Day 146: The Father’s Work in the Liturgy (2025)

Passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith, the Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In three hundred and sixty-five days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day one hundred and forty six.

We are reading paragraphs ten seventy six to ten eighty three. As always, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting Ascension Press.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates.

And daily notifications. And today is day 146. Again, as I said, paragraph 1076 to 1083. We're actually starting section one. Yesterday was the kind of a prologue-ish kind of a thing going on. But today, section one and the beginning of chapter one. We're gonna talk about what the sacramental economy remember. Remember economy. O economia was the Greek word that we get economy from. And it's this this

God's plan of salvation, right? The story of a God's interacting with us is is that term economy, right? And so we have the sacramental economy, the way that God chooses to interact to us with us through the sacraments. He brings us His divine life through the sacraments. He gives us healing through the sacraments. He feeds us through the sacraments. So this is the sacramental economy. And paragraph 1076 highlights.

that first we're gonna look at this. Again, the sacramental economy, how this all works, why it works like this. And then we're going to dive into that's chapter one, and then we're going to dive into chapter two, which is it says here, the nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then appear more clearly, meaning like the sacraments themselves.

as as we know the seven sacraments. So we're gonna have this first chapter, chapter one, on okay, what is it to have the Paschal mystery in the age of the church? How is it that what Jesus did for us two thousand years ago actually comes to us? in its effects are transforming our hearts now in this day and age. Remember, as we launch through all of this stuff, the word liturgy, what does it mean? It means the work of God. So

The liturgy is the participation of the people of God in the work of God. So sacramental economy, here's what God has done for us. How are we called to participate in God's very work? This is not the work of man, right? This is our participation in the work of God. So to prepare our hearts to do this today? And to do this all our lives, we call upon our Father in heaven as we pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise and glory. We thank you and praise in praise your name. We bless your name, Lord God. We bless your name and we surrender and adore you in thanksgiving. That is our blessing. Our blessing is a prayer of adoration and a prayer of surrender. to you in thanksgiving. So we thank you, we ask you to please hear our prayer. Receive the blessing that we offer you, uh little as we are, broken as we are, and good as you are, Lord God.

Receive our blessing, receive our adoration, receive our surrender to you in thanksgiving. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It's day one hundred and forty six. We are reading paragraphs ten seventy-six to ten eighty-three. Section 1. The Sacramental Economy. The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the dispensation of the mystery, the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his church until he comes. In this age of the church, Christ now lives and acts in and with his church, in a new way appropriate to this new age.

He acts through the sacraments, in what the common tradition of the East and the West calls the sacramental economy. This is the communication, or dispensation, of the fruits of Christ's Paschal Mystery in the celebration of the Church's sacramental liturgy.

It is, therefore, important first to explain this sacramental dispensation, chapter one. The nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then appear more clearly. Chapter two Chapter one The Paschal Mystery in the Age of the Church Article I The Liturgy Work of the Holy Trinity The Father Source and Goal of the Liturgy St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us before him in love, to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

Blessing is a divine and life-giving action, the source of which is the Father. His blessing is both word and gift. When applied to man, the word blessing means adoration and surrender to his Creator in thanksgiving.

From the beginning until the end of time, the whole of God's work is a blessing. From the liturgical poem of the first creation to the canticles of the heavenly Jerusalem, the inspired authors proclaim the plan of salvation as one vast divine blessing. From the very beginning, God blessed all living beings, especially man and woman. The covenant with Noah and with all living things renewed this blessing of fruitfulness despite man's sin, which had brought a curse on the ground.

But with Abraham, the divine blessing entered into human history which was moving toward death to redirect it toward life, toward its source. By the faith of the Father of all believers who embraced the blessing, the history of salvation is inaugurated. The divine blessings were made manifest in astonishing and saving events the birth of Isaac, the escape from Egypt, Passover, and Exodus.

