2.

8 Liturgical Movement-Participation
2.8.1 The Origins of “Active Participation”

The Mass as we celebrate it today was carefully crafted in the 1960s following principles
outlined at the Second Vatican Council (1962- 1965). However, calls for this transformation
started much earlier. More than 50 years before the Council there was a movement in Europe
and the United States to renew the liturgy of the church. This movement reached its culmination
with the proclamation of the first document of this Council entitled the Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy. If the goals of the liturgical movement and the message of the Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy could be summed up in two words, it would be these: “active
participation.” Chapter 14 says, “In the reform and promotion of the liturgy ... full and active
participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else.”

In 1947, Pope Pius XII responded to the liturgical movement with a visionary encyclical (letter)
on the liturgy entitled Mediator Dei. The pope spoke eloquently of the liturgy as an act of public
worship, including all of its members. He stressed the importance of both interior and exterior
participation by everyone at Mass. Pope Pius XII understood both the physical and spiritual
elements of human nature. He recognized the need for external – that is bodily – participation
in the liturgies of the church, and stressed the interior – that is spiritual – participation so that
the worshipers can be transformed to be Christ-like. He allowed for the “dialogue Mass” in which
the priest would pray the prayers in an audible voice and the people would respond with the
altar servers.

Pius XII’s letter represented a great step forward in the liturgical movement. Many of the ideas
of the movement, especially active participation, were becoming church policy. But while the
letter encouraged the people in the pews to follow along at Mass, it did not propose any
concrete changes to allow people to understand the Mass and participate in it more fully.
However, Pius X and Pius XII did pave the way for something greater to occur in the area of
active participation: the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, which
called for the full, conscious, and active participation of all the people at Mass.

2.9 Vatican II Reforms (Sacrosanctum Concilium)

2.9.1 What the Constitution says on the Sacred Liturgy about Active Participation of the People

First of all, the Council documents state that the “... full, conscious and active participation in
liturgical celebrations is called for by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the
Christian people as ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people’ (1
Peter 2:9) is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
[CSL] 14 )

And what does the Constitution mean when it says that participation is called for “by the very
nature of liturgy”? It means that the liturgy by its nature is a communal action. Communal
liturgical celebrations are always preferred to “private” ones. Liturgy is at its best when the
people are gathered together with their bishop, and all those present are fully participating in the
celebration (CSL 26, 29, 41).
In order to participate, the liturgy needs to be understood, and so the CSL allowed for liturgy to
be celebrated in the vernacular, or local languages of the people. Pope Paul VI gave a
speech in Saint Peter’s Square in March of 1965 in which he remarked that the use of local
languages had been judged by the church “to be necessary to make its prayer understandable
and grasped by all. The good of the faithful calls for this kind of action, making possible their
active share in the church’s worship.” The pope went on to say that the use of common
languages “means that you, the faithful ... may be able to unite yourselves more closely to the
church’s prayer, pass over from being simple spectators to becoming active participants.” (Paul
VI, “Remarks at the Angelus …” 7 March, 1965. DOL, n.399)

In order to make sure that people could better participate in the liturgy, the Constitution called
for an updating of the church’s liturgical celebrations: “In this reform both texts and rites should
be so drawn up that they express more clearly the holy things they signify and that the Christian
people, as far as possible, are able to understand them with ease and to take part in the rites
fully, actively, and as befits a community.” (CSL 21)

But how did the Constitution envision the people’s active participation? “To promote active
participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations,
responses, psalmody, antiphons and songs, as well as by actions, gestures and bearing. And at
proper times all should observe a reverent silence.” (CSL 30). Appropriate moments of silence
for prayer during the liturgy were also mentioned as a form of active participation.

Each Sunday, millions of people around the world participate in the Mass. They listen to God’s
word, sing psalms and acclamations, take part in the offering, and process forward to receive
Communion. All of these actions and rites were reformed in the years after the promulgation of
the Constitution so that all present can better participate in the liturgies of the church.

2.9.2 Paths to Participation

 Language – Keep it Simple: Language is very important to the liturgy, but it must be
remembered that we come into the presence of God with our bodies as well as our
minds. Participation involved body language as well as spoken language. All
celebrations of the church involve spoken words, but sometimes unnecessary words are
added to the liturgy. The prayers of the Roman Rite are meant to be noble, simple and
succinct. Therefore, the words of the liturgy should be used to enhance, not obscure, the
Divine Presence.

 Signs and the Senses: The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy affirms that, “In the
liturgy, by means of signs perceptible to the senses, human sanctification is signified and
brought about in ways proper to each of these signs …” (CSL 7). In liturgy, tasting,
touching, smelling, listening, walking and standing are just some of the examples of
liturgical body language that are required to insure full participation. The entire body
needs to be engaged at liturgy. Whether we are kneeling in a penitential mode, sitting up
attentively to listen to the readings, or standing in honor of the proclamation of the
Gospel, our body posture should reflect that we are engaged members of the
worshipping community and not mere spectators. When we process up the aisle
 preparing to “taste and see” the risen Lord of the Eucharist our senses become
profoundly aware that we are taking to ourselves that which is our great Mystery of Faith.

 Symbols and Sacraments: Symbolic language is used at liturgy, too. Symbols have a
language all their own which does not involve words. The same symbol can mean
different things simultaneously to different members of the same community. When we
enter into the language of symbols, we enter into communion with Christ himself and the
entire church. Through signs and symbols and especially the Sacraments, we meet
Jesus whenever we celebrate a Sacrament or a liturgy of the church. It is important to
reflect on that meeting with Christ afterwards. This process of reflecting on what we
experience in the liturgy, which we call mystagogy, has been practiced by the church
since its beginning. It is most effective when we reflect with others because then we can
learn from others and discern God’s will in our lives.

