How is Christ present in the Liturgy?

PLEASE SELECT A QUESTION ... ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO FAITH F-1. Does God really answer our prayers? ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO MORALITY M-1. How do Melkites view birth control? M-2. What is your opinion of homosexuality and the "face of being Gay" within the Church? M-3. What is the teaching on Abortion? What about politicians who support pro-abortion stances and laws? M-4 What is the "Rite of Making Brothers?" ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES R-1. How does one "change rites" to become Melkite Catholic? R-2. What is distinctive about the Melkites and the other Eastern Catholic Churches? R-3. Are we Orthodox united with Rome? R-4. May we participate in Orthodox services? R-5. Can the heritage of the three branches of the Patriarchate of Antioch be preserved? R-6. What is the relationship between the Melkite clergy and the Pope? Why and how is the Pope commemorated in the Melkite Church? R-7. When can there be re-union with Constantinople? R-8. What can be done to share Eastern Catholicism with other Catholics? R-9. How do the Pope's encyclicals and teachings impact on the Melkites? ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO WORSHIP AND RITUAL W-1. How is Christ present in the Liturgy? W-2. What is the proper form of confession? W-3. What is the practice of excommunication? W-4. Why is it that we pray for the dead? What is the Eastern view of Indulgences? W-5. What are the differences between the Eastern Liturgies? (St. John and St. Basil) W-7. Please explain the "Epiclesis" as an element of consecration W-6. What is the Melkite custom for silent prayers during the liturgy? ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MELKITES O-1. How many churches are in the American Melkite Eparchy? O-2. What is the role of the deacon? O-3. How is a new Eastern Catholic parish established? O-4. What are the monastic communities of the Melkites and what are their addresses. O-5. What are the requirements for becoming a priest? How is one ordained a priest? O-6. Where are our seminaries and what is their accreditation? ------ QUESTIONS RELATED TO THEOLOGICAL ISSUES T-1. How does the Church reconcile the flawed and the graced nature of the Human being? T-2. What is the Melkite view of the post-schism Ecumenical Councils? T-3. What is the Melkite view of the Council of Trent? T-4. Can a married Roman Catholic man become a Melkite Priest? T-5. What is your view of Archbishop Zoghby's book, We are All Schismatics? T-6 What is the Melkite understanding on the "Gospel of the Egyptians?" T-7 Why are there snakes shown on various icons?

Question:

How does the Melkite Liturgy stress the four ways in which Christ is present in the liturgy in order of their importance.

We were taught that Jesus is present in the presbyter, the assembly, the Eucharist, and in Scriptures."

Bishop John's Answer

The question asks four ways in which Christ is present in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Melkite Liturgy). Eastern Catholics do not categorize into parts what is a living experience. Furthermore, to attempt to categorize in order of importance is to single out a "moment" in isolation from its liturgical context. This should be avoided as it can only result in a narrowness and one-sidedness in liturgical piety that falls prey to all manner of symbolic and allegorical interpretations and possible liturgical folklore.

The Liturgy is the "Sacrament of the Assembly." Christ came to "gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad" (Jn 11:52), and from the very beginning the Eucharist was a manifestation of the unity of the new people of God, gathered by Christ and in Christ. WE come together not for individual prayer but to assemble together as the Church. This reality is the foundation of the entire liturgy. When we say that we are going to church, it means that we are going into the assembly of the faithful in order, together with them, to constitute the church, in order to be what we became on the day of our baptism - a member, in the fullest, absolute meaning, of the body of Christ. We go to manifest the mystery of the Kingdom of God, which already "has come in power." We are the church, we make it up. Christ abides in his members and the church does not exist outside us or above us, but we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Christianity consists not in bestowing on each the possibility of "personal perfection" but in calling Christians to be the Church The Eucharistic Liturgy is the sacrament of the Kingdom.

In the Divine Liturgy we meet the real presence of Christ in the elements of the Sacrament and in the forgiving, elevating, and fulfilling presence of Christ in our lives. The Divine Liturgy is also the place where the Church itself affirms its existence as the "people of God" where it proclaims the fact that their response to the saving work of Christ has made them members of the Kingdom. The Assembly experience a foretaste of that Eternal Kingdom through the Liturgical Experience.

The Divine Liturgy begins with the words, "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy spirit, now and always, and forever and ever." The Divine Liturgy is the Church being itself; that is , being the Kingdom of God. We are in the presence of the triune God from beginning to end. It is a living transcendent experience which cannot be fulfilled without our being conscious of God's presence transforming us.

The Divine Liturgy becomes the location where we are at the most intense level united with Christ and growing in the image and likeness of God. It is the place of not only "remembering" but of actually sharing in the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as well as His whole incarnate life. It is that action which most of all characterizes us as the Church, emphasizing our real existence as members of God's Kingdom, beginning in this life and extending into eternity. It is the location where time past, time present and time future are gathered for us in ultimate meaning and significance. The Divine Liturgy is a real, practical experienced event which gathers together the meaning of life. In the Liturgy we find the reality of our union with Christ and one another as the Church of God.

All genuine faith is ultimately founded upon direct transcendental experience. The dogma of the Church represents not the expression of an individual mind, but the expression of the mind of the Church as a whole. Eastern Catholics have kept and guarded this vision, this consciousness of the Church, this knowledge that "where the Church is, there is the Holy Spirit and fullness of grace" (Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3:34:1)

Thus, in explaining the liturgical tradition of the church, the first principle of liturgical theology is that one must not proceed from purely intellectual schemata cast randomly over the services, but from the services themselves - and this means from their ordo - the mutual dependence of the celebrant of the service and the people. The Church is Christ in us.