The word Leiturgia (the verb: leiturgein) is composed of a noun, ergon, i.e., work and leitos — i.e., belonging to the people. So leiturgia is ‘people’s work’, work done for the good of the people either by well-to-do citizens or by the state. It also meant public activities for the good of the people. From the second century B.C., leiturgia came to mean cultic service. In the Septuagint, leiturgia stands for the temple service performed by priests and Levites.
The Greek word latreia has a wider meaning. It can mean many things, including rites, ritual duties, acts of reverence and devotion, established by religious authorities to offer homage to God. In later Christian theology, latria was used exclusively for the worship of God. But we are not speaking of latreia here but of ‘liturgy’.
In the New Testament too the word Leiturgia has this meaning (Lk 1:23; Heb 9:21, etc.). But it also has other meanings such as ‘an act of charity’ (2 Cor 9:12); the service of an angel to the communities (Heb 1:7, 14, etc.). The worship of God is also called Leiturgia (Acts 13:2). Jesus Christ is called the Liturge, i.e., the Minister in the sanctuary or in the true tent of God. In the post-Apostolic Church, Leiturgia stands for the worship of God and for the service rendered to the community. But in the Didache, the word liturgy specifically refers to the Eucharist. In the East, this use of the word was taken up and was exclusively reserved for the celebration of the Eucharist. This meaning is still quite common in the East, whereas the word was not known in the West. The Latins used such words as ‘ministerium’, ‘officium’, ‘munus’, ‘opus’, ‘ritus’, etc. The sixteenth century humanists started using the Greek word.
The Essence of Liturgy
As Vatican Council II says, "Jesus Christ willed that the work of salvation should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments around which the entire liturgical life revolves. By baptism men are grafted into the Paschal mystery of Christ. They die with him, are buried with him, and rise with him. They receive the spirit of adoption as sons in whose power they cry ‘Abba, Father’ and thus become true adorers, such as the Father seeks. In like manner, as often as they eat the supper of the Lord, they proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes. That is why on the day of Pentecost, when the Church appeared before the world, those who received the word of Peter, were baptized (S.C. 6).
The liturgy, then, is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. It involves the presentation of man’s sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs. In the liturgy, full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, i.e., by the Head and his members.
Liturgy, therefore, is the faith inspired re-presentation of God’s dealings with us men. As we believe this re-presentation is always done in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are convinced that this action of God finally finds its fulfilment in the life and work of Jesus Christ. This is the reason why we say that liturgy is the ever re-enacted story of God and of human beings, in fact, of all beings.
Christ, the Principal Agent of Liturgy
As Vatican Council II says : "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 the priest, who formally offered himself on the Cross’, but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power, he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word, where it is he himself who speaks, when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings for he has promised ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them’." (S.C. 7)
So it is very clear that liturgy is not primarily a human effort or action; but the continuing work of salvation initiated by Jesus and constantly realized in history through the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why we say that Jesus is the high priest and the chief agent of liturgy. Liturgy is meant to sanctify the people. The grace of God comes down from his merciful heart in and through liturgy and transforms us men and women.
This does not mean that human beings can remain passive during the liturgical celebration. They are active participants of liturgy – they are called upon by Jesus to respond to the word of God, to bend their hearts in obedience to the will of the Father, to accept and to return the love of the Father that is freely gifted to them, and to thank the Lord for everything in the power of the Spirit through Jesus, the Lord. The liturgy should form Christians into a community. It is a community, a body, whose head is Christ and all of us are His members with various functions.
Fr. Ignatius P.
