Sacred Mysteries

[presbyter]

What do people understand by the term "Sacred Mysteries" that we hear ourselves being invited to prepare for? I'm just curious

[Tsume Tsuyu]

Okay. My understanding is that the Sacred Mysteries are the bits we don't understand! Aren't they the bits we believe because we have faith? They are the inexplicable bits like the resurrection, the Trinity etc. We can't explain them, but we believe they are true.

TT

[presbyter]

bits we don't understand

Thank you TT. That's mystery = puzzle incapable of being solved

Anyone got any other thoughts?

[Benevenio]

Well...

the phrase Sacred Mysteries comes in a number of places - the rosary group meditates on them, for example. Most often we hear it at the start of Mass: "... to celebrate these Sacred Mysteries, let us call to mind our sins".

So, one answer will be that Sacred Mysteries = Mass - ie the celebration of the resurrection through the liturgies of word and Eucharist. This might link in with TT's idea of the Sacred Mysteries being the bits we believe yet do not understand), as we hear, in the Mass, the phrase mysterium fidei...

But perhaps it goes further too. It might be argued that the Sacred Mysteries are the seven Sacraments, of which Eucharist is only one. Perhaps!

I'm afraid it is one of those phrases that goes in one ear and out of the other without actually meaning much to most braincells through which it passes!

[presbyter]

the phrase mysterium fidei...

Gosh. I didn't know you were an LMS devotee Benevenio

....one of those phrases that goes in one ear and out of the other without actually meaning much.....

Well thank you for an honest answer Benevenio.

That's mysteries = could be all sorts of things but I'm not quite sure what.
Bit of a mystery there then

By the way - my concern in asking the question comes from my experience of asking questions about the Mass of good and faithful, adult practising Catholics. One of the hopes of allowing celebration in vernacular languages is that it should make clear what we are doing at Mass and, more importantly, make clear what God is doing for us: that phrase "The Liturgy is its own catechesis". The good and faithful folk who reply to my questions articulate a deep and heartfelt faith but when it comes to understanding the Mass, there's a lot of confusion and phrases such as "Sacred Mysteries" are indeed very confusing. Rather alarmingly perhaps, from the many, many people of whom I have asked "What do you think the Mass is for?" - only ONE person has got close, in their own words, to the Church's definition...... but that could be the start of another thread.

In my experience, the Liturgy is far from being its own catechesis.

Sacred Mysteries then....

Any more thoughts ? There are no wrong answers. You'll just be saying what the phrase means for you.

And the subsidiary question:

Should obscure language be removed from the Liturgy and replaced with comprehensible phrases, or should we invest in catechesis about ancient and venerable terms such as "Sacred Mysteries" so we do know what they mean?

Shall I post what the phrase means anyway?

[Tsume Tsuyu]

I'm not a great fan of obscure language in the church, but only because I feel it is exclusive. I suspect that the majority allow it to do as Benevenio suggests – go in one ear and out of the other – because it doesn't mean anything to them. If there were some instruction about such things, then it wouldn't be exclusive. The difficulty with adult catechesis is that it would have to be voluntary, I suppose. So those who are interested enough would attend whilst others would remain blissfully ignorant, with the incomprehensible bits remaining just that. So... if we can't find a way to bring instruction and learning to everyone, then perhaps the obscure language ought to be replaced with something more comprehensible. What do others think?

Shall I post what the phrase means anyway?

Yes! Please enlighten us, Presbyter.

TT

[Benevenio]

The difficulty with adult catechesis is that it would have to be voluntary, I suppose.

On a different thread, presbyter picked up "We used to have a sermon..." from the SSG Q&A page, and asked us to say what we thought one was...

Is the priest prohibited from giving us explanations of phrases such as Sacred Mysteries in the homily?

[Benevenio]

Perhaps the whole matter of the liturgical mystery can best be expressed by saying that it is the concrete (symbolic) and manifold expression of God's presence and action among his people now.

and he says lots more besides (in chapter 2).

He explains that the first level of Mystery is God, and quotes, as mystery at a second level, 1 Timothy 3:16 (He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed in by the world, taken up in glory (RSV)) and finally says that this event must be experienced in the present - a third level of mystery. Christ has to become humankind's contemporary. This is achieved by the Liturgy, which some of the older prayers of the Roman sacramentaries called the mysterium.

Am I closer yet?

[presbyter]

Well, at the start of Mass it does simply mean an invitation to prepare for the holy things/actions we are about to do. The Sacred Mysteries are the Mass itself. Let's see if you can get a bit closer though, using the late Mgr James - who is, of course, right.

See if you can tease out a little more from the quotation. Mystery mysterion is a Greek word. The Latin equivalent is Sacrament sacramentum. So we could, I suppose, have had in our missals "...to celebrate these Holy Sacraments" - note the plural. But then, aren't there only seven sacraments - only one of which we are celebrating?

So think what a Sacrament is and try to figure out why the Church throughout much of the first millennium saw the entire Mass sacramentally. The clue is there in your quote from Mgr "Do call me James" Crichton - whose earthly remains may be venerated at Pershore.

