In order to “restore the sacred” we must, first and foremost, contemplate the beauty of Christ in the Sacred Liturgy – “a sacred action surpassing all others.”[1] This begins with external fidelity to the rubrics, but leads to internal union with Christ, for “those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The spiritual beauty of the Sacred Liturgy transforms the lives of Catholics. Indeed, “the encounter with the beautiful can become the wound of the arrow that strikes the heart and in this way opens our eyes.” This spiritual beauty forms the Christ-like heart in moral beauty. And when the spiritual beauty of the Sacred Liturgy has transformed a soul, man can then create things of beauty, such as art, architecture, poetry, and music. This manmade beauty, formed by the beauty of Christ in the Sacred Liturgy, imitates the creative genius of God who gave this world an inherent natural beauty. When the beautiful and radiant face of Christ our Savior becomes the center of sacred worship, all creation longs to cry out with the psalmist: every work that He does is full of splendor and beauty. If the beauty of Holy Mass does not, in essence, rely upon the splendid beauty of iconography, ornate vestments, Gregorian chant or Baroque architecture, why then has the Church invested so much of its patrimony in fostering these sacred arts? God has placed a legitimate desire in the human soul to create beautiful things because he wants man to share in his masterpiece of creation, a creation that is good and beautiful. Beauty in the Liturgy results from order. This is why the Liturgy, by its very nature, demands order, and so Liturgy cannot exist without rubrics or ceremony. Beauty shines through the gestures of the Sacred Liturgy. Thus, the external acts of worship, such as making the Sign of the Cross, genuflecting, kneeling and bowing, become ways to internalize reverence and beauty in our human lives ■ Fr. Agustin, Pastor.
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