The Vatican, September 28^th 2002

"Each liturgical celebration, which is the work of Christ the Priest and of His Body, which is the Church, is a holy act par excellence, and no other act of the Church equals its efficaciousness with the same right and the same degree" (See Sacrosanctum concilium, 7). This statement by the Constitution of the Second Vatican Council concerning the holy liturgy, introduces exceptionally well the subject of our theological meditations today on the Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council to our times..

Today’s eleventh video-conference, held within the framework of the permanent formation of priests, wishes to provide a new contribution for answering the fundamental question asked by the Holy Father in 1994, in his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente: "Is the liturgy experienced as the "source and culmination" of ecclesial life according to the teachings of the Sacrosanctum Concilium?"

This question is still pertinent because, in presenting it John Paul II addresses the faithful in the Church so that during the jubilee event they might welcome in the faith Christ’s redeeming work, with this query the Pope also indicated that Redemption embraces all time and is present and effective in all places within the Church’s holy Liturgy.

The Crucifixion and the Resurrection are not events of the past, engulfed by the movement of history, because they belong to Christ: "everything that Christ is – states the Catechism of the Catholic Church-, all that He has accomplished and suffered for all mankind, participates in the divine eternity" (see no .1085). Christ is a jubilee door that is always open!

At the beginning of the third millennium, believers and in particular the holy Ministers need to ask themselves whether the furrow traced by the Second Vatican Council and by the later Magistery is now fecund, whether the liturgical doctrine has become the life of their lives. This because the liturgy always represents a coming into contact with the eternal Love, with the splendour of Truth that it releases: it is The time of Jesus (see John 13,1; 17,1) which lasts until the end of time, in which He draws to himself the whole creation, introducing mankind to the divine Trinitarian life, so as to transform mankind with Him into only one thing (Gal 3,28).

In each liturgy of the Church we should be able to hear the Paul’s exhortation, in the letter to the Ephesians, and introduced by Epiphanius in the primitive Church’s baptismal liturgy: "Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee". (PG 43, n. 440; see Eph 5,14).

Let us therefore listen with these intentions to the words of the Theologians invited to participate in this international conference, which sees nine nations in five continents in a live link-up. I wish to greet you all warmly and would like to thank you all in advance.

From Rome, in the head offices of the Congregations for the Clergy, we will listen to speeches by Professor Bruno Forte, Professor Jean Galot, Professor Gerhard Ludwig Muller and Professor Anthony Ward.

From Johannesburg we shall hear Professor Stewart Bate; from Bogotá Professor Silvio Cajiao, from Madrid Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco, from New York Professor Michael Hull, from Manila Professor Gregory Gaston, from Sydney Professor Peter Williams, from Taipei –Taiwan Professor Louis Aldrich, and from Moscow Professor Bogdan T. Sewerynik.

I wish you all a pleasant conference.