[presbyter]

By the way - the understanding of the Early Church that the entire Mass is "Sacred Mysteries" is found in Sacrosanctum Concilium where that document speaks of four presences of Christ - in the assembly gathered in worship; in the person of the ordained minister; in the Word and par excellence in the Eucharist.

[Benevenio]

Sacrament - "an outward sign of inward grace."

Possibly not too helpful initially. Let's try again...

Sacraments are freely-given gifts of God. We don't have to feel worthy of them - God has already judged us worthy of them on Calvary. We are worth dying for.

and worth rising for too. And this is what, in the Liturgy, the Church meets to celebrate - the Resurrection, in fact the whole Paschal Mystery.

The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God’s saving plan was accomplished ‘once for all’ by the redemptive death of His Son Jesus Christ.

Through baptism into His death we were buried with Him, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.

So, this is God's action - our redemption through Jesus Christ.

I became a servant of the Church when God made me responsible for delivering God's message to you, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his saints. It was God's purpose to reveal it to them and to show all this rich glory of this mystery to pagans. The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.

The mystery is Christ among us... in the Liturgy in four ways, but (arguably) most significantly in the symbols - the bread and wine - that Christ chose. Bread and wine - which in the eucharist is both his flesh delivered up to the cross for the salvation of the wrold and the bread of life come down from heaven (to quote Masure, The Sacrifice of the Mystical Body)

Sacred Mysteries = Christ. Here among us. Saving us through his resurrection. Which we celebrate in the Liturgy. And take to the world in living the Good News. Which brings us back to "outward sign of inward grace".

[presbyter]

The Paschal mystery..........God’s saving plan

Indeed, Paul uses the word "mystery" in the sense of God's saving plan for us, the summit of which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now think how that saving plan is present to us and for us at Mass "sacramentally" and you'll get the meaning of "mystery" as understood by the Early Church. Think of that bit in Sacrosanctum Concilium about signs perceptible to our senses.

[Benevenio]

To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross" (20), but especially under the eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes (21). He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20) .

Christ indeed always associates the Church with Himself in this great work wherein God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is His beloved Bride who calls to her Lord, and through Him offers worship to the Eternal Father.

Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members.

From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.

[Tsume Tsuyu]

Gosh

Talk about a reminder of what it's all about!

He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church.

That's a timely reminder for me as I prepare to read tomorrow!

So....I may be wrong, but I still think it comes down to the bits we don't actually understand, but we believe. I mean, we can't explain to anyone who doesn't believe how it is that Christ himself speaks when the holy scriptures are read, or that Christ is present when we pray and sing, can we?

in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members.

It's awesome stuff, but it comes down to what we believe, doesn't it?

I've found this thread very enlightening. And it has brought home to me just how little I know about the faith I profess.

TT

[presbyter]

we can't explain to anyone.......
TT

But do we need to explain or understand that much? We can all grasp how signs perceptible to the senses can make present hidden, spiritual (i.e. immaterial) realities once we have grasped or been initiated into the ritual. Take a secular example:

Fred is married to Bertha and they are deeply in love. (Love being a spiritual - immaterial -reality which defies empirical analysis. One doesn't "understand" love, one simply is "in love" - a state best described linguistically by analogy - see shelves of poetry or the lyrics of popular songs. Love defies absolute definition but we sure can talk about it and we know what it is from experience.)

OK - Fred and Bertha live in Portsmouth but Fred has to go to Huddersfield and Halifax for several days on business. After a fond farewell kiss, Fred graciously gives Bertha a single rose. No matter how long Fred is away and no matter how dessicated, shrivelled and exfoliated that rose might become - it will still make present the love of Fred for Bertha every time she looks at it. As to how the rose mediates the hidden but real presence of Fred's love for her, we cannot understand but Bertha sure knows that it does.

The hidden but nevertheless real presence that our senses should be able to perceive through the people present; the words; the objects and actions of the Liturgy is Christ. That's the Sacred Mystery. We encounter Him at work to save us through the entire ritual of the Mass. A Sacrament is a ritual action by and through which we encounter the living and saving presence of Christ, don't you think?

But don't just take the concept of symbolism - Bertha's rose - and apply it to the Eucharist. For sure, one may talk inadequately about what looks like bread and wine symbolically making Christ present. But the Eucharist doesn't just mediate the presence of Christ, a hidden reality - it IS Christ. Now that's a mystery - as Thomas Aquinas, who spilled a lot of ink trying to understand the divine workings of transubstantiation, would be the first to admit. "This is my Body..." that's what it is - "This is my blood..." that's what it is.

Just think TT that when you proclaim Jeremiah and I Corinthians tomorrow - God has chosen you for this particular time in this particular place to be his mouthpiece for the gathered faithful. YOU are God's chosen prophet for this moment and, with the power of the Spirit underpinning your action and the words you speak, you are proclaiming that which of itself "is alive and active....." (Heb)

Think what happens when God speaks - Genesis I - creation happens! Think of Jesus speaking - "Get up and walk" God's Word does what it says. Reveal that mystery. Through your own prayerful and practical preparation of the Scriptures and then in their proclamation, touch peoples hearts and minds with the living Word of God and for God, you will be recreating them.