“For the liturgy, … most of all in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church”
Sacrosanctum Concilium 2, emphasis added.
I am seated outside my parish doors as my daughter makes her first confession. This is notable because its significance has flooded my thinking now which may not have been present to me yesterday when I posted a Tweet that read: “Liturgy is a means not an end. Christ alone is the alpha and omega.” That Tweet received a flurry of reactions including a few that were concerned with its theology. While I do not retract it, I do admit that my phrasing was perhaps too pithy and brief and deserves clarification. I do think it is important to note that most of my critics made assertions and accusations but only a few of them have offered their reasons and counterarguments. Regardless, I have benefitted from considering all of them and will respond to them here, now, in what follows.
It is not my custom to write theology and my method for doing it, on the rare occasions that I do, has always been philosophical. I work from what I know of scripture and tradition but my reasoning is never technical nor systematic. I claim no theological authority but I do think that natural reason can…