The gift of the promised land, the election of David, the presence of God in the temple, the purifying exile, and return of a small remnant. The law, the prophets, and the Psalms interwoven in the liturgy of the chosen people, recall these divine blessings and at the same time respond to them with blessings of praise and thanksgiving.

In the Church's liturgy, the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings of creation and salvation. In his word who became incarnate, died, and rose for us, he fills us with his blessings. Through his word, he pours into our hearts the gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.

The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident.

On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and in the Holy Spirit, blesses the Father for his inexpressible gift in her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. On the other hand, until the consummation of God's plan, the church never ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts, and to beg him to send the Holy Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and upon the whole world.

So that through communion in the death and resurrection of Christ the priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will bring forth the fruits of life to the praise of his glorious grace. Right, there we have it. Paragraphs ten seventy-six to ten eighty-three, this introduction, this very beginning, section one, Sacramental Economy, chapter one. Okay, so man, ten seventy-six. Remember how back in the day

You're talking about here's here's the work of the Son and the work of the Spirit. It's united. They're doing the will of the Father, kind of a one two punch and in the sense of here's salvation brought to the world and changing our lives. Paragraph ten seventy six. highlights this and highlights the fact that here we are in the age of the church. Goes on to say, the gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the dispensation of the mystery. And this is the thing, this is the age of the church.

Where Christ manifests? Right reveals, right? In it makes present and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his church until he comes. So, ha man, in right now, as we're living, Jesus, he now lives and acts in and with his church. Through the sacraments. It further says that Jesus acts through the sacraments in what the common tradition of the East and the West calls a sacramental economy. So let's highlight the East and the West for just one second. Okay, as we know

You may not know this. In 1054, way back in the day, in 1054, the one church split into two, right? You have the East and the West. You have the the Roman Catholic Church in the West and you also have the the Orthodox Church in the East. You have the Eastern Church and the Western Church. Okay, and it which is called the Great Schism, ten fifty four. Horrible. Um, you know, Jesus at the Last Supper, he prays that we all would be one. And here's this one example of The church experiencing

the brokenness of its members and so the church actually breaks, right? The Great Schism. Now, at the same time, there were numerous opportunities and numerous times where East and West came back together. And there was reconciliation. There was a couple of different church councils where this happened. And so because of that, we have yet we still have East and West. But we also have Eastern Rite or non we'll say this like this. There are rites in the Catholic Church.

that developed on their own. that are not Latin right, or that they're not part of the Roman Rite. In fact that we have a ton of people listening, not only to the Bible in here, but also to the catechism in here, who are part of those. There are actually twenty-three distinct rites i in the Catholic Church. So the Catholic Church, one church, right there it is. This is different than the Orthodox Church. The Catholic Church has in it twenty-three

Rites. Now in those twenty three rites, there are what you might call six major liturgical families. So there's the Latin rite. That's the one most of us here in the West are accomp uh accustomed to. There's the Alexandrian Rite, there's the Antiochan Rite, there's the Armenian Rite, there's the Chaldean Rite, and the Constantinapolitan Rite, which is also called sometimes the Byzantine Rite. Now so those those six major lit liturgical families, they're all Catholic.

So they're all united to the all the bishops and united to the Pope, but they have their their various rites. And that's there's something so beautiful about that. There's a variety in in these these liturgical expressions. And there's also variety and some governance kind of situations, but they're all united. We're all united.

um is bishops and with the Holy Father. In fact, again, there's so many people. Chaldean Rite, I get reached out to the by the Chaldeans all over the time. The Armenian Rite as well. Just iv so beautiful. Just really incredible. So But Both the East and the West calls what we're talking about today the sacramental economy. That here is what God wants to do and is doing in our lives. That's why I just love uh the fact that

We're diving into this now. Now a couple things to keep in mind. We heard that very long quote from Ephesians chapter one, where blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and he chose us this incredible so that why? So For the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

And that's what we're going to do. We're going to praise God's glorious grace. Through the liturgy, not only is uh is this us blessing God and praising God, adoring God, thanking God, worshiping God, but we're also Presenting ourselves to the Father is And begging God to send us the Holy Spirit upon us, upon the faithful, upon the whole world, so that

Our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, those blessings from God will come upon us. Right. So there's this, there's this we go out to the Lord, we just offer him. Praise. We offer him worship, we offer him adoration, we offer him yeah, every good thing. We give God blessing. Now Let's uh highlight this for a second. Have you ever wondered why is it that what do we mean when we say uh bless God?

