Pope issues message on 50 anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium
(Vatican Radio/VIS) – The fiftieth anniversary of the conciliar Constitution “Sacrosanctum
Concilium” on the Sacred Liturgy – the first document promulgated by Vatican Council
II – is an cause for “gratitude for the profound and wide-ranging renewal of liturgical
life, made possible by the conciliar Magisterium … and at the same time urges relaunched
commitment to welcoming and more fully implementing this teaching”.
Thus began
Pope Francis' message to Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on the occasion of the conclusion
of the symposium “Sacrosanctum Concilium. Gratitude for and Commitment to a Great
Ecclesial Movement”, organised by this dicastery in collaboration with the Pontifical
Lateran University.
“Sacrosanctum Concilium”, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on
4 December 1963, and the further developments of the Magisterium in the furrow it
has traced “have improved our understanding of the liturgy in the light of the divine
Revelation, as the 'exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ' in which 'the
whole public worship is performed by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by
the head and His members'. Christ is revealed as the true protagonist of every celebration,
and He associates with Himself 'the Church … His beloved Bride who calls to her Lord,
and through Him offers worship to the Eternal Father'. This action, which takes place
through the power of the Holy Spirit, possesses a profound creative force able to
attract every man and, in some way, the whole of Creation”.
“To celebrate true
spiritual worship means to offer oneself as a living sacrifice, sacred and agreeable
to God. A liturgy detached from spiritual worship would risk becoming empty, declining
from its Christian originality to a generic sacred sense, almost magical, and a hollow
aestheticism. As an action of Christ, liturgy has an inner impulse to be transformed
in the sentiments of Christ, and in this dynamism all reality is transfigured”. The
Pontiff quoted Pope emeritus Benedict XVI who, in his Lectio divina to the Pontifical
Major Roman Seminary in 2012, explained that “our daily life ... must be inspired,
profuse, immersed in the divine reality, it must become action together with God.
This does not mean that we must always be thinking of God, but that we must really
be penetrated by the reality of God so that our whole life — and not only a few thoughts
— may be a liturgy, may be adoration”.
To our gratitude to God for what it
has been possible to achieve, the Pope stated that it is necessary to unite “a renewed
willingness to go ahead on the path indicated by the Council Fathers, as there remains
much to be done for a correct and complete assimilation of the Constitution of the
Holy Liturgy on the part of the baptised and ecclesial communities. I refer, in particular,
to the commitment to a solid and organic liturgical initiation and formation, both
of lay faithful as well as clergy and consecrated persons”.