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Sign Aspect of the Liturgy

Liturgy, the worship of the Father through Christ in the

Holy Spirit,
in the Church, is celebrated through the medium of signs.
Not a few who engage in a serious study of the nature and dynamics of the liturgy
assert that the liturgy is a communication process, that is, it possesses the dynamics of
communication that we all are familiar with. 1 There is a speaker, there is an addressee. The
next moment, the addressee becomes the speaker and the speaker becomes the addressee.
In the exchange, something is happening to the two – a new knowledge, a deeper affection,
a resolve to act. However, a revelation, a deeper affection or a resolve to act are evoked
not only by words. There are non-verbal modes of communication which oftentimes are
more potent than words, or, it could also be said, increase the potency of words as modes of
communication. As in ordinary communications, so is it the case in the liturgy.

The nature of the liturgy as an ENCOUNTER between God and the faith-community is
realized, says SC 7, “under the guise of signs”. The encounter takes place under the guise of
signs.2 This speaks of the liturgy as possessing a necessary SIGN-CHARACTER, a SYMBOLIC
CHARACTER!

PART 1 SIGNS IN THE LITURGY

Liturgy which is the worship of the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit, in the
Church, is celebrated through the medium of signs. Liturgical signs express the reality being
commemorated or celebrated by the Church. Since the object of anamnesis is the paschal
mystery, every liturgical sign directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, refer to the Paschal
Mystery made present through anamnesis and to the bestowal of the Holy Spirit effected
through epiclesis.

1. Concept of sign (natural or conventional), of image (eikon), and of symbol. Modern

terminology often speaks of symbol where the traditional would employ sign.

In the case of liturgical signs, it is to be noted that they are a combination of the natural and
the conventional:

1
C. Vagaggini, Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy, Collegeville 1976, 28, also A. Adam, Foundations
of Liturgy, Collegeville 1992, 56 – 79.
2
Verheul, p. 102.
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a. Conventional, because of the element of free choice on the part of Christ and the Church
in adopting them.

b. Natural – the signs chosen possess a certain connaturality to express the intention of
Christ and the Church, e.g. food and drink for the Eucharist, oil for the sick, etc.

2. Kinds of liturgical signs

SC 21: “The liturgy is made up of unchangeable elements divinely instituted, and elements
subject to change.” Liturgical signs are classified as ESSENTIAL RITES (belonging to the
essence of the sacrament) and as EXPLANATORY OR INTERPRETATIVE RITES (related to the
sacrament and its celebration).

a. ESSENTIAL RITES. These were instituted by Christ either explicitly of implicitly. Explicitly:
washing with water for baptism; eating and drinking together in his memory for the
Eucharist. Implicitly, in as much as the Church adopted some signs as concrete interpretation
of what Christ implicitly instituted, e.g. the use of oil for the care of the sick. In other words,
while all sacramental signs were insituted by Christ, some of them were later determined
concretely by the Church in interpretation of Christ’s implicit intention.

Essential rites are made up of action, word and material element. Action: the act of
immersing into water, the laying on of hands, anointing; word: the prayer of anamnesis and
epiclesis or the declarative formula (as in baptism); material element: water, bread and wine,
oil. Sacramental signs are therefore not merely the material element, but the action and
word which involve the material element; sometimes, in fact, there is no material element as
in ordination and marriage. Thus, the sacramental sign of baptism is washing with water
accompanied by word; the eucharistic sign is the prayer of anamnesis and epiclesis
(eucharistic) over bread and wine.

They are called essential rites because they belong to the essence of the sacrament (= sign,
revelation and presence), have the presence of Christ and his paschal mystery and
consequently of the Holy Spirit who effects such a presence by his power. Cf. St. Irinaeus,
Against Heresies, c. 4: “The bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no
longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly (that is, bread,
material element) and heavenly (that is, prayer of anamnesis and epiclesis).” Cf. also c. 5:
“The mixed cup and the mixed bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist.”
Tertullian, On Baptism, c. 4: “All waters by reason of the original sin at their beginning are
suitable, after God has been invoked, for the sacrament of sanctification. For the Spirit
immediately comes from heaven upon the waters, and rests upon them, making them holy of
himself; and having been thus sanctified they absorb at the same time the power of
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sanctifying.” In other words, baptismal water has the power of sanctifying because it has the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Cf. St. Ambrose, On the Mysteries, c. 3., speaking of baptismal
water: “Believe, therefore, that the presence of Divinity is at hand there.” While holy water
is a reminder of baptism, baptismal water is sacrament, that is, it has the presence of God,
when it is used as sacrament. Scholastic axiom: “Sacrament contain the grace they signify.”

b. Illustrative signs (or explanatory rites). These were freely instituted by the Church in the
course of time as either illustrations of the sacraments or as reminders of them.