 Culture: An important aspect of the active participation of God’s people in the liturgy is
attending to the cultural context in which the celebration takes place. As Pope Benedict
XVI noted in his 2007 Exhortation on the Eucharist (Sacramentum Caritatis), the
participants at the 2005 Bishops Synod on the Eucharist “frequently stressed the
importance of the active participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic sacrifice. In order to
foster this participation, provisions may be made for a number of adaptations appropriate
to different contexts and cultures.” Whether those adaptations are made in preaching, in
catechesis, or in liturgy preparation, awareness of the cultural, economic and social
diversity of the assembly is a crucial factor in fostering participation of all in both the
liturgy and the life of the local community.

 Liturgical Environment: In 2000, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

published a document about the environment of our church buildings entitled Built of
Living Stones. In chapter 31, it states: “The church building fosters participation in the
liturgy. Because liturgical actions, by their nature, are communal celebrations, they are
celebrated with the presence and active participation of the Christian faithful whenever
possible. … The building itself can promote or hinder the ‘full, conscious and active
participation’ of the faithful.” The shape and design, lighting and color, furnishings and
freedom to move will have a definite impact on the ability of the community to actively
participate in the liturgy. A church building needs to be constructed with both
appearance and liturgical usage in mind.

 Music: The recent statement on liturgical music of the U.S. Bishops, Sing to the Lord,
underscores the important role played by musical participation at worship. “Christ, whose
praises we have sung, remains with us and leads us through the church doors to the
whole world … Inspired by sung participation, the body of the Word Incarnate goes forth
to spread the Gospel.” (STL 8,9). When people sing at Mass, they are not just making
music, they are participating in the prayer of the liturgy. Sing to the Lord addresses both
internal and external participation. Listening to prayers voiced by the priest celebrant or
music sung by the choir is a form of internal celebration (STL 12). At other times “our
participation must also be external, so that internal participation can be expressed and
reinforced by actions, gestures and bodily attitudes, and by the acclamations,
responses and singing.” (STL 13)
2.9.3 Conclusion
The better the celebration of the liturgy, the more there is on which to reflect. A liturgy is better
celebrated not only when the ministers do their roles well, but especially when the people
participate fully through all the various liturgical languages. That is why a liturgy needs not only
to be done correctly, but also needs to be rich and expressive in order to touch our hearts and
minds. This is the challenge and opportunity the liturgy presents to each of us every time we
come to the Mass. The language of the liturgy is more than just words. Poetic and symbolic,
liturgical language is something we need to enter into more than understand. It speaks through
mind and body, through sacrament and symbol, through all of the senses. To be a fully
conscious and active member of the assembly, one needs to be able to speak the language of
the liturgy in its many forms.

3. Sign Character of the Liturgy

3.1 Liturgical Signs and symbols

Since the earliest times, the concept of symbolism has been prevalent in every human culture, social
structure, and religious system. Signs and symbols play a vital role as objects upon which thoughts
and prayers can be focused. They point a way through the spiritual world, act as badges of faith,
teaching tools, and aids on the journey towards understanding complex philosophies.

Some 10 Catholic Symbols and Their Meanings

1. Crucifix 2. Alpha and Omega 3.The Cross 4. The Sacred Heart 5. IHS and Chi-Rho
6. The Fish 7. Fleur de Lis 8. The Dove 9. Crossed Keys 10. The Lamb
1. Crucifix
The crucifix is a cross with the figure of the body of Jesus Christ attached to it. This is a
very common Catholic symbol that is often placed on or above the altar where the
Eucharist is celebrated.
What Is the Meaning of the Crucifix?
The crucifix is a symbol of sacrifice and atonement, since, according to the Bible, Jesus
died for the sins of the world. His crucifixion and his death soaked up systematic
injustice, personal evil, violence and other wrongs, and continue to do so for Catholics
everywhere.
Unlike other Christian denominations, which use only the cross, the crucifix is a
powerful symbol of Catholicism, representing the focal point of the Catholic belief: that
Jesus died on the cross to redeem humanity.
What Do the Letters "INRI" Stand for on the Cross?
A crucifix often has the letters "INRI" carved into the wood of the cross. These letters
are short for the Latin phrase, "Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum," which translates to
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."
These are the words which Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea who
sentenced Jesus to death, ordered to be written on the cross on which Jesus Christ was
crucified.

2. Alpha and Omega

Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. They are used at
various times in the Church liturgical year. The alpha and omega have been used by
Catholics since the fourth century as symbols expressing the confidence of orthodox
Christians in the scriptural proofs of God.
What Is the Meaning of Alpha and Omega?
In the book of revelation 22:13, Christ refers to himself as the alpha and the omega.
That is, the first and the last. These two letters symbolize the fact that Christ is the
beginning and the end of all creation.

3. The Cross
The most famous and widespread Christian symbol is the cross. It is found wherever
there is a Christian presence. In Roman times, the cross was an instrument of torture
and public humiliation, and criminals were put to death on crosses.
What Is the Meaning of the Cross?
For Christians, the cross has become a symbol not only of Jesus' death, but also of his
resurrection. While the cross has been around long before the advent of Christianity, the
Easter story (that is, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ) has made the
cross one of the most recognized icons in the world. The cross symbolizes sacrifice,
suffering, repentance, solidarity, and exclusion. These are only a few ways to interpret
the cross. Every Catholic applies their own significance to this perennial symbol.

