SUMMARY OF MEDIATOR DEI

INTRODUCTION

Mediator Dei is a papal encyclical issued by pope Pius XII on the sacred liturgy in 1947. This encyclical tackles issues on liturgy especially the celebrative and pastoral liturgy. It suggests new directions and active participation instead of mere passive role of the faithful in the liturgy. There is an emphasis in the Eucharistic cult; and with regards to the liturgy, it stresses the importance of the union of the altar and sacrifice. In this encyclical, pope Pius XII defends the liturgy as an important and sacred sacrament. He implies that the liturgy is more than the liturgical actions and prescriptions put together. It is an error to see the liturgy as mere outward and visible part of divine worship. However, in this encyclical, the theology of the liturgy is contained, both the pastoral and celebrative praxis. In this work, I will attempt to trace the theology of the liturgy, the pastoral and celebrative praxis as contained in this encyclical.

The encyclical is divided into four major parts, which are also divided into different chapters. These four parts deal with:

        I.            The nature, origin and development of the liturgy: 11-69

     II.            Eucharistic worship: 70-145

  III.            The divine office and the liturgical year: 146-183

  IV.            Pastoral instruction: 184-223

THE LITURGY AS PRESENTED IN MEDIATOR DEI

The nature, origin and development of the liturgy are explained in the first part of this encyclical. The liturgy by nature is a public worship, an obligation for individuals and communities. It is an outward adoration of God as well as a fountain of personal piety. However, the nature of the liturgy as explained and the liturgy itself originated from the church. The liturgy is regulated by the hierarchies of the church. However, it has a divine and human element embedded in it. The liturgy is also a profession of eternal truths, and subject, as such, to the supreme teaching authority of the Church; it can supply proofs and testimony, quite clearly, of no little value, towards the determination of a particular point of Christian doctrine. In obedience to her founder, the church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy which is both celebrative and pastoral.

THE CELEBRATIVE LITURGY

It is quite true that Christ is a priest; but He is a priest not for Himself but for us, when in the name of the whole human race He offers our prayers and religious homage to the eternal Father; He is also a victim and for us since He substitutes Himself for sinful man. It is an unquestionable fact that the work of our redemption is continued, and that its fruits are imparted to us, during the celebration of the liturgy, notable in the august sacrifice of the altar.

The celebrative liturgy however, so far from lessening the dignity of the actual sacrifice on Calvary, rather proclaims and renders more manifest its greatness and its necessity. Its daily immolation reminds us that there is no salvation except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The celebrative liturgy is a continuation of the sacrifice and the offering Christ made of himself to his heavenly father for the atonement of the sins of humanity. Christ urged that this be done in the memory of him. In the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Eucharistic celebration, Christ is fully present; Christ is the priest, the altar and the sacrifice. The celebrative liturgy is the anamnesis of the sacrifice of the cross which Christ made for the atonement of the sins of humanity in his own freewill, but the sacrifice of the altar is different because on the altar, Christ offers himself to God under the material form of bread and wine. Here there is an unbloody immolation at the words of consecration, when Christ is made present upon the altar in the state of a victim, is performed by the priest and by him alone, as the representative of Christ and not as the representative of the faithful.

The celebrative liturgy is as presented, done firstly at the altar, where there is a constant representation of the sacrifice of the cross, but with a single difference in the manner of its offering. Another level where the liturgy is celebrative is in the sacraments, a special channel through which men are made partakers in the supernatural life. Another level of the celebrative liturgy in the church is in the offering of daily tribute of prayer and praise to God. “The sacred liturgy is, consequently, the public worship which our Redeemer as Head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father. It is, in short, the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the entirety of its Head and members.”  To this regard the document says:

With more widespread and more frequent reception of the sacraments, with the beauty of the liturgical prayers more fully savored, the worship of the Eucharist came to be regarded for what it really is: the fountain-head of genuine Christian devotion. 

