Day 148: The Holy Spirit's Work in the Liturgy

In the liturgy, the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of "God's masterpieces," the sacraments of the New Covenant. the desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live from the life of the risen Christ. When the Spirit encounters in us the response of faith which he has aroused in us, he brings about genuine cooperation. Through it, the liturgy becomes the common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church. CCC 1091

In today's reading, the Catechism speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit and the Church in the liturgy. The Catechism summarizes the Church's teaching in this section:

The very closest cooperation is at work in the liturgy between the Holy Spirit and the Church. The Holy Spirit prepares the Church to encounter her Lord. He recalls and manifests Christ to the faith of the assembly. He makes the mystery of Christ really present. He unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ and makes the gift of communion bear fruit in the Church. (#223)

The Holy Spirit prepares us and through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, Christ is present for us. This does take cooperation from us, however, for God never forces us against our free will to respond to Him in love. The sacraments are no exception to this. We can reject Him or remain indifferent to Him. The Catechism Companion, Vol II notes:

The sacraments are not magic. They happen in cooperation with us. If we receive Holy Communion every single day but we do not cooperate and shape our wills to the Father's will, we will be unchanged. We are never meant to show up to the sacraments and leave the exact same way that we arrived; we are meant to be changed. (p. 60)

Another way to put this is that if we do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit and thereby remain unchanged in receiving the Eucharist, we risk eternal consequences. This recalls what St. Paul wrote that reception of the Eucharist "in an unworthy manner" makes one "guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" and whoever does this "eats and drinks judgment upon himself" (1 Cor 11:27-30).

I really like how the Catechism speaks of how "the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant" and the liturgy "has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable" (CCC 1093). The liturgy reveals a harmony between the Old and New Testaments, which unveils the mystery of Christ to us (CCC 1094). Everything is connected and nothing that came before fails to reveal to us through the Holy Spirit, the glory of Jesus Christ. The Companion notes:

Many things that we do in the liturgy have their roots in Scripture. The Christian liturgy is the fulfillment of everything that was laid down by the Law of Moses. The Jewish way of worship is fulfilled in Jesus. (p. 60)