4. The Sacred Heart

In Catholic art, the Sacred Heart is usually depicted as a flaming heart. It is also usually
shining with divine light, pierced (presumably from a lance), encircled by a crown of
thorns, surmounted by a cross, and bleeding. Sometimes it is shown in the bosom of
Jesus Christ. The wound, thorns, and blood represent Jesus' crucifixion, and the flames
represent the transformative power of divine love.
What Is the Meaning of the Sacred Heart?
The Sacred Heart represents Jesus' physical heart and represents divine love. It is a
devotional of Catholics everywhere and encapsulates the message of Jesus' long-
suffering love and passion towards humanity. On its own, the heart is a symbol of love.
But the Sacred Heart, pierced and wrapped in thorns, shows the depth of Jesus' love. It
indicates that he was prepared to suffer and die for all people, and that his love is
eternal.

5. IHS and Chi-Rho

The letters IHS often appear on liturgical items, building plaques, gravestones, and
sacred vessels. IHS is a shortened form of the Greek word for Jesus, which is
"IHΣΟΥΣ."
The letters X and P are often used as another symbol for Christ. The first two letters of
Christ's name in Greek are X and P. In the Greek alphabet, X equals "CH," and P
equals "R." Also known as the Chi-RhO cross, the letters are usually inscribed one over
the other and are sometimes enclosed within a circle, becoming both a cosmic and a
solar symbol.

6. The Fish
One of the oldest Christian symbols is the fish. It was used by Christians to identify
themselves and each other, often in times of persecution. It is often found in the Roman
catacombs, a secret meeting place during the time when the Christians were
persecuted for their faith by the Romans.
What Is the Meaning of the Fish?
The fish is based on an acrostic of the initial letters of the Greek words for Jesus Christ.
To understand this symbol, you need to know the meaning of the acronym. The Greek
word for fish is "Ichthus," which is also an acronym for Jesus. The Latin, "Iesous
CHristos THeou Uios Soter" translates in English to, "Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Saviour."
Christ also referred to his apostles as "Fishers of Men," while the early Christian fathers
called the faithful "pisculi," which means "fish."
7. Fleur-de-Lis
The fleur-de-lis is a stylized lily composed of three petals bound together at their base.
The lily has been used in many places throughout history, serving formerly as the
emblem depicted on the royal arms of France (a historically Catholic nation), and has
always represented divinity.
What Is the Meaning of the Fleur-de-Lis?
In one interpretation, the flower is a symbol of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The
whiteness and beauty of the lily is symbolic of the purity of Mary Immaculate.
In another interpretation, the lily depicts the Holy Trinity, which consists of the Father
(God), the son (Jesus Christ), and the holy spirit–or one God in three divine persons.
The band which hold the three pedals together represents Mary, since it was she who
bore the child of God.

8. The Dove
The dove is a white bird often depicted in the Catholic Church as flying gracefully before
a shining aura of light. Sometimes, the dove is carrying an olive branch in its beak.
What Is the Meaning of the Dove?
The dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When Christ was baptized by John the
Baptist, a dove descended on him, according Matthew 3:16 and Mark 1:10. The dove is
sometimes depicted with an olive branch in its mouth as a symbol of peace. It also
symbolizes God's grace.
Do you remember when, in Noah's story, he sent out a dove to search for dry land after
the rain stopped? It returned carrying an olive branch from the Mount of Olives, which
was a sign and symbol of God's forgiveness.

9. Crossed Keys
In Christian art, crossed keys, sometimes known as the Keys of Heaven, are a pair of
keys that overlap and interlock, creating an "X." The keys are used as ecclesiastical
heraldry, papal coats of arms, and symbolic images in holy places.
What Is the Meaning of the Crossed Keys?
The crossed keys represent the metaphorical keys that Jesus promised to St. Peter,
empowering him to take binding actions in leading the institution of the Catholic Church.
In short, they are a symbol of the Pope's authority. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says
to Peter:
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall
be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven.
St. Peter was the first pope, and those who succeed him share in the power Jesus gave
him.
10. The Lamb
One of the most important symbols of Christ is the Lamb. Jesus Christ as the Lamb of
God is mentioned in John 1:35-36 and Revelation 5:6-14, and always in the words of
the Mass.
What Is the Meaning of the Lamb?
The whiteness of the Lamb symbolises innocence and purity. Lambs are also often
associated with sacrifice in the Old Testament. Christ, the sacrificial lamb, died for the
sins of humanity. The lamb can also symbolize subservience to God.
The lamb is sometimes portrayed with a flag. This is symbolic of Christ's victory over
death in his resurrection.

THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

What is a Council? During a council, Bishops from around the world gather together so that,
with one voice, they can clearly proclaim the teaching of the Catholic Church. Because the
Bishops are the successors of the Apostles and are united with the Pope, who is the successor
of Peter, the teachings of an ecumenical council represent the highest level of the Church’s
teaching authority.
Why Vatican II?
One day, Pope (now Blessed) John XXIII surprised everyone by announcing that there would be
an ecumenical council. When the Council opened almost three years later in 1962, he laid out
the reason for it:
What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience,
be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. It was clear that Vatican II was not
convoked in order to answer pressing threats or to change Church teaching; rather, its goal was
to proclaim again the Church’s unchanging faith in Christ in a way our contemporary culture
could understand. Cardinal Léger of Montreal, speaking during the Council, explained the task
facing the Bishops in a similar way: “With diligence and prudence, we must distinguish
established doctrines from theological opinions, taking care to never do anything to make the
faith of believers needlessly difficult. On the contrary, we must know how to seek, with our
priests and faithful, an ever deeper knowledge of the Gospel.”
The Documents
The teachings of a council are expressed in its documents, which are produced and agreed
upon by the Bishops who attend. The Second Vatican Council produced many (see appendix
for a complete list), the result of lively debate and discussion. The most important of these are
the four “Constitutions,” which are often known simply by the first two words of their Latin text.
These are: Sacrosanctum Concilium (on the Sacred Liturgy), Lumen Gentium (on the Church),
Dei Verbum (on the Word of God), and Gaudium et Spes (on the Church in the Modern World).
As a way of highlighting the key ideas of the Council, we will discuss some important points
from these documents which are so relevant for our lives as Catholics today.
The Liturgy
The liturgy, or the celebration of the Mass, is “the summit toward which the activity of the
Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.” Thus, it was
fitting that the first document issued by Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, was on the liturgy.
Although the structure of the Mass has changed over the centuries, before Vatican II it had
taken on a fairly established form for about 400 years. Yet, in practice, the way it was often
celebrated before the Council was in need of a certain renewal:
Many lay people did not understand the Latin prayers used in the liturgy; some priests
celebrated Mass in a hurried manner not in keeping with the dignity of the Eucharist (since they
may not have understood the Latin either); and there was often a general lack of participation by
the laity. Vatican II’s Constitution on the Liturgy, however, called for the “fully conscious and
active participation in liturgical celebrations” of all the faithful. The Council Fathers also decided
on something that had an immediate and direct impact on all Catholics: the increased use in the
Mass of the language of the people. This move toward the use of the vernacular has opened up
the richness of the prayers of the Church’s liturgy to those who do not know Latin. In English,
we have recently been blessed with a new translation of the Mass which faithfully captures the
beauty of the Latin prayers.