In the celebrative liturgy, the work of our redemption is continued and its fruits are imparted on us. Christ act each day to save us in the sacrament and in the holy sacrifice. By these means, Christ constantly atones for the sins of mankind, and consecrated it to God. The sacrifice is principally offered in the person of Christ. Thus the oblation that follows the consecration is a sort of attestation that the whole Church consents in the oblation made by Christ, and offers it along with Him. Moreover, the rites and prayers of the Eucharistic sacrifice signify and show no less clearly that the oblation of the Victim is made by the priests in company with the people. For not only does the sacred minister, after the oblation of the bread and wine when he turns to the people, say the significant prayer: Pray brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty; but also the prayers by which the divine Victim is offered to God are generally expressed in the plural number: and in these it is indicated more than once that the people also participate in this august sacrifice inasmuch as they offer the same.

At the Last Supper Jesus celebrates a new Pasch with solemn rite and ceremonial, and provides for its continuance through the divine institution of the Eucharist. On the morrow, lifted up between heaven and earth, He offers the saving sacrifice of His life, and pours forth, as it were, from His pierced Heart the sacraments destined to impart the treasures of redemption to the souls of men. All this He does with but a single aim: the glory of His Father and man’s ever greater sanctification. In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the divine Redeemer, to carry the cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our own hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him.  Christ the Lord, Eternal Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, loving His own who were of the world, at the last supper, on the night He was betrayed, wishing to leave His beloved Spouse, the Church, a visible sacrifice such as the nature of men requires, that would re-present the bloody sacrifice offered once on the cross, and perpetuate its memory to the end of time, and whose salutary virtue might be applied in remitting those sins which we daily commit, offered His body and blood under the species of bread and wine to God the Father, and under the same species allowed the apostles, whom he at that time constituted the priests of the New Testament, to partake thereof; commanding them and their successors in the priesthood to make the same offering.

The august sacrifice of the altar, then, is no mere empty commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, but a true and proper act of sacrifice, whereby the High Priest by an unbloody immolation offers Himself a most acceptable victim to the Eternal Father, as He did upon the cross. It is one and the same victim; the same person now offers it by the ministry of His priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner of offering alone being different. For by the “transubstantiation” of bread into the body of Christ and of wine into His blood, His body and blood are both really present: now the Eucharistic species under which He is present symbolize the actual separation of His body and blood. Thus the commemorative representation of His death, which actually took place on Calvary, is repeated in every sacrifice of the altar, seeing that Jesus Christ is symbolically shown by separate symbols to be in a state of victimhood.

In the celebrative liturgy, we more fully understand and appreciate the most precious treasures which are contained in the sacred liturgy: namely, the Eucharistic sacrifice, representing and renewing the sacrifice of the cross, the sacraments which are the streams of divine grace and of divine life, and the hymn of praise, which heaven and earth daily offer to God. In the sacred liturgy we profess the Catholic faith explicitly and openly, not only by the celebration of the mysteries, and by offering the holy sacrifice and administering the sacraments, but also by saying or singing the credo or Symbol of the faith, it is indeed the sign and badge, as it were, of the Christian along with other texts, and likewise by the reading of holy scripture, written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The entire liturgy, therefore, has the Catholic faith for its content, inasmuch as it bears public witness to the faith of the Church.

AIMS OF THE CELEBRATIVE LITURGY

This document did well to show that the celebrative liturgy tends to some ends. Firstly is to give glory to the heavenly father, this is because from the birth to the death of Christ, He burned with zeal for the divine glory, and the offering of His blood upon the cross rose to heaven in an odor of sweetness. To perpetuate this praise, the members of the Mystical Body are united with their divine Head in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and with Him, together with the Angels and Archangels; they sing immortal praise to God and give all honor and glory to the Father Almighty. The second end is to give due thanks to God. As the eternal father’s most beloved son, only the redeemer could offer a worthy return of gratitude, this was the intention and desire at the last supper when Jesus gave thanks. He did not cease to do so when hanging upon the cross, nor does He fail to do so in the august sacrifice of the altar, which is an act of thanksgiving or a “Eucharistic” act; since this is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation. The third end is that of expiation, propitiation and reconciliation. No one was better fitted to make sanctification to God for the sins of men than Christ. He was immolated upon the cross as a propitiation for our sins and those of the whole world. He offers himself daily on the altar for our redemption in order to rescue us from eternal damnation. The fourth end is impetration. Man as the prodigal son made bad use of the goods which he received from his heavenly father. Christ on the cross, offering prayers and supplications with a loud cry and tears, has been heart for his reverence, same upon the altar; he is our mediator with God in the same efficacious manner, so that we may be filled with every blessing and grace.

