For a human society to exist it is necessary that its members agree, presuppose a common code of values, norms, functions, and above all a language. This code is the object of convention, which constitutes the symbolic order in human society. As Chauvet writes, “the symbolic order is to indicate that all the elements of the cultural puzzle are joined to one another and that each element acquires its significance only by being put back into the conventional diversity”.[1] Therefore, there is no symbolic order without partners to the other. Without the signs and the symbols, it is impossible to enter into communion with one another in our daily lives. We use lot of signs and symbols to express ourselves to others. Primarily to understand the theological meaning of the symbol, let us try to understand the meaning of the concepts; then it would be easy to understand the theological meaning of them, when they are used in our liturgy.
1. ‘Sign’-The Meaning
Signs are physical objects, events, or human actions
which point beyond themselves in such a way as to express some further reality,
occurrence or human conception.[2] Commonly a
sign has always a fixed meaning. Example for this could be a
sign post or a signal which gives us information and tells us what to do. It is
commonly understood with fixed meanings. A sign
is that which reveals a hidden reality. And any sign helps
us to communicate with people. Therefore, any sign gives us
information and has a fixed meaning. Any sign points to another,
draws attention to something else than itself. It gives information about
something.
Ex. Car parking, Traffic signals.. Way to Pollachi
50 km.
Kinds of signs: According to A.
Verheul, signs can be divided into three different types as natural signs,
social/cultural/free signs and personal signs.[3]
i) Natural
signs: The natural signs come from the nature of the things themselves
such as smoke, fire etc., in this type: there is always a relationship of
dependency between the sign and the thing signified. These signs are
independent of the will of man and have a universal value. Whenever there
is smoke, there is fire, and the footprints of a person/animal … walking.
ii) Social/Cultural/
free signs: It is based on culture, and will be different according to the
culture. They are things, actions and gestures freely chosen by man to express the
reality and there is no connection with the nature. For example a
national flag, stamp, uniform etc are the free signs and they generally
dependent on the culture so they are also called cultural
signs. They don’t have the universal value they cannot be recognized
by everybody. To know them one should have the knowledge of the
culture in which they originate. For example ‘a piece of white cloth’ is a sign
of mourning in China and Japan; whereas in India it is a sign for
peace and joy; and the sign for mourning is “black”.
iii) Personal
signs: it is based on the personal
interest of the individual. Personal signs speak about the interest
of the individual person by which a person expresses his/her inner self or the
personality. The way of combing the hair, dressing; buying of things etc are
the ways of expression of an individual in relation to others.
We can discover a twofold function for the sign that
it reveals the hidden reality and puts us into contact with it. In fact, the
sign belongs to the order of the knowledge or information. Therefore “the sign
is situated on the side of saying something about something; and information
about something”.[4]
2. ‘Symbol’ -The
Meaning
The word “symbol” comes from the Greek word: “συμβάλλειν” (sumbaleon)
which means “to throw together” “to place together” “to put together”.[5] But in the ordinary sense,
symbol means the two matching parts of a broken ring, staff, tablet, or coin
joined to form a unity.[6] A symbol is closer to the thing signified, and is
less arbitrary than the sign. Thus, we can say that all symbols are signs, but
not all signs are symbols. Thus the symbol is the reality in which another
attains knowledge of a being. Therefore, we can say that all human situations,
events, persons, and even material things have a symbolic value through which we
get the knowledge of a being/person. In this
line, Chauvet writes “the symbol belongs to the order of recognition”.[7]
3. Symbols in Liturgy
It is
interesting to observe that the symbols used in our liturgical celebrations are
the natural symbols – water; human symbols – community; and the transcendental
symbols. For example, the liturgical assembly enables us as one community
having the same faith in God, the ekklesia- the church. However, the believing
human community is visible to our senses are not merely as a group of people
but as one community having and expressing the same faith in God. On this basis
“the liturgical assembly stands as the symbol of God’s call to salvation”[8] which is basically a call
to faith and conversion.
