In this Year of Faith, as we work on our own faith, we’re being told to read the Catechism.
I read the whole thing when I started college. Perhaps it was simply a grace that I never asked for, but I certainly hungered for it. There is one significant phrase that is rarely found on the lips and typepads of many Catholics I encounter, and yet it is repeated often throughout the Catechism: the Paschal Mystery.
For us, who wish to proclaim Christ in this New Evangelization, the Catechism makes it quite clear that it “stands at the center of the Good News of the Apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world…” (CCC 571)
If the Pascal Mystery is the center of the proclamation of the Church throughout the ages, why is it so absent from our discourse?
Our sense of Paschal Mystery is made real to us today in two particular ways. The primary way in which we participate in the Paschal Mystery is in the Liturgy and the Eucharist. The secondary way is through our devotional life, as in the Imitation of Christ or the Stations of the Cross.
The Catechism consistently matches the term Paschal Mystery to Christ’s Cross and Resurrection. I believe the Paschal Mystery provides a framework par excellence that we invite others to participate in.
It is not quite enough for us to have Catholics return to the Church through sinner’s prayers, altar calls, or acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. We accept Christ on much grander terms as we engage with the whole Church, the whole communion of Saints, united to the offering on the Altar, united to Christ who is our high priest in heaven.
Just as the Hebrews recognize their salvation upon the feast of the Paschal Lamb, and their Passage through the Dead Sea, so we recognize our salvation by the feast of Christ our Paschal Lamb, passing through the sea of sin and death, and into resurrection and eternity.
The whole liturgical life itself is on a cycle, in which all the Earth proclaims Christ’s saving glory. We meet to worship and receive our Risen Savior on Sundays, which, to the early Christians is the eighth day (CCC 1166) of the new creation of Christ’s saving work. The rising sun itself points to Christ the Risen One. The Feast of Easter itself stands at the brink of winter’s demise and spring’s dawning.
This is summed up quite beautifully in the Preface of the Roman Missal, attesting to the proclamation rooted in our commemoration of the Paschal Mystery in Christ:
For through his Paschal Mystery,
he accomplished the marvelous deed,
by which he has freed us from the yoke of sin and death,
summoning us to the glory of being now called
a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for your own possession,
to proclaim everywhere your mighty works,
for you have called us out of darkness
into your own wonderful light…
(Roman Missal, 3rd Ed.)
The Paschal Mystery has touches of glory, and it has touches of sorrow. For ages it seems, we have been quite gifted at emphasizing the sorrow, with a variety of devotions and forms of penance.
In our sorrow we experience the Paschal Mystery in an ordinary way. That is why we do seize these moments on Fridays and throughout the Lent, to have the Cross of Christ transform our suffering into meaning, hope, and glory. Considering how infrequently people do penance and acknowledge the Paschal Mystery, it has made us so ineffective as a people in coping with suffering in this culture of death.
If we take our fasting seriously, we must take our feasting seriously, or it begins to look like an obsession. It is within this scope that our penance makes sense. The Mass itself acknowledges this reality of how greatly we are losers.
Yet Christ is victorious over our sinfulness. This is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, this is the Penitential Rite.
This is the life that we are proclaiming and inviting others to in this New Evangelization, but do we? Are we trying to get people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or with the Church, while forgetting this grand redeeming wellspring of life?
Often, many Catholics I know, myself included, come to Mass to get their Jesus fix in Communion. The bread is literally changed into Christ’s Body and the wine is literally changed into Christ’s Blood.
Sometimes I walk out changed, sometimes my heart softens, or emboldens for Christ’s Mission.
Our New Evangelization needs to be rooted in this Paschal Mystery and Eucharistic spirituality. The grace of transformation offered in every opportunity we have to participate becomes the wellspring which will effectively stand at the center of our proclamation of the Good News of Christ.
Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord!
Copyright © 2012, Mark Menegatti
Mark Menegatti
Brother Mark Menegatti is a Friar with the Order of Saint Augustine. He is a hip hop beatmaker & lyricist for the New Evangelization. Under the patronage of Saint Ephrem of Syria, he integrates theology, mysticism, and hip hop in his blog and in all of his music. He is currently in his fourth year of Theology in Chicago, and looks forward to ordination to the Priesthood. You can find his writings, theological reflections, chastity exhortations, and original music on his tumblr. He’s also found at Bandcamp music page, Twitter, and Facebook.
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