Such is the nature and the object of the sacred liturgy: it treats of the Mass, the sacraments, the divine office; it aims at uniting our souls with Christ and sanctifying them through the divine Redeemer in order that Christ be honored and, through Him and in Him, the most Holy Trinity, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.

In certain parts of the liturgy the Church makes the celebration of the sacred mysteries not only more dignified and solemn but helps very much to increase the faith and devotion of the congregation. Indeed it is very necessary that the faithful attend the sacred ceremonies not as if they were outsiders or mute onlookers, but let them fully appreciate the beauty of the liturgy and take part in the sacred ceremonies, alternating their voices with the priest and the choir, according to the prescribed norms.

THE PASTORAL LITURGY

            We are surely well aware that this Apostolic See has always made careful provision for the schooling of the people committed to its charge in the correct spirit and practice of the liturgy; and that it has been no less careful to insist that the sacred rites should be performed with due external dignity. The people offer the sacrifice with the priest, but this is not based on the fact that, being members of the Church no less than the priest himself, they perform a visible liturgical rite; for this is the privilege only of the minister who has been divinely appointed to this office: rather it is based on the fact that the people unite their hearts in praise, impetration, expiation and thanksgiving with prayers or intention of the priest, even of the High Priest himself, so that in the one and same offering of the victim and according to a visible sacerdotal rite, they may be presented to God the Father.

These methods of participation in the Mass are to be approved and recommended when they are in complete agreement with the precepts of the Church and the rubrics of the liturgy. Their chief aim is to foster and promote the people’s piety and intimate union with Christ and His visible minister and to arouse those internal sentiments and dispositions which should make our hearts become like to that of the High Priest of the New Testament. The splendor and grandeur of a high Mass, however, are very much increased if, as the Church desires, the people are present in great numbers and with devotion. The fact, however, that the faithful participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice does not mean that they also are endowed with priestly power. It is very necessary that the ministers in the pastoral liturgy make this quite clear to your flocks. This is because so brethren who approximate the teaching in the New Testament that by the word “priesthood” is meant only that priesthood which applies to all who have been baptized; and hold that the command by which Christ gave power to His apostles at the Last Supper to do what He Himself had done, applies directly to the entire Christian Church, and that thence, and thence only, arises the hierarchical priesthood. Bolder relief was given likewise to the fact that all the faithful make up a single and very compact body with Christ for its Head, and that the Christian community is in duty bound to participate in the liturgical rites according to their station.

            This document urges that each in his diocese or ecclesiastical jurisdiction supervise and regulate the manner and method in which the people take part in the liturgy, according to the rubrics of the missal and in keeping with the injunctions which the Sacred Congregation of Rites and the Code of canon law have published. Let everything be done with due order and dignity and let no one, not even a priest, make use of the sacred edifices according to his whim to try out experiments. It is also Our wish that in each diocese an advisory committee to promote the liturgical apostolate should be established, similar to that which cares for sacred music and art, so that with your watchful guidance everything may be carefully carried out in accordance with the prescriptions of the Apostolic See. To this regards;

The Church, as the teacher of truth, strives by every means in her power to safeguard the integrity of the Catholic faith, and like a mother solicitous for the welfare of her children, she exhorts them most earnestly to partake fervently and frequently of the richest treasure of our religion.

            This document urges that we should strive with our customary devoted care so that the churches, which the faith and piety of Christian peoples have built in the course of centuries for the purpose of singing a perpetual hymn of glory to God almighty and of providing a worthy abode for our Redeemer concealed beneath the Eucharistic species, may be entirely at the disposal of greater numbers of the faithful who, called to the feet of their Savior, hearken to His most consoling invitation, Come to Me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will refresh you.

