by Bishop James Conley
I am writing this column on December 4, 2023, the 60th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the first of 16 major documents promulgated by the Second Vatican Council.
In the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church there have been 21 such general councils. Although sometimes not included in the list, the first of the general councils of the Church, the Council of Jerusalem, took place around 48-50 AD and is recounted for us in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15:1-31. This Council dealt with the thorny issue of how to integrate the Gentile converts into the new body of Christian believers.
Over the past 2,000 years general or “ecumenical” councils took up various issues pertaining to the life, teachings and practice of the Catholic faith. The Second Vatican Council was convoked by Pope St. John XXIII Oct. 11, 1962 and was concluded by Pope St. Paul VI Dec. 8, 1965.
While it is true that Vatican II took up a variety of issues facing the Catholic Church in the mid-20th century, St. Pope John Paul II, himself a participant in Vatican II as a young Polish archbishop, summed up the central purpose of the Second Vatican Council some 25 years after the beginning of the Council. He said the Council was fundamentally a universal call to holiness. He wrote that “the call to holiness is precisely the basic charge entrusted to all the sons and daughters of the Church by a Council which intended to bring a renewal of the Christian life based on the Gospel” (Christifideles Laici 16, 1988).
One might, rightly then, ask why was a document on the sacred liturgy promulgated first? In his opening speech of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, St. John XXIII said the purpose of the Council was to “strengthen the spiritual energies” so that the Church “will become greater in spiritual riches.” While each of the 16 documents of the Council contributes in its own way to all these goals, Sacrosanctum Concilium most directly concerns the goals of spiritual renewal, since the public worship of God is the source and summit of the entire life of the Church.
Speaking on this same point early in his pontificate, St. John Paul II, noted that “a very close and organic bond exists between renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the life of the Church. The Church not only acts but also expresses herself in the liturgy and draws from the liturgy the strength for her life” (Dominicae Cenae 13, Feb. 24, 1980).
This is one of the principal reasons why the U.S. Bishops, in June of 2022, called for a Eucharistic Revival, with hopes of renewing a deeper and renewed appreciation and love for the Holy Eucharist, which is at the heart of the sacred liturgy. I have been long convinced that unless there is a true renewal of the sacred liturgy, a renewal of the public worship by the Church, the “new evangelization” in the 21st century will never be successful. Unless we experience a true encounter with Jesus in sacred worship, a personal encounter with the Risen Lord, our lives will not be truly transformed.
There is an ancient and wise Latin maxim attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, a fifth century Christian and contemporary of St. Augustine: lex orandi, lex credendi, which simply translates “the law of prayer” (the way we worship) is “the law of belief” (what we believe.)
In other words, liturgical worship is not an “add-on” for a Catholic Christian. It is the very foundation of Catholic identity. Liturgical worship expresses our highest purpose: love, praise, and adoration of Almighty God. In the words of Jesus, this is the first and greatest of the commandments, “to love the Lord thy God with all our heart, mind and soul.” Right worship reveals who we really are and what we truly believe, and how we view ourselves in relationship to God, one another, and the world.
This was the principal reason why the people of Israel sought to be liberated from the bonds of slavery under Egyptian captivity, so that they could go out into the desert and worship freely the one true God. Moses and Aaron said to Pharoah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness” (Ex 5:1). The worship of the one true God is what the children of a loving father do.
Another reason why the council fathers promulgated a document on the sacred liturgy first was undoubtedly due to the fact that there had been a significant movement of liturgical reform already underway for decades, particularly under the pontificate of Pope Pius XII.
Just after the Second World War in 1947, Pope Pius XII published an encyclical on the sacred liturgy entitled Mediator Dei. In fact, going all the way back to Pope St. Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, scholars had already been writing and publishing research on the renewal of the sacred liturgy—names like Dom Odo Casel, Lambert Beauduin, Pius Parsch, and Romano Guardini, just to name a few. These and many others were part of a liturgical renewal which had its roots in the 19th century.
Jeff Schinstock, the diocesan director of the Office Religious Education, in collaboration with the Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies and the Newman Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, inaugurated a series of conferences on the Second Vatican Council. My esteemed predecessor, Bishop Emeritus Fabian W. Bruskewitz, gave the inaugural conference on a general introduction to the Second Vatican Conference, back on Sept. 29. If you were unable to attend that conference, you can view it on the diocesan YouTube channel.
Not surprisingly, it was a brilliant and entertaining overview of the Second Vatican Council from someone who, as a young priest doing graduate studies in Rome, was invited to serve as an usher at the final session in the fall of 1965. The insights and behind-the-scene stories of this historic Council are absolutely fascinating.
I was only 7 years old when the Second Vatican Council began, and I was not even a Catholic at the time. But during my seminary studies in 1980, we studied extensively the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
I have always had a profound love for the sacred liturgy, and I was honored by the invitation from Jeff Schinstock to deliver the second conference in this series on the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. My presentation will be Friday, Dec. 8, at 6:30 p.m., in the chapel of St. John XXIII Center, 3500 Sheridan Blvd., followed by a reception in Dawson Hall. Bishop Bruskewitz will offer Holy Mass at 5:30 p.m. in the chapel. I invite all who are interested to please come. Registration is available at https://www.lincolndiocese.org/evangelization.
