Day 156: How the Liturgy is Celebrated

Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. the sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfill the types and figures of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation wrought by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of heaven. CCC 1152

In today's reading, the Catechism begins to look at how the liturgy is celebrated. The focus in this first part is on "signs and symbols". The Catechism Compendium gives a summary:

Some come from created things (light, water, fire, bread, wine, oil); others come from social life (washing, anointing, breaking of bread). Still others come from the history of salvation in the Old Covenant (the Passover rites, the sacrifices, the laying on of hands, the consecrations). These signs, some of which are normative and unchangeable, were taken up by Christ and are made the bearers of his saving and sanctifying action. (#237)

Christianity is a religion in which God's created matter is a part and signs and symbols are also present of sacred realities. In the sacraments, for example, we find water while the Eucharist has bread and wine, both instituted by Christ. Without the Holy Spirit, the baptismal water would just make one wet instead of cleansing us of sin, along with giving us sanctifying grace and a new life in Christ. Further, without the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine of the Eucharist would just give us a snack instead of uniting us with Christ and His Body the Church, forgiving us of venial sins, and providing us with spiritual nourishment. We see examples of this in the Gospels, wherein Christ uses matter in a holy manner. Take for instance Jesus' healing of a blind man in John 9:1-12. He could have done it with a word just as He did in healing the centurion's servant (Lk 7:1-10). Instead, He used His own spittle and dirt on the ground to make "clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay". 

I do like how the Catechism Companion, Vol II after speaking of how "we see 'spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols,'" notes that:

These signs and symbols that Jesus actually did and said have spiritual power. That power is communicated to us in the sacraments. When the words and gestures are communicated, these actions that are natural become supernatural. These actions from Jesus that come to us in the sacraments become salvific. (p. 76)