The pastoral liturgy try in every way, with the means and helps that your prudence deems best, that the clergy and people become one in mind and heart, and that the Christian people take such an active part in the liturgy that it becomes a truly sacred action of due worship to the eternal Lord in which the priest, chiefly responsible for the souls of his parish, and the ordinary faithful are united together. It recommends that:

In keeping with your pastoral solicitude, Venerable Brethren, do not cease to recommend and encourage the exercises of piety from which the faithful, entrusted to your care, cannot but derive salutary fruit

In pastoral liturgy, By means of suitable sermons and particularly by periodic conferences and lectures, by special study weeks and the like, teach the Christian people carefully about the treasures of piety contained in the sacred liturgy so that they may be able to profit more abundantly by these supernatural gifts. In this matter, those who are active in the ranks of Catholic Action will certainly be a help to you, since they are ever at the service of the hierarchy in the work of promoting the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In the pastoral theology, we should never be discouraged by difficulties that arise and we should never let our pastoral zeal grow cold. The pastoral liturgy gathers the people, sanctifies the church, it helps to restore the grace of the sacraments and celebrates the sacrifice that gives due tribute of praise to the eternal father.

In the pastoral ministry, the church gathers all Christians about her altars, inviting and urging them repeatedly to take part in the celebration of the Mass, feeding them with the Bread of angels to make them ever stronger. She purifies and consoles the hearts that sin has wounded and soiled. Solemnly she consecrates those whom God has called to the priestly ministry. She fortifies with new gifts of grace the chaste nuptials of those who are destined to found and bring up a Christian family. When as last she has soothed and refreshed the closing hours of this earthly life by holy Viaticum and extreme unction, with the utmost affection she accompanies the mortal remains of her children to the grave, lays them reverently to rest, and confides them to the protection of the cross, against the day when they will triumph over death and rise again.

However, the document reminded that we must generously and faithfully obey their holy pastors who possess the right and duty of regulating the whole life, especially the spiritual life, of the Church. "Obey your prelates and be subject to them. For they watch as being to render an account of your souls; that they may do this with joy and not with grief. The pastoral liturgy is the source of the harmony and equilibrium which prevails among the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. When the Church teaches us our Catholic faith and exhorts us to obey the commandments of Christ, she is paving a way for her priestly, sanctifying action in its highest sense; she disposes us likewise for more serious meditation on the life of the divine Redeemer and guides us to profounder knowledge of the mysteries of faith where we may draw the supernatural sustenance, strength and vitality that enable us to progress safely, through Christ, towards a more perfect life. Not only through her ministers but with the help of the faithful individually, who have imbibed in this fashion the spirit of Christ. The priests alone do not offer the sacrifice, but also all the faithful: for what the priest does personally by virtue of his ministry, the faithful do collectively by virtue of their intention.

In this joyous hope, We most lovingly impart to each and every one of you, Venerable Brethren, and to the flocks confided to your care, as a pledge of divine gifts and as a witness of Our special love, the apostolic benediction

NATURE OF THE PASTORAL THEOLOGY

The Church is a society, and as such requires an authority and hierarchy of her own. Though it is true that all the members of the Mystical Body partake of the same blessings and pursue the same objective, they do not all enjoy the same powers, nor are they all qualified to perform the same acts. The divine Redeemer has willed, as a matter of fact, that His Kingdom should be built and solidly supported, as it were, on a holy order, which resembles in some sort the heavenly hierarchy. By means of suitable sermons and particularly by periodic conferences and lectures, by special study weeks and the like, teach the Christian people carefully about the treasures of piety contained in the sacred liturgy so that they may be able to profit more abundantly by these supernatural gifts. In this matter, those who are active in the ranks of Catholic Action will certainly be a help to you, since they are ever at the service of the hierarchy in the work of promoting the kingdom of Jesus Christ.