Illustrative signs (or explanatory rites) are those used before or after sacramental signs
either to introduce them or to illustrate their effects. In the rite of baptism the rite of
welcome and the post-baptismal rites of anointing with chrism, vesting with white garment
and lighting candles are illustrative signs of the washing with water with the word. In
marriage: giving of rings and arrhae, etc.

Other non-sacramental signs have the function of reminding the Church of the mystery she
celebrates in the sacraments. E.g. holy water reminds us of baptism; holy images (crucifix,
icons, medals, etc.) remind us of particular persons and events celebrated in the liturgy;
incense reminds us of sacrificial worship, etc.

Non-sacramental signs may, from the start, have a symbolic character, e.g. rite of
commingling the fermentum in the Roman eucharist. Or they may have originated for a
practical purpose, but obtained a symbolic character later, as in the case of washing of hands
at the offertory.

3. In liturgical catechesis attention should be focused on the essential elements of the

celebration, e.g. laying on of hands and prayer at the liturgy of ordination; other signs, like
prostration, anointing and vesting, should be explained in the context of the essential rite.

4. As far as possible, signs should be fully performed, and should not appear as tokens or
remnants of the past, e.g. the eucharistic bread should appear like bread, even if it is round;
baptismal water should wash (immersion is preferred); fire for Easter Vigil should be
sufficiently big for the occasion, etc.

6. Interpreting liturgical signs. The right interpretation of liturgical signs is essential to the
theological understanding of the sacraments. The slap on the cheek of the newly confirmed
(originally a kiss given by a bishop: Hippolytus of Rome, Apost. Trad., c. 21; then a paternal pat
on the cheek of the child) gave the sacrament of confirmation a quasi military character (cf.
such definitions as “the sacrament that makes us soldiers of Christ”), similar to the rite of
knighting in the middle ages.
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a. The liturgical texts assigned to the actions or material elements should, in many cases,
offer the meaning of the sign, e.g. in the baptismal liturgy—the texts accompanying
anointing with chrism, the giving of white garments and the entrusting of lighted candles to
parents explain the meaning of the rites.

b. Sometimes, however, the liturgical text is neutral or too general to offer a sure
interpretation of signs. In such a case, it is necessary to resort to the historical origin of the
sign, e.g., the rite of commingling in the Roman Mass which is best seen in its historical
perspective as the eucharistic fragmentum sent by the Pope to the parishes of Rome as sign
of eucharistic unity of the local Church.

c. Some signs may have a purely practical purpose in the beginning, but acquired a symbolic
meaning in the course of time, e.g. mixture of wine and water, a Jewish practice with
probably a pragmatic motive but was explained by St. Cyprian, Letter 63, to Cecile, as the
unity between Christ (wine) and the people (water) in the Eucharist; cf. also the washing of
hands which was purely practical (hygienic) in the Roman Mass but now given a symbolic
interpretation (inner purification before the recitation of the eucharistic prayer).

In such cases, it is to be recommended that the historical origin be explained together with
the symbolic. Sometimes the historical perspective may lead to a more meaningful use of
signs.

d. As a general rule, symbolic quasi-mystical (allegorical) interpretations should be avoided:

cf. Amalarius of Metz. To explain, for example, the rite of commingling as symbol of the
resurrection has no basis in the Roman liturgy; the same should be said of the washing of
hands at Mass to symbolize Pilate’s washing of hands, etc.

PART 2: THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE SACRAMENTS

The human subject of the Sacramental event:

1. Unity of body and spirit; embodied spirit.

 The human person, soul and body, comes into contact with God.
 In the context of the liturgical-sacramental event, the human person is seen and dealt
with in his or her totality.
 God deals not only with the soul but also with the body.
 The bodily state is involved in the redeeming work of Christ (Verheul, 117).
 Regarding the function/importance of Christ’s flesh and our flesh (body, senses) in
the Mystery of Salvation and in the Liturgy:
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Tertullian, De resurrectione mortuorum, VIII, 6-7:

“Caro salutis cardo”
To such a degree is the flesh the threshold of salvation, that since by it the soul becomes
linked with God, it is the flesh which makes possible the soul’s election by God. For example,
the flesh is washed that the soul may be made spotless: the flesh is anointed that the soul
may be consecrated: the flesh is signed (with the cross) that the soul too may be protected:
the flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of the hand that the soul may be illumined by
the Spirit: the flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the soul may be replete
with God. There is then no possibility of these, which the work associates, being divided in
the wages.

