Our journey of preparation for the 2025 Jubilee continues with the ninth volume in the Quaderni del Concilio series, entitled “The Eucharistic Mystery”. «The Second Vatican Council was strongly animated by the desire to lead Christians to understand the greatness of faith and the beauty of the encounter with Christ. For this reason, it was first necessary, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to implement an appropriate renewal of the Liturgy, because the Church continually lives by it and is renewed through it» (Pope Francis).
The first fruit of the Second Vatican Council
The author, Fausta Steni, an Augustinian nun devoted to the contemplative life who lives in the community of the Monastery of the Four Holy Coronati in Rome, rereads numbers 47-57 to better understand Sacrosanctum concilium (SC), the constitution on the sacred liturgy and the first document of the Second Vatican Council, promoted in order to carry out «the reform and promotion of the liturgy» so as to «enable Christian life among the faithful to grow ever more each day» (SC 1).
These numbers appear in chapter II of the constitution, and Fausta Steni takes us «into the principal moments of the Eucharistic celebration, along a path intended to offer some provocations capable of showing that Holy Mass touches the heart's deepest chords and nourishes personal life in its depths».
The Council's intention
Why does the Council begin with the liturgy? Because of the practical urgency of healing the separation between the people of God and the liturgical action. Indeed, it is worth mentioning the experience of the Mass celebrated before the Second Vatican Council. Older people may still remember it.
The daily Mass, in every diocese and every parish, was celebrated by the priest, who read on his own, while the community prayed silently in turn or recited the Rosary aloud. It was the normal form of weekday Mass. In practice, the parish priest celebrated privately with the doors open. Moreover, some parts had to be read, always in Latin, in a low voice, particularly the prayer of consecration, regarded as a secret document. Communion was then distributed on Sundays, at the beginning or end of Mass, without any connection to the celebration.
Participate actively…
The Council seeks to put an end to this situation, in which the faithful would passively “attend” the liturgy «as strangers or silent spectators» and, referring above all to the Eucharistic mystery, wishes all the faithful, «understanding it well through its rites and prayers, to participate in the sacred action consciously, devoutly, and actively; to be instructed by the word of God; to be nourished at the table of the Lord’s body; to give thanks to God; offering the spotless victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but together with him, learning also to offer themselves, and, day by day, through the mediation of Christ, to be perfected in unity with God and with one another, so that God may finally be all in all» (SC 48).
… to allow ourselves to be encountered by Christ
The Eucharistic liturgy is for everyone, and we are all called, each in our own role, to participate actively, devoutly, and fruitfully, in order to experience the power and effectiveness of Christ’s life within us. The value of Holy Mass is in itself infinite. However, its effects, insofar as they depend on us, are applied to us according to the measure of our inner dispositions.
The liturgy is the summit and source of every Christian’s life. Participating in Holy Mass is not so much an obligation as it is “encountering the risen Lord, or rather allowing ourselves to be encountered by Him, listening to his word, being nourished at his table, and thus becoming the Church, that is, his mystical Body living in the world” (Pope Francis).
Let us rediscover the value of Sunday and Holy Mass and prepare ourselves to welcome all the treasures of holiness, wisdom, and knowledge contained in Jesus Christ.
