Liturgy as a celebration of God’s unique revelation in Jesus Christ and a source of renewal for the Church

This contribution seeks to develop an understanding of the liturgy as the privileged locus of the actualisation of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ and as a constitutive source of ecclesial renewal. Its point of departure is Paul Claudel’s experience of conversion during the Christmas Vespers of 1886 at Notre-Dame de Paris, interpreted paradigmatically in the light of Joseph Ratzinger’s diagnosis of the so-called “new pagans”. From this perspective, the Church’s present crisis appears less as the result of external processes of secularisation and more as the manifestation of an inner alienation from the personal content of belief. Within this framework, the central affirmations of the conciliar constitutions Dei verbum, Lumen gentium, and Sacrosanctum concilium are examined as expressions of the Second Vatican Council’s return to the Christological foundations of ecclesiology. Further attention is given to the liturgy as fons et culmen of ecclesial life, in which God’s revelation becomes present in sacramental form. Particular emphasis is finally placed on the liturgical reform—especially the introduction of the vernacular languages—insofar as it opens up the space for an existential encounter with God capable of engendering an authentic renewal of personal faith. Taken as a whole, the liturgy emerges as the structuring principle and primary source of the Church’s renewal.