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.
Since the reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, the church has evinced a renewed
interest (some might call it an obsession) with the language of the liturgy. The council fathers
understood the importance of language and took the bold step of voting to allow the use of the
vernacular in the liturgy. That decision, as graced and wonderful as it was, also unleashed an
avalanche of verbosity that hit some local parishes harder than others. The impulse to explain
and comment on even the smallest liturgical detail may have been inspired by good will, but a
barrage of words quickly wearied congregations, some of whose members were tempted to pine
away for the old days when Father mumbled under his breath in Latin.

The recent Vatican promulgation of Liturgiam Authenticam (2001) and Summorum

Pontificum (2007) highlighted different concerns regarding language. Liturgiam
Authenticam focuses on the regulation of translations, while Summorum Pontificum reduces
restrictions on the celebration of the Eucharist in Latin according to the so-called Tridentine Rite.
This strong focus on the literal translation of Latin texts and the increased leeway to celebrate the
old Latin Rite have kept language at the center of much liturgical debate. Many of the concerns
raised are important and deserve attention. The liturgy—because it is ritual activity—speaks in
many other ways, however, than simply through words. These nonverbal ways of speaking are
often neglected to the detriment of meaningful liturgical prayer.

The language of liturgy is more than texts on a printed page read aloud at the proper time. The
language of the liturgy, itself a symbol, also includes other symbols and symbolic actions. All
elements of the liturgy (bread, wine, cup, water, fire, book, vesture, altar, crucifix), all gestures
and postures (processing, bowing, eating, drinking, signing, singing, sprinkling, standing,
kneeling) and all environmental elements (art and architecture, color and texture, light and
darkness, sound and silence) can be said to make up the matrix of symbols that constitute the
liturgy. The dynamism of this interplay of symbols can perhaps be more easily understood by
considering a fundamental principle of quantum physics. As Diarmuid O’Murchu explains it,
quantum physics describes the universe as a place where everything is interconnected or
interrelated. Connections are realized by energy concentrated in packets, called quanta, that flow
throughout all of reality. Like the bundles of energy described in quantum theory, liturgical
symbols interact with each other, transferring and increasing energy, shedding light and
unfolding meaning. The meaning of which they speak concerns Christian faith and identity, our
relationship with God and each other and our participation in the paschal mystery of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

If we hope to promote full, active and conscious participation in the liturgy, more care and
attention must be given to the way we celebrate the nonverbal symbols of the liturgy. In addition
to promoting participation—one of the primary goals of the liturgical reform—such care and
attention will also enable nonverbal symbols to speak the message of the Gospel with greater
clarity, integrity and inclusivity.

Full and Active Participation

There are various dimensions to active participation. Sometimes it calls for fulfilling a specific
role, such as that of presider, cantor, altar server or choir member. For most of us, however,
participation involves assuming the role of the worshiper in the pew. Even so, the congregation
does not adequately fulfill its responsibility for active participation by simply responding to the
prayers or singing the hymns and acclamations. The greater responsibility comes later: it is the
response of one’s life to the compelling invitation of the Gospel message. That invitation can be
made more compelling through the interplay of symbolic activity that captures both the hearts
and the imaginations of the worshipers.

Oftentimes a dissonance can be set up between the text of the liturgy and its nonverbal symbols.
The text of the Easter Vigil rite, for example, proclaims “Christ our light.” Instead of
experiencing this great mystery in the midst of genuine darkness, we often sing the proclamation
in full daylight. Or in other cases, only the altar servers see the ritual blessing of the Easter fire
that flickers out of sight in the rear of the church. Another example would be the many
Communion hymn texts that speak of eating Christ’s body and drinking Christ’s blood. Such a
message is contradicted when the cup is withheld from the congregation and only the host is
distributed. This is even more problematic when the Eucharist includes a large number of
concelebrants, who partake of the cup in full view of a congregation that is not given the same
opportunity.

Communicating the Message

The assembly that gathers to celebrate the Eucharist each Sunday has been told by means of a
variety of verbal messages (including Scripture, the fathers of the church, the General
Instruction of the Roman Missal and papal and curial statements) that it is the body of Christ.
Furthermore, the worshipers are told that it is baptism that incorporates them into Christ’s
paschal mystery and is the source of their call to ministry and their individual dignity as temples
of the Holy Spirit. Their unity as a gathered assembly is essential to the experience of and
witness to these truths. These messages, however, will be nothing more than words unless they
are supported by the many nonverbal symbols through which the liturgy can speak these truths
with eloquence and grace. These include the sprinkling rite, which serves to remind members of
the assembly of their baptism and its link to celebrating the Eucharist. Even things as simple as
the placement, size and beauty of the baptismal font speak of the centrality of this sacrament to
Christian life. In addition, including the congregation in the incense rite highlights the assembly
as one of the modes of Christ’s presence.

