YOUCAT Question n. 181 - Part III. Why are there so many signs and symbols in the liturgies?
(Youcat answer - repeated) God knows
that we men are not only spiritual but also bodily creatures; we need signs and
symbols in order to perceive and describe spiritual or interior realities.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 1149) The great religions of mankind witness, often
impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The
liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from
creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace,
of the new creation in Jesus Christ.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) Whether it is red roses, a
wedding ring, black clothing, graffiti, or aids armbands—we always express our
interior realities through signs and are understood immediately. The incarnate
Son of God gives us human signs in which he is living and active among us:
bread and wine, the water of Baptism, the anointing with the Holy Spirit. Our
response to God’s sacred signs instituted by Christ consists in signs of
reverence: genuflecting, standing while listening to the Gospel, bowing,
folding our hands. And as though for a wedding we decorate the place of God’s
presence with the most beautiful things we have: flowers, candles, and music.
In any case, signs also require words to interpret them.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1150) Signs of the
covenant. The Chosen People received from God distinctive signs and symbols
that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations of cosmic
cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of God's mighty
deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are
circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of
hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a
prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant.
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