On Mystagogy

From sign to reality.

Triptych with Birth, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ, Hans Memling, 1510.

In the practice of the early Church, there was a further stage of initiation into the Church that occurred after the Sacraments of Initiation. Called “mystagogy,” it generally occurred during the period between Easter and Pentecost. It was intended to guide the initiates, now illumined by new life, to a full appreciation for what they had received. In essence, it was an unfolding of the mysteries contained in the sacraments and the whole life of the Church.

Technically defined as “post-baptismal catechesis” or “liturgical catechesis” (cf. CCC 1075), mystagogy takes for its starting point the visible rites and significant elements of the sacraments and shows their connection to God's salvific actions in history. This connection opens up the reality of mystery of God’s eternal plan now active in the lives of those who have received it.

To study the connection between the signs of the sacraments and history requires an examination of Scripture. Mystagogy, therefore, involves an examination of biblical typology and an exegesis of the liturgy.

Biblical typology refers to the practice already present in the Old and New Testaments in which this or that element of a story serves as a typos or “type” of another, larger reality or antitypos (“antitype”). As a wax seal or stamped coin points to another and larger reality, so too the cleansing Flood of Genesis points to the passage of Israel through the Red Sea. St. Peter, too, shows the progress of types to their antitypes when he associates the Flood with the cleansing waters of Baptism (cf. 1 Pt 3:18-22). In a similar way, mystagogy examines the concrete signs of the sacraments as antitypes of the earlier realities of the Old Testament.

Since the salvific “once-for-all” actions of Christ are the source of the sacraments (cf. CCC 1084ff), mystagogy seeks also for the antitypical realities in Christ of which the sacramental signs are the types.

In so doing, mystagogy engages in an attentive study of the incarnate reality of the liturgy as exercised in faithfulness to Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium. Rather than inviting participants to project their own interpretations onto the ceremonies, mystagogy aims to unfold the hidden meaning contained within. In this way, it is not dissimilar from the process of studying Scripture. Scott Hahn has gone so far as to maintain that “mystagogy is to liturgy what exegesis is to Scripture.”¹

The object of this “liturgical exegesis” is the mystery of God himself. All of the mysteries contained in the sacraments originate from the Paschal Mystery of Christ, and are sustained in these latter days by the gift and presence of the Spirit, poured out on the Church at Pentecost (cf. CCC 1084ff). But the significance of the work of the Son and the Spirit ultimately originate in the eternal, Triune reality of the Godhead, whence they proceed eternally from the bosom of the Father (cf. CCC 232ff).

It is his eternal blessing and the joint mission of Son and Spirit that originated the cosmos, initiated salvation history, reached its fulness in the Paschal Mystery, continuously “breaks through” through the power of the Spirit in the sacramental celebrations of the Church, and is leading to the final fulfillment of that blessing in that perfect union that constitutes the life to come.

Thus, mystagogy seeks to engage a new sense of “time.” Whereas in the ordinary sense of time, an event once passed is no longer accessible, except through the insufficient power of man’s memory; in this new sense, when we act liturgically and perform the symbolic actions of the sacraments, we come into contact with the eternal reality that underlies the cosmos and all of history: God himself. According to Ratzinger, the Incarnation has resulted in the co-existence of time and eternity in the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the more we live as members of his Body, the more we live in co-existence with the eternality of God.

Mystagogy, therefore, begins with the concrete, incarnate reality of the sacraments before us, and proceeds by examining biblical typology to uncover the reality of God's present action in each of the sacraments in order to enter into the movement of grace that is leading us into the mystery of God himself - now, and in the life to come.

Far from merely an academic exercise, mystagogy aims to lead believers deeper and deeper into fruitful union with God. “The Father is working and I am working” says Christ (Jn 5:17). The mystery of God’s blessing includes the subjective element of our participation in receiving that blessing and bearing fruit.

St. Paul, speaking of sacrilegious partakings of the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34), and the Catechism indicate that the sacraments themselves do not bear fruit in the lives of Christians if they approach the sacred mysteries without proper dispositions (e.g., CCC 1131). Surely, there are fully contrary dispositions that pervert the actions themselves and create sacrilege. But even within the category of dispositions that are not opposed to the action of grace, there are degrees of dispositions that allow us to be more and more completely united with God in his grace which will lead to greater and greater fruit - acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity concretely lived out.

Mystagogy, properly done, aims at participating in the work of God’s grace to transform the Church, each member, and the cosmos as a whole, making “all things new” in the Heavenly Jerusalem, where the righteous shall be planted beside the river of life, and their leaves shall be for the healing of the world (Rev. 21-22.).

1. Cf. Taft, quoted and emphasized in Hahn, Letter and Spirit, Doubleday, New York, 2005, p. 26.