When we consider the various mysteries, which are presented to us in the Life of Christ, the accounts of the Holy Gospels, we find a very wondrous thing. There is an exact correspondence between those mysteries and the reality of a living body. Just as bodies are composed of many parts but the entirety of the body is present in toto in every part, with only a difference of emphasis between them, so too is the entire mystery of Christ, the Paschal Mystery of His Life, Suffering, Death and Resurrection present in every part. The whole of the mystery of Christ is present in every mystery. The whole mystery of Christ is present in each and every part of the Gospel accounts.
In just the same way, the Holy Liturgy is the life of Christ in a very particular way. It is the life of Christ as we experience it from the creation of the world to the consummation of all things. From the first Amen to the last Amen, we sacramentally participate in the incarnate life of the Divine Logos, a life that belongs as much to the Eternal Kingdom as it does to the present age, a life that occurs as much in Heaven as it does on Earth. Our participation in this life is as real as any disciple of the Lord Jesus, who lived in the first century. In fact, it is more real, because sacramental participation in the work of salvation conveys grace greater in quality and kind than mere physical presence. The Lord Jesus says of all His disciples, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see and the ears that hear what you hear."
The traditional interpreters of the sacred rites of the Mass have throughout the ages exhorted us, the faithful, to raise our minds and our hearts to the realities of Christ's teaching ministry in the confines of the Liturgy of the Word. We may tend to think of the Liturgy of the Word as something we have to cross, in order for us to arrive at the celebration of the Eucharist, in which we can receive Christ really and truly present. Thus, our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist can be distorted into a feeling of His Real Absence in the rest of the service. This is unfortunate and hardly consistent with the traditional interpretations of the Liturgy.
We may be aware that that which we call the Mass is the combination of two different services: an ancient first-century synagogue service and the service of the Eucharist, known to us in the Acts of the Holy Apostles as "the Breaking of Bread." Nevertheless, these services are been together so long as to be integral to one another, indivisibly one.
Thus, in the Liturgy of the Word, we are attendant on the Lord in His ministry of preaching and teaching. We follow Him as He "goes around to all the towns and villages, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, curing the sick and driving out demons." Like the Gospel itself, the Liturgy is a body. The entire mystery of Christ is present in every part. The work of salvation is being accomplished in the Liturgy of the Word, just as it is being accomplished in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, because Christ came to destroy of the works of the Devil. His commandment to us in the Liturgy of the Word is the same as that, which He gave to His Holy Apostles: "Follow Me." If we do not fulfill this commandment, we make ourselves guilty– if we do not mentally follow Him in all that He is doing in the Liturgy of the Word.
It goes without saying that only those who faithfully follow Him in His preaching and teaching are worthy to enter with Him into His Life-Giving Suffering, Death and Resurrection.
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