Other significant nonverbal symbols include the postures and movements of the assembly.
The General Instruction is both clear and emphatic when it states that “a common posture, to be
observed by all participants, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community
gathered for the sacred Liturgy.” But posture can become a source of dissonance when a
common posture is not observed or when the opportunity is not provided to take advantage of the
options acknowledged in the General Instruction as appropriate in certain circumstances.

Of course, it is also the case that recent changes in the observance of rubrics have sometimes
made it more difficult for nonverbal symbols to speak with clarity and authenticity. Numerous
texts (in the categories mentioned above) speak about one bread and one cup symbolizing our
oneness in the one body of Christ. Yet today our altars are covered with countless cups and
plates full of small hosts before the celebration of the fraction rite. Such actions can make our
words incoherent and the fraction rite superfluous.

The reforms of the Second Vatican Council teach us that celebrating the Eucharist is not an
action performed solely by the presider and watched by the congregation. Rather, the Eucharist is
an action performed by a gathered assembly under the leadership of an ordained priest and with
the assistance of a variety of ministers. Parish liturgy committees often puzzle over why they
cannot convince their assemblies that this is the case. Perhaps it is because nonverbal symbols
and symbolic gestures are communicating a different message. When all the ministers who serve
in proximity to the altar handle objects of quality and beauty—liturgical books, sacred vessels
and the like—while the assembly sings and prays from throwaway missalettes that look shabby
after the first weekend of use, it is not surprising that the congregants do not perceive themselves
as integral to the liturgical action. If we want to signal the fact that the eucharistic action is
occurring within the entire assembly, why not decorate all areas of the church for festivals such
as Christmas and Easter—sanctuary and nave alike?

Diversity and Inclusivity

This past Palm Sunday I attended Mass in my hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. At the door of St.
Joseph’s Church, greeters offered each person a copy of the reading of the Passion. In my past
experience, the assembly is usually assigned the parts of the rabble-rousing crowd, the “bad
guys.” To my surprise and delight, however, the congregation was assigned the part of Jesus
Christ. Just think about that for a moment. Usually the part of Christ is automatically assigned to
the priest. But in this case, the church community took the part of Christ. Such a gesture says
volumes about how this parish (or the liturgy planning team) understood the assembly as the
body of Christ, truly an instance of the presence of Christ in that time and place. The message,
both verbal and nonverbal, was loud and clear.

Nonverbal symbols should not only speak in harmony with the verbal messages of the liturgy
and faith in general; they also need to speak words of hospitality and inclusion. In a church
where cultural and social diversity are fast becoming the norm rather than the exception, our
gestures, postures, music, art and architecture can both express the heterogeneity of a community
and welcome new members with their unique gifts and heritage. A tone of respect and
appreciation can be heard in the way a parish or diocese incorporates the richness of its diversity,
not with token gestures but with genuine hospitality and openness. This requires patience,
planning and a willingness to learn new music, new customs and new ways of expressing our
Catholic tradition.

Magnanimity and Bodiliness

Perhaps if only one suggestion could be made to improve the way nonverbal symbols are
celebrated in the liturgy, it would be to work at developing a sacramental imagination or a
sacramental worldview. In other words, we need to develop an ability to recognize the invisible
workings of the divine presence active in the mundane elements of everyday life. Then, within
the liturgy, these elements need to be celebrated with largesse, with a magnanimity that
acknowledges that they mediate a sacrum commercium, that is, a sacred exchange between God
and humankind. No other response than this type of prodigality is appropriate in the face of the
boundless generosity of God.

Reducing symbols by either artificiality or miserliness inhibits their ability to serve as

sacraments of our encounter with the divine. This is one of those clear cases where less
is not more. Instead, we need to use plenty of water and oil for baptism, burn real candles,
decorate with fresh flowers, process with grace and dignity, begin the Easter Vigil in the dark,
build dramatic Easter fires, make music that erupts from the depths of our being and enter into
communal prayer with generous amounts of silence.

Communal silence is one of the primary ways we can learn to see all of liturgy’s symbols as
expressions of God’s activity in our lives and in our rituals. We can know our Christian faith
only in and through our bodies. Yet our spirits need the deeper silence that dwells in the sacred
mysteries; we enter it by pondering these signs and living into them. Opportunities for silence
include not only longer pauses after the readings or after Communion, but also those moments
when, gracefully and unhurriedly, we move from one ritual action to another. Silence will enable
us to contemplate and become open to the myriad ways in which nonverbal symbols speak to us
of God and invite our response.

We must pay closer attention to the nonverbal symbols of the liturgy and celebrate them well. In
addition to our experience of liturgical texts, and oftentimes even more powerfully, they enable
us to get in touch with the presence of God that, like the illusiveness of energy, permeates all of
creation but can be apprehended only when it is embodied.