L.-M. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, Collegeville1995, 140.

“The ritual symbolism which constitutes the sacraments has the body for its setting. Now,
according to Church tradition, the most ‘spiritual’ communication of God (that of the Holy
Spirit itself), and thus the truth of the believing subject, takes place through this language,
eminently sensory and bodily. The sacraments accordingly teach us that the truest things in
our faith occur in no other way than through the concreteness of the ‘body’.”

R. Guardini, Formazione Liturgica. Saggi, Milano 1988, 28.

In the liturgical act “the human person becomes even more human in the deepest sense: in
the liturgical act, his corporeality/bodiliness is ever more animated, spiritualized transfigured;
his spirit is ever more expressed, manifested, incarnated in a way that is ever more
complete.”

L.-M. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, Collegeville1995, 151.

“The living body is indeed ‘the arch-symbol’ of the whole symbolic order. For it is in it that
the within and the without, myself and other, nature and culture, need and request, desire
and word are joined together.”

2. Lives out the sacramentality of Christian existence.

 We communicate with the outside world through our body; the outside world [as
well as spiritual realities] communicates itself to us [we perceive it] through the
senses of our body.
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 The need to consider corporeality/bodiliness in the sacramental discourse: both from

the point of view of the sacramental economy of salvation and of the subjectivity of
the Christian believer in the liturgical-sacramental event taken as an act of symbolic
mediation

L.-M. Chauvet, “Ritualité et Théologie,” RechSR 78 (1990) 538.

“Rather than excessive attention given to the ex opera operato, we ask first that the signs be
‘expressive’. Rather than a discourse which seemed to excessively reify grace or graces
conferred ‘the moment when’ the sacrament was received, we understood this discourse to
be connected with the whole of a believer’s existence which was already permeated with a
certain ‘sacramentality’.”

 The various symbolic elements of the liturgical-sacramental action are both

revelatory and salvific; physical experience (seeing, hearing, touching, tasting) gives
access to a reality beyond the signs (sonship/daughtership, forgiveness, healing,
nourishment, consecration, etc.).

R. Guardini: Liturgy as “epiphany”

“The experience of the epiphany springs forth in the liturgical act when a human being,
spiritually receptive, comes there and, stopping, entering, observing, breathing, with eyes,
mind, heart and hands, participates in that continuous growing, rising, resting, exulting and
rejoicing that is taking place. And as he does, he is grasped and in him that world that lives is
re-created.”

 CFC 1522: “Sacraments communicate through touch (anointing, imposing hands,

washing, embracing), through gestures (standing, bowing, sitting, kneeling) and
through words (proclaimed, listened to, spoken and responded to. It is through these
human means of communication that the divine life and love is communicated in the
sacraments.”

R. Guardini, The Spirit of the Liturgy, 60.

“The people who really live by the liturgy will come to learn that the bodily movements, the
actions, and the material objects which it employs are all of the highest significance. It offers
great opportunities of expression, of knowledge, and of spiritual experience; it is
emancipating in its action, and capable of presenting a truth far more strongly and
convincingly than can the mere word of mouth.”
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L.-M. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, Collegeville1995, 324.

“Inasmuch as they are rituals, the sacraments are not primarily of the cognitive order, the
order of ’-logy,’ but of the practical [‘-urgy’] order.”

3. an individual in community; a member of the Church.

 CFC 1522: “As human person we are embodied spirits who live and act with others in
community, in and through our bodies.”

R. Guardini, Formazione Liturgica. Saggi, Milano 1988, 72.

It is the Church that lives the Liturgy; and the individual lives the Liturgy as member of the
Church. A truly and properly liturgical behavior is possible only if one possesses a sharp and
full consciousness of the Church.

R. Guardini, Formazione Liturgica. Saggi, Milano 1988, 74.

“The individual prays the Liturgy when he/she does it with the living and intense awareness
of the communitarian identity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.”

A. Verheul, Introduction to the Liturgy. Towards a Theology of Worship, St. Albans 1972, 99.

“Liturgical celebrations demands of its very nature a getting out of oneself; not a seeking of
self but a getting rid of one oneself and a prayerful concern for the needs of one’s fellow
worshippers in Christ. Liturgical celebration imposes on each the duty of meeting the other
as a member, as a brother; caritas must be the mark of every authentic celebration, which
will then have its repercussion in daily life.”