Wokół teologicznego sensu liturgii: przełamywanie stereotypów

Abstract

A reduced or even wrong perception and understanding of the sacred liturgy of the Mystical Body of Christ belongs to the most frequent stereotypes referring to the reality of the Church. A stereotypical perception of liturgy – almost exclusively in spiritual and psychological, ceremonial and aesthetic or at most cultural and laudative categories has numerous reasons. One of them, in case of the lay faithful, is undoubtedly a lack of deeper teaching and appropriate homiletic and catechetic presentation by theologians and priests. Unfortunately, some theologians who are not liturgists yield to the reduced understanding of liturgy. It appears that they do not see the fact that the aim and essence of Christian liturgy, apart from its cult dimension, is the real presence hic et nunc of the Mystery of Christ and the whole history of salvation in mysterio. The article demonstrates the contribution of the pioneers of the liturgical movement, such as Pius XII and Odo Casel, to the proper understanding of Christian liturgy and the process of evolutionary overcoming this stereotypical understanding of the essence of the Church’s liturgy.