A JOURNEY THROUGH SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

THE SACRED LITURGY: THE WORK OF CHRIST AND THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Today we begin a new journey together through the documents of the Second Vatican Council. 

Having completed our study of Dei Verbum, we now turn to Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. 

For many Catholics, this may be one of the most important Vatican II documents to read carefully, because so much of what happened in Catholic worship after the Council has been attributed to “Vatican II.” But before we decide what the Council did or did not intend, we are going to do something very simple: We are going to read what it actually says. 

As with our journey through Dei Verbum, we will read Sacrosanctum Concilium in continuity with Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church. We will recognize genuine continuity and legitimate development where we find it, examine carefully any language that may have opened the door to later misunderstandings, and distinguish the actual words of the Council from things later done in the name of the “spirit of Vatican II.” 

For our first reading, we begin with the Introduction, sections 1-4, and Chapter I, sections 5-13: “The Nature of the Sacred Liturgy and Its Importance in the Church’s Life.” And I think you may be surprised by where the Council begins. 

Before it speaks about liturgical reform, it speaks about Christ. It speaks about the Sacrifice of the Mass, the presence of Christ in the liturgy, the sacraments, the worship of the Mystical Body, the heavenly liturgy, and the need for the faithful to approach the sacred mysteries with the proper interior disposition. 

In other words, before we ask what Vatican II wanted to change, we first need to understand what Vatican II said the liturgy actually is. 

As you read today, keep one question in mind: Did the Council call the Church to abandon her liturgical inheritance – or to renew the liturgy from within that inheritance? We are not going to answer that question with slogans or assumptions. We are going to answer it by reading the document itself, paragraph by paragraph. 

I hope you will join us all the way through.

May this study deepen not only our understanding of the Council, but also our love and reverence for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.