July 20, 2025 - Pastor Message
July 31, 2025JUBILEE 2025 SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM (cont.)
JUBILEE 2025
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM (cont.)
“In the restoration and development of the sacred liturgy the full and active participation by all the people is of paramount concern, for it is the primary, indeed the indispensable source from which the faithful derive the true Christian spirit” (SC, 14).
One of the major focal points and perhaps the primary contribution of Sacrosanctum concilium (SC) is its call for “full and active participation” by the all faithful in the celebration of the liturgy. As we continue our reflection on Vatican Council II’s constitution on the liturgy, we look this week at just what full and active participation means. Recall that liturgy is the public prayer of the whole Body of Christ, the Church, with a capital “C”, in which individual members of the Church are invited to participate. Even if the liturgy only involves two people, as in the celebration of the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, with just the priest and the penitent, it is still the prayer of the whole Church and is thus liturgy, involving all and affecting all. It is similar to a professional baseball team. When the team wins a ball game, regardless of which particular players are on the field, the whole team wins, not just those particular players. And when we celebrate liturgy, regardless of which individuals are involved, the whole Church wins, thanks to Jesus Christ, the true minister of every liturgy.
To understand what full and active participation in the liturgy means and why the Church fathers of Vatican II felt the need to call for it, we need to review how people celebrated the liturgy, particularly the Mass, prior to Vatican II. Some of you may remember that time and what it was like. First of all, Mass was in Latin, which very few people spoke or understood. In later years, people had Latin-English missals, which they could read and try to follow along during Mass, if they could make out what the priest was saying, which wasn’t easy, considering most of it was said with his back turned, facing the altar, and in a low voice. This led many of the faithful to ignore what the priest was doing and pray the rosary or adopt other devotional practices during Mass, or simply read the bulletin or fall asleep, only paying attention when the bells rang, indicating that the consecration was taking place. Then, at Communion time, relatively few people received, considering themselves unworthy to receive the Eucharist and viewing it as an object to be worshipped from a distance, a sort of divine relic rather than a lifegiving source of grace.
Vatican II’s call to full and active participation in the liturgy sought to change all of this. The reforms of the liturgy called for in Sacrosanctum concilium looked to renew the liturgy by reconnecting it with the people who celebrated it. Far from being a remote spectacle, celebrated by the priest but only observed by the people, the word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people”, and the people have an active, not passive, role in its celebration, both internally and externally. Internally, we are called to engage the liturgy as true prayer, lifting our minds and hearts to God by listening to his Word, reflecting on its meaning for our lives, and responding by giving God thanks, praise, and our needs, all building toward genuine Communion with him through the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist. Externally, we facilitate this internal participation for ourselves and for all present by singing hymns, proclaiming the responses and common prayers, assuming common postures and gestures, carrying out the various ministries, such as altar serving and reading, and doing all of this together. Full and active participation is meant to embody, inside and out, what we gather to celebrate in the liturgy, our Communion with God and one another. May our full and active participation in the liturgy at St. Boniface build up our Communion, with each other, and with the whole Church.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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