“Gestures, language and actions are the physical, visible and public expressions by
which human beings understand and manifest their inner life. … Jesus himself used
physical signs to manifest his union with the Father and to reveal his mission to the
world. … Christ, the incarnate one, used material signs to show to humanity the
invisible God. … Effective liturgical signs have a teaching function and encourage full,
conscious and active participation, express and strengthen faith, and lead people to
God. … The liturgy and its signs and symbols do not exercise merely a teaching
function; they also touch and move a person to conversion of heart and not simply to
enlightenment of the mind.” (Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture and Worship,
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000, No. 23-26)

Our liturgies are not just about enlightenment of the mind; hey are about moving our
hearts to new and renewed places in the mission of Christ in the world. They are about
leading us to deeper and more active commitment to the Gospel message. Our public
participation in these rituals shows the world that God is still here among us, working in
the lives of all humanity, energizing “the hope to which we are called.” By using the
symbol-actions of our liturgies, and their relative symbol-objects, we make visible to the
world, the invisible life of God among us. We use our physical senses — sight, taste,
touch, smell, hearing — to better know our inner spirit.

These rituals that define us, all started with Jesus and the stories of Scripture, the most
prominent one for Christians being the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples.
Jesus used the things that nourish and sustain us to connect us with his message and
mission. Jesus told his disciples, and all Christians throughout history, today and
forever, “Do this” — act in this way. It is the doing, the remembering, the sharing of
the one bread that sustains us. The physical objects used in sacramental celebrations
need the ritual actions that hold and carry them to reveal God’s work in us. They require
our public action, our participation.

Just as Jesus did at the Last Supper, our actions connect our physical or outer world
(the visible) with our spiritual or inner world (the invisible). Symbol-objects can be
reminders of God’s presence to us when they are static, but they need our actions to
complete them. Symbol-objects need symbol-actions. We prepare and participate in our
Catholic rituals so that Christ can live in the world, in and through us. Our ritual actions
do not contain God. They give us an environment, a time and place, a communal
structure by which we can, as one body, experience a heightened awareness of God that
is bigger than what we experience alone with God.

We have just come through the celebration of the rituals of Holy Week. One of the
symbol-objects we can use as an example in this discussion is the sacred oil, blessed and
consecrated by the archbishop at the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral (on Monday evening
of Holy Week in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles), and presented in all our parishes
sometime on Holy Thursday. Olive oil was a very prominent product in the life of the
people of the regions Jesus traveled. Olive trees were plentiful. The people of the time
used the oil from olives in cooking, in medicine, in lighting lamps, in anointing as an act
of hospitality, as an act of preparation for burial, and to consecrate or dedicate objects or
places.

We continue to use this oil in many of the same ways. Pope Benedict XVI when writing
about the Chrism Mass said: “In four sacraments, oil is the sign of God’s goodness
reaching out to touch us.” Think for a moment about that touch. The archbishop, who
is a part of a lineage of consecrated individuals spanning all time past, from Jesus to the
present, blesses and consecrates these oils. Then they are taken back to each parish,
stored in a cabinet called an ambry, near the baptismal font in the church building, and
used as symbol-objects during the symbol-actions of four of our sacraments that involve
that holy touch (baptism, confirmation, anointing of the sick and holy orders). In these
rituals, oil is used as a “sign of God’s goodness reaching out to touch us,” through one
follower of Christ blessing, consecrating, dedicating or anointing another. Each time in
the sacramental rituals, these holy oils are used and we feel that touch, we connect with
a physical lineage by which we are bound together in the one body of Christ. 

