| CONTENTS Preface Prologue |
ANTIOCH WEEKEND LEADERS MANUAL |
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Sermon on the Liturgy |
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| Introduction
to the Antioch Weekend
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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the sermons on the liturgy is to place the Mass within the context of what is being presented during the Antioch Weekend. Both sermons presuppose a knowledge of the basic struc-ture of the Mass. The Saturday sermon stresses the aspect of worship, offering Direction to God. The Sunday sermon centers on communion and through that on community and strengthening. Because of the shortness of the time the sermon can only touch on the ideas presented. For its effectiveness, it depends to a great extent on the talks and meditations, which explain the basic ideas behind the sermon. The sermon related the ideas of the day to the Mass, so that those making the weekend can see the Mass as the focus of the whole redemptive process and the whole Christian life. There is a difference in the character of the Mass, according to the day. The Saturday Mass receives less emphasis and is more austere and less communal. A community has not yet been formed. The Sunday Mass should be as participative and as expressive as possible, because those on the weekend are a real community and because Sunday is the celebration of the Lord's day. If possible, the votive Mass of Christ the high priest should be used and the sermon should be cast in the form of a homily.
OUTLINE: I. As God's people, His creatures, we worship Him. A. Through praise and thanksgiving, acknowledging Him as God and Lord B. Through offering, presenting everything to Him. II. We worship in Christ, sharing His priesthood III. The result is hiliness and new life.
THE COMMENTARY "The Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed. At the same time it is the fountain from which all her power flows. For the goal of apostolic works is that all who are midst of His church, to take part in her sacri-fice, and to eat the Lord's supper". (Constitution of the liturgy,10) The Saturday sermon talks about the Mass as the summit of the Christian life. Worship is an end in itself, not just a means of strengthening to go out and do something else. Men are called to worship God, and the Christian life is directed toward the ex-plicit direct worship of God. This sermon will make the same point as God's Call. The Work of Christ, and The Church and the World - union with God leads to a transformed human life. It makes everything else possible. It is, therefore, supremely worth while to pay attention to God in himself. I. Worship is the expression of who God is and our relationship to Him. It is praising Him, acknowledging His goodness to us. It is offering to Him our lives and everything we can do. There-fore, it has to be the expression of a real consecration to Him and not just empty words. It is natural to man to express the way he relates to the world through words and actions. The highest moments in human life are the moments of deep expression, the words of love that create a human relationship, works of art, etc. And so worship should contain the highest moment of our life as Christians. Worship is our love of God the creator. Ps. 145 Yahweh's praise be ever in my mouth, and let every creatures bless His holy name for ever and ever! You come to Him, as living stones to the immensely valuable living stone, to be built up into a spiritual House of God, in which you, like holy priests can offer those spiritual sacri-fices which are acceptable to God. (I. Pet. 2:5) I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. (Ex. 19:6) II. Our worship is a share in Christ's priesthood. The Mass is taking part in the heavenly liturgy in which right now Christ is worshiping the Father with all the saints and angels. Christ is a priest right now, interceding for us right now. Christ, because He lives forever, holds a priesthood that needs no successor. This means that He can save fully and completely those who approach God through Him, for He is always living to intercede on their behalf. (Heb. 7:24-25) Christ is making an offering (presenting a sacrifice) to the Father right now; We have an ideal high priest...Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and make sacrifices. It follows, therefore, that in these holy places this man has some-thing that he is offering. (Heb. 8:1,3) What Christ is offering is His own death, the shedding of His blood. He is offering to the Father the sacrifice of calvary: For now Christ has come among us, the high priest of the good things which were to come, and has passed through a greater and more perfect tent which no human hand had made (for it was not part of this world of ours.) It was not goats or calves blood but with His own blood that He entered once for all into the holy of holies, having won for us men eternal reconciliation with God. (Heb. 9:11-12) Right now Christ is in heaven, offering His sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. Christ entered heaven itself to make His appearance before God as high priest on our behalf. (Heb. 2:24) The Mass is our joining ourselves a new as members of Christ to His offering to the Father, renewing our worship of him and consecration to Him. III. The result of our worship is a renewal in us - a renewal of our consecration, a strengthening of our union with God and other Christians, and a deeper transformation. Through our worship of God, we are given new life. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a fountain, grace is channeled into us; and the sancti-fication of men in Christ and the glorification of God, which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their goal, are most powerfully achieved. (Constitution on the Liturgy, 10) |
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