Silvio Cajiao, S.I.

We are told in the Letter to the Hebrews that "In the old days, God spoke to our fathers in many ways and by many means, through the prophets, now at last, he has spoken to us with a Son to speak for Him" (Heb 1,1-2 a); this shows us theology as the mediating element between God and the men in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and it points out to us how God wished to be communicated in a definite manner through the Word Incarnate, meaning His own Son.

Likewise, at the end of the prologue for Saint John’s Gospel, we observe how the presentation that John makes of Jesus Christ as the Word, with a capital letter, establishes a decisive expression of the definite revealing role, in view of the fact that he says: "No man has ever seen God: but now His only-begotten Son, who abides in the bosom of the Father, has Himself revealed Him" (John 1,18).

At the same time, the Dei Verbum Constitution of the Second Vatican Council tells us that "This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation." (n. 2).

Hence the wish to present a meditation on the relationship between "word" and "sacrament" in the context that follows the Second Vatican Council places us in an interdisciplinary field of work, since today in depth studies of the science of languages has been greatly enriched by linguistics, which in turn must be set in the ambit of the study of human sciences and necessarily in that of anthropology, epistemology, semiotics and the comparative study of religions.

The communications philosopher Marshall McLuhan believes that real communication is that in which "the medium is the message". For those of us who believe in the God of Jesus Christ, it is exactly what took place with the revelation that the Father wished to make about Himself in His Son. Hence for us history is the history of Redemption and the Church is the historical medium for this redemption, since the church will continue to proclaim as far as the borders of the universe and until the Lord shall transform the Word of Redemption, which in turn becomes the Word that is celebrated and proclaimed. When it is accepted through the faith, it produces what is understood in a sacramental manner, meaning communication with the life of God, participation in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, in His forgiveness, in the incorporation in the community of redemption, the sanctification of human love, consecration at the service of the People of God, the effectiveness of the Word of God which is not spoken by Him in vain.

The approximation with which we human beings face the reality that surrounds us can only take place through representative or symbolic mediation, which, moving beyond the natural signs, articulates coded languages of every kind: phonetic, graphic, musical, artistic, or virtual. The relation between the message and the referent – referential function – and between the message and the code – meta-linguistic function – is in both cases the dynamism of the history of redemption. It is history itself, that allows us to recognize that God has redeemed, redeems and will continue to redeem. In both cases it is also through the liturgical celebration that the primogenial redeeming experience occurs in the present and opens to the future.

But the new generations who have lived in the Church, following the Second Vatican Council, have perhaps been unable to exploit the implications of the decisions stated in the Sacrosanctum Concilium Constitution (n. 36), meaning the making of the content of the mystery celebrated in the liturgy more accessible through the use of national languages. And in reality it is in this manner that the Christian faithful have been able to become aware that it is Christ Himself who works and becomes present in all the liturgical acts and in the prayers of the community, but in a special way article number 7 of that Constitution tells us that: "He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church".

No.1101 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: "The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the dispositions of their hearts. By means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration, the Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the Word and Image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration".

Therefore the care that we, the Servants of that Word, must take in its preparation is of the utmost importance, because our word must go forth together with the Word of God that is proclaimed, preaching it and adapting it to the circumstances of time, places, cultures, mentalities, liturgical cycles, realistic conditions of the communities in which that Word lives and is nourished.

Thank you.

Corpas de Posada, Isabel, Teología de los Sacramentos. – Experiencia cristiana y lenguaje sacramental eclesial, San Pablo, Santafé de Bogotá 1993. There is a vast bibliography at the end of this book.

Rocchetta, Carlo, Sacramentaria fondamentale – Dal "mysterion" al "sacramentum", EDB, Bologna 1990. This volume also contains a vast bibliography.