Regarding my most recent Fare Forward essay, two questions

have been repeatedly asked of me. The first: Why think that symbolic
action occupies such an important place in the Christian life? And the
second: I’m not sure I understand the sorts of symbolic actions you
think are so important to the Christian life; could you say more? I
debated which of these two questions to take up today, and settled on
the latter. My apologies to those more interested in the former.
Let me begin by trying to draw out the very idea of symbolic action. It
can seem a very puzzling and inchoate notion at first glance. But it
should appear less so once we realize just how familiar we really are
with symbolic action. A referee in a football game throws a yellow flag;
he thereby is declaring that a penalty has been committed. A child
holds his hand to his chest while reciting his nation’s anthem; he
thereby pledges himself to his country. A young man says the words “I
do” before an altar; he thereby makes a promise of love and fidelity to
another. In each of these familiar instances, someone makes a very
tangible, very material action: throwing a yellow flag, holding a hand
to his heart, forming an audible English sentence. And in each of these
instances we find someone performing a much less tangible and
entirely immaterial action by way of performing these “tangible,
material actions”: Declaring that a penalty has been committed,
pledging allegiance to country, making a promise. These are all
symbolic actions, of a kind. A referee throws a yellow flag, a symbol
that some penalty is being declared; and because of this symbolism,
his action of throwing this flag counts as his declaring a penalty.
Symbolic action is not a novel concept to us; it is both familiar and
pervasive.
But if symbolic actions are so familiar and pervasive, why my concern
that we make symbolic actions a bigger part of our lives? It is not
symbolic action, in general, that I wanted to urge as an important
component of a well-lived Christian life. Of course symbolic action, in
general, is important; we couldn’t imagine life without symbolic
action, much less imagine a good life. (Try to make a promise without
symbols. Go on, try it.) But what I had my eye was not symbolic
actions in general, but on certain sorts of symbolic action. The call to
follow Jesus, I wanted to argue, includes the call to practice certain
sorts of symbolic actions — above and beyond the usual, unavoidable
ones.
Just what sorts of symbolic practices are these? Here I have only the
space (and the ability) to gesture in the direction of an answer. And
the best way I know to so gesture is by focusing on examples of those
“sorts of symbolic actions central to the well-lived Christian life” —
two examples to be specific: proclamation and participation. More
precisely, proclamation of and participation in the Kingdom of God. 
Clearly the business of proclaiming the Kingdom of God is a point of
focus in Christian scripture and tradition. Jesus was always on about
the Kingdom of God, the apostles were always on about the Kingdom
of God, and both Jesus and the apostles were always on about you and
I being on about the Kingdom of God. “Go into all the world and
proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” One way to proclaim
the good news of the Kingdom of God is, of course, to use words. This
is no doubt a very important way to proclaim the Kingdom of God – I
am using them right now. But we cannot leave the matter there; words
are not the only kind of symbol. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount wasn’t
his finest proclamation – that was done on the cross, when he could
barely breathe, let alone speak.
“This is what the love of God looks like. This is the love of God — the
very cornerstone of the Kingdom.”
The Church is to do more than talk of course. She is also called to “live
out” the Kingdom of God, to “participate in” the shalom harmony of
the Kingdom of God. To put it yet a third way: to practice the life of the
Kingdom in the present. But of course we can only do this to the extent
that our environment will allow us; and it is part of the Christian and
Jewish story that the world we live in – to include our own selves – is
deeply damaged, diseased, dysfunctional – in short, sinful. The
Kingdom of God can be tangibly brought into this world only in slivers
and shadows; especially in as much as it is up to us.
It is here that symbolic action fills another vital niche. Perhaps an
example might help to illustrate. One salient feature of the Kingdom of
God is that of “fruitfulness”: In the Kingdom, the prophets and
psalmists tell us, the earth will abound with its fruits and everyone will
have sufficient access to its fruits. There will be no hungry to feed, no
naked to clothe, no homeless to house. There will be “enough”. In the
present, the Church does its best to make this a reality; she is called to
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless. But it
would be downright silly to think that we have it in our power to wipe
material need from this present age. Symbols allow us, for one thing,
to cope with this fact. And they allow us to have a reach that goes
beyond what we can tangibly effect. I am reminded of the meals I had
the honor of enjoying at The Isaiah House, a Catholic Worker house in
Santa Ana, California. Every Sunday morning over one hundred folks
would gather in a backyard in the barrios of Santa Ana – most of them
homeless. Everyone held hands in a large circle, prayed the Lord’s
Prayer in Spanish and then in English, and then sat down to eat. From
a purely effectual standpoint, these meals were relatively unimportant.
One hundred people filled their bellies with maybe 5% of their weekly
caloric need, and for just a few hours, no one was being stabbed or
molested. But it was clear during those few hours, as folks from every
race, culture, and economic status imaginable sat down to eat together
and laugh together, that these meals were very important. I can’t
point to all of where the importance of these meals lay, but I know this
at least: These meals held value as symbolic representations of, and
symbolic participations in, the “fruitfulness” of the Kingdom of God.
Symbolic proclamation and participation — two important types of
symbolic action that belong to the mission of the Church and the life of
the follower of Jesus. Let us not think that these sorts of symbolic
action belong to the periphery of our lives. Let us not reserve them for
heroic occasions like martyrdom, or for Sunday morning services, or
for what gets labeled “ministry”. Significant symbolic actions are to
belong to our daily rhythms, to be a part of our every hour. How we
work, how we do meals, how we talk, even how we build our homes —
these all can (and should) be deeply impacted by symbols of the sort I
have feebly attempted to describe.

The Conciliar Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium defines sacred liturgy as “the

exercise of the priestly function (munus) of Jesus Christ”, in which “the sanctification
of man is signified through sensible signs and realized in the manner proper to each
one of them” (n. 7). In the sacramental life of the Church, the “treasure hidden in the
field”, of which Jesus speaks in the Gospel parable (Matthew 13:44), is made
perceptible to the faithful through sacred signs. Whereas the essential elements of the
sacraments – called form and matter in the terminology of Scholastic theology – are
distinguished by a stupendous humility and simplicity, the liturgy, in as much as
sacred action, surrounds them with rites and ceremonies that illustrate and make one
understand better the great reality of the mystery. Thus a translation takes place into
sensible elements and hence more accessible to human knowledge, so that the
Christian community, “sacris actionibus erudita – instructed by the sacred actions”,
as an ancient prayer of the Sacramentario Gregoriano says [MG1] (cf. Missale
Romanum, 1962, Collect of the Saturday after the First Sunday of the Passion), is
disposed to receive divine grace.

Expressed in the fact that the sacramental celebration is “woven from signs and
symbols”, is “the divine pedagogy of salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church [CCC], n. 1145), already enunciated in an eloquent way by the Council of
Trent. Recognizing that “human nature is such that it does not come easily to
meditation of divine things without external devices”, the Church “uses lights,
incense, vestments and many other elements transmitted by the Apostolic teaching
and tradition, which put[MG2] in evidence the majesty of such a great Sacrifice [the
Holy Mass], and the minds of the faithful are attracted by these visible signs of
religion and piety, to the contemplation of lofty things, which are hidden in this
Sacrifice” (Council of Trent, Session XXII, 1562, Doctrina de ss. Missae
Sacrificio, c. 5, DS 1746).

Expressed in this reality is an anthropological need: “As a social being, man needs
signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and
actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God” (CCC, n. 1146). The
symbols and signs in the liturgical celebration belong to those material aspects that
cannot be neglected. Man, a creature composed of soul and body, needs to use
material things also in divine worship, because he is obliged to reach the spiritual
realities through sensible signs. The internal expression of the soul, if it is genuine,
seeks at the same time an external physical manifestation and, vice versa, the inner
life is sustained by external acts, liturgical acts.

Many of the signs, as the gestures of prayer (open arms, joined hands, kneeling, going
in procession, etc.), belong to the common heritage of humanity, as the different
religious traditions attest. “The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and
sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity
of the signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ” (CCC, n. 1149).