Like, give God praise and blessing. Like, wait a second. How how is it that we bless God? Because doesn't God isn't God the one who blesses us? Well, I you maybe you caught this in paragraph ten seventy eight. It says. Blessing is the divine is a divine and life giving action, the source of which is the Father. Like his blessing is both word and gift, and then there's a footnote that says eulogia and benedictio. So, you know, it's word and gift, those what those words were refer to.

When applied to us, the word blessing means adoration and surrender to our Creator and Thanksgiving. So when we say, Oh, we're gonna bless God, what that means is we bow down in adoration and surrender to God and thanksgiving. But when God blesses us, that's all that He does for us, right? That from the beginning until the end of time, all of God's work is a blessing. It's all gift. It's all word. It's all gift. It's incredible.

And g and goes on to talk about in paragraph ten seventy nine, ten eighty, ten eighty one. This here's the story. that how God has blessed all living beings from the very beginning of Genesis, right? Every day God makes something new and he says it's very good. He blesses ver through his very word blesses the blesses the day and blesses man and woman.

The covenant with Noah, all these blessings completely renewed and the faithfulness of God revealed. It's just a amazing. So when we apply the word blessing, To man, it means us adoring and surrendering to our Creator. But when blessing is applied to God, it's all of his gifts. All of his gifts and everything he gives us is a gift. So let's highlight this one more time and summarize that the it'll be the very end the very last thing we talk about today. Oh my gosh, you guys.

I get I get too excited. We all know this. I am so sorry. I apologize. But it's just there's something so beautiful about this dual dimension of the Christian liturgy highlighted in ten eighty three. So, what's the dual dimension? On the one hand, Here's the church, united with Jesus and in the Holy Spirit.

We bless the Father for his inexpressible gift when we adore him, praise him, thank him. Like you basically with the offer well, when we offer the mass, what are we doing? We're offering up the great sacrifice of the Son to the Father.

to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're giving God every good gift He's given ever give the best gift He's given us, we're giving to him. And also we're uniting our hearts with what is the heart of the Son, right? The the the offering, the self offering of Jesus Christ. And we're just offering that to the Father in adoration, in praise, and thanksgiving. On the other hand, we are also presenting ourselves to the Father, and we're presenting to the Father his own gift.

Right. When you give the Father your heart, you're giving him his own gift. When when we give the Father the Eucharist and pre lift it up through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father. We're presenting him with his own gift. We're presenting him with his own son that he gave to us. And when we're doing that, we're also not only adoring and praising and blessing God.

But we're also asking him, begging him, to send the Holy Spirit upon us. And upon all of us, upon the whole faithful and upon the whole world. So that as we participate and have communion with the death and resurrection of Jesus, those blessings will go out to the entire world. And so God is even more praised and God is even more glorified. Oh man, you guys did that make sense? It just oh my gosh. Incredible.

Bonkers tomorrow we get to talk about sooth today was obviously the father, the source and goal of the liturgy. Tomorrow, Christ's work in the liturgy, which I'm I'm telling you right now. Uh you're it's gonna sound familiar in the sense of, yeah, that's right, Christ continues to work in the lurgy. And then the next day, guess.

Yep, the Holy Spirit in the liturgy. And so we're gonna dive deeply into that. Oh my gosh, you guys, what a what a gift of a day and what a gift of a life to be able to be alive in the age of the church where Jesus continues to come to us, continues to sanctify, redeem us, heal us, forgive us. and feed us through his sacraments.

So just yeah, to the praise of the Father and uh for our salvation. Oh my gosh. You guys, this is our prayer. And uh so let's let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.