The
liturgical celebration is accomplished outwardly through visible signs which
are either material things: such as water, bread, wine, oil or the bodily
actions such as immersion, laying on of hands, breaking of bread, eating,
drinking, anointing are not merely rituals but they are sacramental actions.
The liturgical signs have the dependency on Christ and of his Church. Christ
has given a New Testament orientation to various natural symbols that we use in
our liturgy. Ecclesial symbol of spiritual washing away of
sins. Bread which symbolizes bodily nourishment become a
liturgical-sacramental sign of spiritual nourishment.
The symbolic structure in liturgy develops on the
mystery of life, death and resurrection of Christ. Thus by the understanding of
symbol in the liturgical practice has the dual structure: mystery and
nature. Even though they are distinct but they are inseparable. The
mysterious presence of God can be seen in the Church through the sacraments in
a symbolic way. In fact, the “Sacraments belong to the order of the doing and
not of ideas. This doing is symbolic; it aims at properly joining
Christ and the church together with the members among themselves as daughters,
sons, sisters and brothers in Christ”.[9]
4. The Theology of Symbol.
Theologians attempt to show that faith is not only
rational but also reasonable. For this they use the tools of analysis and
reflection at their disposal. This approach through symbol can be
one way of getting nearer to the mystery. The theological basis of the entire
symbolism of the liturgy is the Incarnation of Jesus. Jesus by his
passion, death and resurrection has saved the whole humanity. The saving act of
Jesus is not a past event; but becomes the present event. For us now
since his Resurrection, Christ is invisible to us. The sign character of his
divinized humanity has passed into the holy signs of the liturgy. In
our liturgical celebration the same divine and redeeming power that operated in
Christ is now present to us through sacraments, which are perceptible to our
senses. However, sacraments are regarded as the symbolic activity of the
Church, of Christ, and of man.
According to Rahner “the sacraments
make concrete life of the individual, the symbolic reality of the church as the
primary sacrament and therefore constitute a symbolic reality. Thus
the sacraments are described in theology as ‘sacred signs’ of God’s grace”.[10] The invisible grace of God is realized
symbolically through the sacraments.
God’s salvific action on man, from its foundations to
its completion, proves in such a way that God himself is the reality of
salvation. Since salvation is given to man not merely as a promised reality but
exhibits, something is present in the reality, by means of the formed symbol.[11]
Always the sacraments signify the
action of Christ through the Church; reveals to the world the face of both God
and man and celebrates them in joy and peace. Even more than the
Church, Christ himself reveals, actualizes and celebrates the true being of God
and man by commemorating his own mystery, fulfilling it and prefiguring the
future.
Vatican II SC 33. Says “the visible
sings helps us to signify the invisible divine reality i.e. God” The symbols
can be objects, words, silence, actions, gestures and song which helps us to
enter into real relationship with God. Faith has to be expressed in
the ways of sings and symbols. SC. 60 says “the sacred signs which
bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects,
particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the church’s
intercession.
[1] L. M. Chauvet, The
Sacraments, tras. P. Madigan & M. Beaumont, The Liturgical Press,
Collegeville, MN 2001, 15.
[2] A. C. Thiselton, “Sign,
Symbol”, in A New Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, ed. J. G.
Davies, SCM Press LTD, London 31986, 491.
[3] A.Verheul, Introduction
to the Liturgy, Antony Clarke Books, Herder -Vienna 1972,
106.
[4] Chauvet, The
Sacraments, 76.
[5] Chauvet, The Sacraments, 14.
[6] D. Sartore,“Segno/Simbolo”, in Nuovo Dizionario di
Liturgia, Eds. D. Sartore & A. M. Triacca, Paoline, Roma
1984, 1377.
[7] Chauvet, The
Sacraments, 76.
[8] Chupungco, “Symbolism and
Liturgical Celebration”, 175.
[9] Chauvet, The
Sacraments, 85.
[10] Rahner, “The Theology of
the Symbol”, 241.
[11] Rahner, “The Theology of
the Symbol”, 245.
