Subject: Christian Worship

Professor: Fr. G. Diwa

Student: Anthony Le Duc Tho, CMF

1. Summary of Chapter Three

TO THE FATHER, THROUGH THE SON, IN THE SPIRIT

Liturgy Is Encounter with God

What is liturgy? According to Verheul, liturgy describes as encounter between God and
the worshiping assembly. And so, what is encounter with God? Encounter with God is an act of
the individual worshippers that liturgically bring all worshippers together in assembly.

In the liturgy, our encounter with God is also personal because we encounter the persons
of the Holy Trinity. When Christians pray, they pray to God who revealed himself as a Trinity of
Persons.

Glory to the Father

Who is the Father? The answer will be in the Holy Bible. In the Old Testament, God is
called El, that is, God. The Hebrew called God Elohim, the “God of gods.” God revealed himself
to Abraham, he named himself El-Shaddai, the “Almighty God.” When God spoke to Moses, he
revealed his secret name, that is, Yahweh means “I am Who I am.” For the Hebrew, Yahweh is so
sacred name and they don’t dare to utter it but read it as Adonai.

In the New Testament, God is Abba, Father. When Jesus spoke to God or about God, the
Abba, Father expresses intimacy between God and Jesus. Jesus chose the name God as Father in
order to explain in human language that God begot him before all ages. Jesus also revealed that
God is Father using the human imagery of parenthood. Therefore, we should admit that our
knowledge of God as Father is not so much a matter of the intellect as a perception of the heart
when it addresses God in prayer and experiences his parental care.

Through using of parables Jesus showed to us the true nature of the Father and the
parables are Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who is the Father?” For example, the parable of the
prodigal son is rightly a parable of the compassionate Father (Luke 15: 11-24).

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 Christian’s encounter with the Father is Jesus himself. He frequently made the revelation
that he came from the Father and would return to him after completing his mission on earth
(John 14: 12 and John 16: 10, 28).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (239) wants us to keep three things in mind when
we speak of God as Father. First, God is the first origin of everything and transcendental
authority and he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. Second,
“God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood (Is. 66: 13)”
Third, “the language of faith draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the
first representatives of God for man.”

Therefore, we must keep in mind that every day at Masses and in the Liturgy of the
Hours prayers are addressed to God the Father. This is a continuing act of the Church to honor
and praise God for his marvelous works.

Through Christ Our Lord

Christ the Sacrament

Christ is the sacrament of the Father. The Hebrew 1: 1-2 sums up the story of God’s
manifold revelations as it points to the person of Christ as the final and definitive revelation of
God: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a son.”

Jesus highlighted for us the human face of God. The incarnation means that the Son of
God took on human flesh; but it also means that the divine attributes adopted the human mode of
expression. When he preached love, compassion and forgiveness Jesus revealed that God is love,
compassion and forgiveness.

The economy of the sacraments has superseded the economy of God’s revelation in
Christ’s flesh. We live in the age of sacraments, the sacraments that the Church celebrates under
different ritual forms.

The title of Christ as sacrament of the Father is often attached to “primordial”.

According to the Catechism, “Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect and
unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one.”

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The Church and the sacraments draw their meaning and efficacy from the one primordial
sacrament that is Christ.

Christ the Mediator

In the letter of Saint Paul to the different communities explained clearly: “For there is one
God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who
gave himself a ransom for all” (1Tim 2:5). Romans 5: 10 teaches the same thing: “While we
were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.” In Christ, mediation and
priesthood, reconciliation and sacrifice are correlative concepts. Christ mediated as the priest of
the new covenant.

In the liturgy the figure of Christ the mediator stands clothed in the robes of his priestly
office. The Constitution on liturgy no. 7 states: “the liturgy is considered as the exercise of
priestly office of Jesus Christ.” When we speak of Christ’s presence in the liturgy, we ascribe it
to his priestly role. He is present in liturgical worship as the high priest; when the Church
baptizes, he baptizes as the priest of the new covenant; when the sacrifice is offered through the
hands of the priest, he offers now what he as priest offered on the altar of the cross.

Through Him, with Him, in Him

The opening prayers for Mass almost always make an anamnesis of God’s wonderful
deeds, recalling the life and mission of Christ. In the strength of the anamnesis, God will do once
again what he did in the past, we formulate our petition and conclude invoking the mediating
power of Christ.

The longer version of “through Christ our Lord” is kept in the doxology that concludes
the Eucharistic Prayer: “Through him, with him, in him.” The last two segments elaborate the
first. In the liturgy, we encounter not only the Father but also the Person of Christ who
accompanies us in our journey (“with him”), enfolding us in his embrace (“in him”).

2. Personal reflection

There are many ways and means in the liturgy to help us as Christians to realize the
important presence of Jesus Christ. For me, the most important and significant to see clearly and
profoundly the presence of Jesus Christ is the Mass or the liturgy of the Word and the Eucharist.

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In this short reflection, I would like to give more detail on how I recognize the presence and
place of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

When I was a small child, I was taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the
sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the sacrament that Jesus Christ had instituted to continue the
way of the cross and to give His Body and Blood under the form of bread and wine that nurture
our spiritual life. And the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the source of our salvation which
we commemorate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Mass.

The Eucharistic celebration plays an important role in the life of the Church. Through the
Eucharist, Jesus sacrificed himself for us in order to ask for forgiveness and to make
reconciliation between God and humankind, the sinners. To realize the importance of the Holy
Eucharist in which Jesus Christ is present in a live and active way, I must have these attitudes
toward the Holy Eucharist.

In the Eucharist, Jesus is the broken bread. It means Jesus offers himself to us so that all
of us can partake of the broken bread, that is, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus and we will
have eternal life from him. For me as a Christian, I must actively and fully attend the Eucharistic
celebration because the Eucharist is not only the commemorate the death and resurrection of
Jesus but also the living sacrifice in which Jesus Christ presents and enters directly into my life
in a mysterious way through the Eucharistic celebration. To attend the Eucharist is participating
in the sacrifice of Jesus and receiving from the person of Jesus a new life through eating his
Body and Blood.

The liturgy of the Eucharist plays an important role for my life because the Eucharist is
the main source of my life through the presence of Jesus Christ who transforms me into a new
person through receiving his Body and Blood so that I become his likeness as saint Paul said: “it
is no longer me who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gl. 2: 20).

In the Eucharist, God is inviting all of us, especially myself, through the statement: “take
it all of you and eat of it… and do this in memory of me.” I need to do as he had done to me,
giving the Body and Blood of his only Son. Meaning to say, I must die and give up my own self
for my brothers and sisters so that my life will become a pleasing and meaningful sacrifice to
please God and I will let Jesus Christ be a owner of my life.

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 Jesus urgently invites us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, his
Body and Blood: “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you” (Jn. 6: 53). It is a very significant moment for me to receive Jesus
so that I need to prepare myself ready to be worthy to receive him. Receiving his Body and
Blood will help to strengthen the unity with Christ. When I become unity with Jesus, my spiritual
life also becomes steadfast to face the challenges and difficulties of my life. A very important
point here is that the sacrament of the Eucharist is a firm guarantee to ensure for the life after.

To sum up this reflection, I realize that Jesus has a very important place in our liturgical
prayer, especially in the Eucharist, because Jesus is the living sacrament and the living mediator
for each one of us before God, the Father and Jesus also is the main intercessor for us direct to
the Father. Each time the Church celebrates the Eucharist sacrament means the Church is
exercising the priestly office of Jesus Christ. Lastly, Jesus Christ is the glue to stick all members
of the Church together when we celebrate the liturgy in which our daily prayers and concerns
address to the Father through the person of the Son.