly, so that a proper disposition of the
modern world believer in the Eucharist can foster his internal transformation in
experiencing a true encounter with God through a sacrificial offering of his
life with other members of the Mystical Body. The liturgy can then change our lives and make us a true follower of
Christ in professing our faith and God’s love before the world, thereby obeying
the Lord’s command to make disciples of all nations and build the kingdom of
God on earth.
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