General Instruction of the Roman Missal
Our Signs and Gestures
While we believe that our liturgy is a participation in Christ’s self-offering, in which Christ stands “in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24), those who participate in the offering are human beings. And as embodied beings we need physical signs to understand things. The signs we use teach and form us.
“Because … the celebration of the Eucharist, like the entire Liturgy, is carried out through perceptible signs that nourish, strengthen, and express faith, the utmost care must be taken to choose and to arrange those forms and elements set forth by the Church that, in view of the circumstances of the people and the place, will more effectively foster active and full participation and more properly respond to the spiritual needs of the faithful (GIRM, no. 20).”
But physical signs carry multiple meanings. So a grin in some cultures could be a sign of welcome or in others a warning of imminent attack, Therefore the Church has determined what the signs we use mean in the context of the liturgy.
The general meaning of our signs and gestures is captured in the notion of sacrament. In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas described the Roman Catholic understanding of sacrament. “A sacrament is a sign that commemorates what precedes it – Christ’s Passion; demonstrates what is accomplished in us through Christ’s Passion – grace; and prefigures what that Passion pledge is – future glory” (ST III, 60,3).
So the first truth about our sacramental signs is that the passion, death and resurrection of Christ – the PASCHAL MYSTERY – forms the core of what we celebrate. The Eucharist celebrates this central mystery of our faith, forms the living Body of Christ in that mystery, and deepens our union with Christ.
Secondly, Christ is at the center of what we do. Vatican II said that Christ is present in the liturgy in fours ways (CSL, no. 7):
§ In the person of the priest who is ordained to represent the community as the Body of Christ and to link this community to the worldwide Church by connecting us to the bishop and through the bishop to Catholic communities everywhere;
§ Especially in the Eucharistic elements that we share in communion as the Body and Blood of Christ, because it is Christ’s presence that brings us together, forms us as the Body, and sends us out to work for the world’s salvation;
§ In the proclaimed Word, since Christ speaks to us when the Scriptures are read or sung;
§ In the whole assembly of the baptized gathered for the liturgy, the living Body of Christ. When we pray and sing together, we are the voice of Christ singing praise to the Father.
Third, the signs are meant to “more effectively foster active and full participation” (GIRM, no. 20). These words echo the Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: “The Church earnestly desires that all the faithful be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgical celebrations called for by the very nature of the liturgy (CSL, no. 14). The Eucharist is an action of the whole Christ, an action of the living Body of which we all are part – in which each one of us participates according to proper role and function within the community, by virtue of our Baptism. The GIRM expresses a desire to manifest unity in our gestures and posture “to be observed by all participants as a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the Sacred Liturgy” (no. 42).
Lastly, the liturgy serves “the spiritual needs of the faithful.” Our faith is fostered, strengthened and deepened at worship, deepening our relationship with God and with all of God’s creation.
The new GIRM 2002 contains very little that is new beyond the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II or GIRM 1967 and 1975. It is merely a fine-tuning, an updating. However, it is also an opportunity to deepen our understanding of liturgy and the signs and gestures that we use.
For more articles on the GIRM click WORSHIP.