In considering this foundation of reality that undergirds Christian liturgy, we need to take account of another important matter. The Crucifixion of Christ, his death on the Cross, and, in another way, the act of his Resurrection from the grave, which bestows incorruptibility on the corruptible, are historical events that happen just once and as such belong to the past. The word semel (ephapax), “once for all”, which the epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes so vigorously in contrast to the multitude of repeated sacrifices in the Old Covenant, is strictly applicable to them. But if they were no more than facts in the past, like all the dates we learn in history books, then there could be nothing contemporary about them. In the end they would remain beyond our reach. However, the exterior act of being crucified is accompanied by an interior act of self-giving (the Body is “given for you”). “No one takes [my life] from me,” says the Lord in St. John’s Gospel, “but I lay it down of my own accord” (10:18). This act of giving is in no way just a spiritual occurrence. It is a spiritual act that takes up the bodily into itself, that embraces the whole man; indeed, it is at the same time an act of the Son. As St. Maximus the Confessor showed so splendidly, the obedience of Jesus’ human will is inserted into the everlasting Yes of the Son to the Father. This “giving” on the part of the Lord, in the passivity of his being crucified, draws the passion of human existence into the action of love, and so it embraces all the dimensions of reality—Body, Soul, Spirit, Logos. Just as the pain of the body is drawn into the pathos of the mind and becomes the Yes of obedience, so time is drawn into what reaches beyond time. The real interior act, though it does not exist without the exterior, transcends time, but since it comes from time, time can again and again be brought into it. That is how we can become contemporary with the past events of salvation. St. Bernard of Clairvaux has this in mind when he says that the true semel (“once”) bears within itself the semper (“always”). What is perpetual takes place in what happens only once. In the Bible the Once for All is emphasized most vigorously in the epistle to the Hebrews, but the careful reader will discover that the point made by St. Bernard expresses its true meaning. The ephapax (“Once For All”) is bound up with the aiōnios (“everlasting”). “Today” embraces the whole time of the Church. And so in the Christian liturgy we not only receive something from the past but become contemporaries with what lies at the foundation of that liturgy. Here is the real heart and true grandeur of the celebration of the Eucharist, which is more, much more than a meal. In the Eucharist we are caught up and made contemporary with the Paschal Mystery of Christ, in his passing from the tabernacle of the transitory to the presence and sight of God.
(Ratzinger, J. (2000). The Spirit of the Liturgy (J. Saward, Trans.; pp. 55–57). Ignatius Press.)
- As we reflected briefly at the beginning of rehearsal, something extraordinary happens in Christ’s act of offering. Flesh and blood are made eternal by Christ’s act of self gift, and so the deepest meaning of “Today,” the present moment, is the glimpse it gives us into eternity. Eternity, the depth and power of God’s love, are made to echo through the flesh of Christ Crucified. We encounter the present moment most fully, the “today” of God, in this passing world, in this act of self-sacrificial love of a man whose obedience is perfect.
- So, the liturgy, while presenting an event in history, actually allows us to enter profoundly into the present, into today. We enter into today by receiving the nourishment of Christ’s flesh and blood – the food of eternal life and drink of salvation. Christ’s offering is not an event that closes history, but rather an event that opens the present to its eternal foundation. It draws open the hearts of modern men and women to the same openness of Christ, enabling them to share in the Spirit of the Father and the Son.
- The significance of Christ’s sacrifice is not what it did in the past, but what it does in the present, and in a particular way in the liturgy.
