SPEECH
by His Most Reverend Eminence the Cardinal
Darío Castrillón Hoyos
Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy
On the occasion
of the fourth video-conference
"Sacramentarian Theology from the Second Vatican Council to
our times"
within the framework of the
permanent formation for the clergy
From the Holy See, December 15th 2001
After having discussed during our previous meetings the life of Christ and of His Church, the path for encountering and establishing a unity with God that is fully accomplished in celestial Jerusalem, today we shall discuss the subject of: "Sacramentarian Theology from the Second Vatican Council to our times".
"Et Verbum caro factun est" (John 1, 14): The Word of the living God who, in the fullness of time, has become flesh, now, in the time of the Church, becomes the sacramental Word.
"What was visible in our Saviour has past into His mysteries", we were told by Saint Leo Magnus (see Sermons 74,2: PL54,398ª). The mysteries of the life of Christ constitute in fact the foundations of all that, in recent times, The Lord dispenses in the Sacraments through the ministers of His Church (see. CCC n. 1115). The sacraments are essentially actio Christi, and in them the presence of He who has Risen is resplendent, He who bestowed and continues to bestow the gift of the Spirit of God upon the believers.
The world is in need of transcendence, it yearns to know and experience that human life is inserted in divine life. The sacraments of the New Alliance bestow the capacity upon mankind: to transcend what is limited and contingent, to join in the immensity and eternity of God, and to recuperate the sense of all that is sacred in their own existence, living a new life, a life of grace.
"Quia sine dominico non possumus" (Acta SS Saturnini et aliorum plurimorum martyrum, 9: PL 8,709): "because we cannot exist without the day of the Lord"! This was the answer given by the martyrs of Abitine, in proconsular Africa, to those who interrogated them during the persecutions of Diocletian, whose edict forbade the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist (see JOHN PAUL II, Letter. Dies Domini ,n.46). And we, who profess the Resurrection of Christ as the foundation of which all the sacramental liturgy rests: repeat, that without the sacraments of the Lord we cannot survive!
This makes total sense of the permanent formation of priests as formation at the service of the sacraments of the Church. The ministers of Christ are identified with Him and sent by Him, because in His name, in His person, they may bestow upon the Church all that Christ wishes the Church to be, His beloved Bride, celebrating incessantly in a state of grace, until His return.
As on previous occasions the entire video-conference will take place live and linked to five continents. First of all we shall have three conferences, each lasting twenty minutes, and afterwards speeches lasting three minutes each. In the first part we shall see the presentation by His Excellency Professor Monsignor Angelo Scola, Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, followed by thoughts by Professor Father Aloysius Chang S.I. in Taipei, and by Professor Father Stuart Bate in Johannesburg.
Following these there will be a series of three minute speeches: from Madrid, Professor Father Alfonso Carrasco Rouco; from Manila Professor Father Gregory Gaston; from New York Professor Father Michael Hull; from Bogotà Professor Silvio Cajiao S.I.; from Sydney Professor Father Julian Porteous. Then we shall return once again to Rome, where from our offices for the Congregation for the Clergy, there will be speeches by Professor Father Antonio Miralles, Professor Father Giovanni Battista Mondin and Professor H.E. Monsignor Rino Fisichella.