Of key importance are the signs of the Covenant, “symbols of the great works done by
God for his people”, among which are numbered “the imposition of hand, the
sacrifices , and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of
the sacraments of the New Covenant” (CCC, n. 1150). Jesus himself makes use of
these signs in his earthly ministry and gives them a new meaning, above all in the
institution of the Eucharist. The Lord Jesus took the bread, broke it and gave it to his
Apostles, thus carrying out a gesture that corresponds to a profound truth and
expresses it in a sentient way. The sacramental signs, which were developed in the
Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, continue this work of sanctification
and, at the same time, “prefigure and anticipate the glory of heaven” (CCC, n. 1152).

In so far as the liturgy has its own language, which is expressed also in the signs and
symbols, the understanding is no longer just intellectual but involves man totally,
including his imagination, memory and, in a certain way, all five senses. Hence, the
importance of the word must not be neglected: Word of God proclaimed in the
sacramental celebration and word of faith that responds to it. Already Saint Augustine
of Hippo highlighted that the “efficient cause” of the sacrament, namely that which
makes of a material element the sign of a spiritual reality and adds to such an element
the gift of divine grace, is the word of blessing made in the name of Christ by the
minister of the Church. As the great Doctor of the Church writes in regard to Baptism:
“Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than water. The word is
added to the element, and there results the Sacrament (Accedit verbum ad elementum
et fit Sacramentum)” (In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus, 80, 3).

In sum, the liturgical words and actions are inseparable and constitute the sacraments,
through which the Holy Spirit carries out “the wonders’ of God proclaimed by the
Word; makes present and communicates the Father’s work, fulfilled by the beloved
Son” (CCC, n. 1155).

Let strong symbols teach the liturgy

 by Nick Wagner |  posted in: environment and art |  0

One of my biggest gripes is the use (or misuse) of the “teaching Mass.” To me, it feels like
preparing a feast for your beloved — perhaps for a significant anniversary or to celebrate a big
promotion — and then stopping every two minutes to explain what the candles mean and how
she should properly cut her steak.

Avenues of approach
The artistic use of symbols and symbolic actions in the liturgy can never be fully explained in a
didactic format. No human art form can ever fully express the divine mystery. The arts, however
“can, like the world itself, be icons, avenues of approach, numinous presences, ways of touching
without totally grasping or seizing” (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 2).
The overriding criterion for any aspect of liturgy is the prime directive from the Second Vatican
Council that the “full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before
all else” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 14). So how do we determine if our liturgical
environment actually enhances the participation of the assembly?

The liturgy should draw people in

Liturgical symbols must be inviting and hospitable. This includes the worship space itself.
Everything about the liturgy should draw people in and help them feel involved. This means the
symbols we use have to be big enough to be seen, sensual enough to be touched, scented enough
to be smelled, and loud enough to be heard. We should be able to move through the worship
space with a sense of each and grace. The liturgical focal points should be clear and balanced.
On other hand, our symbols and spaces need to open us up to the experience of mystery. “This
involves a certain beneficial tension with the demands of hospitality, requiring a manner and an
environment which invite contemplation (seeing beyond the face of the person of the thing, a
sense of the holy, the numinous, mystery)” (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 2).

Efficiency desensitizes us to mystery

This experience of mystery, which invites contemplation, is not especially valued these days.
Much of our lives outside of liturgy is designed to demystify most of our experiences. Or at least
that is my perception. Perhaps every generation complains about the values lost as younger
people begin to inhabit our worlds. But it does seem clear that most things, including imaginative
experiences, are more commodified now. “A culture which is oriented to efficiency and
production has made us insensitive to the symbolic function of persons and things”
(Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 16).

In order for art to truly serve the full participation of the

people, our symbols have to be real.CLICK TO TWEET

When we come to liturgy, are we more likely to expect Wikipedia-like experiences in which
everything is reducible to bulleted explanations of why Father is wearing green today? Or do we
instead enter onto holy ground, prepared for awe and wonder?
In order for art to truly serve the full participation of the people, our symbols have to be real. We
have to clear away anything that is “careless, phony, counterfeit, pretentious, or exaggerated”
(Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 14).
Good liturgical environment is common sense
Now you might not have an artistic bone in your body, but common sense can help us avoid the
careless and phony dross that clutters our worship spaces. It doesn’t take a wealth of artistic
talent to get rid of fake flowers and oil canisters pretending to be candles. You don’t need an
MFA to declutter entryways and sanctuaries.
For those of you who do have an artistic sensibility and who may be responsible for creating or
procuring liturgical artifacts, there are two more criteria to consider: quality and appropriateness.
“Whatever the style or type, no art has a right to a place in liturgical celebration if it is not of
high quality and if it is not appropriate” (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 19).

Quality
There are a lot of knock-offs in the world. It is easy to find liturgical artifacts that pretend to be
made of precious materials when they are in fact cheap imitations. However, you know when
you touch or gaze upon something long enough if it is cheap and fake or honest and true.
“Quality means love and care in the making of something, honesty and genuineness with any
materials used, and the artist’s special gift in producing a harmonious whole, a well-crafted
work” (Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, 19).

Appropriateness
The art that we use in the liturgy must be appropriate in two ways. First, it has to be able to “say”
who God is. For example, a plastic water bottle that is used to fling water at something as an
attempt at blessing does not convey the mystery of the divine. However, a beautiful full-
immersion font, constructed of polished granite and overflowing at our feet gives us a window
onto the holy.
And second, art has to serve the liturgy. If on the feast of St. Matthew, we place Caravaggio’s
depiction of the saint’s calling at the foot sanctuary, we do a disservice. The paining is beautiful
in its own right but only serves to interrupt and distract from the liturgical action.

The most important symbol

The most important symbol in the church is the church itself. Not the building, but the people in
the building. In the old days (like third-century-old), whenever you said “church,” you meant the
assembly of believers. If you wanted to talk about the building, you said “house of the church.” It
is because the assembly of believers is so important that teaching Masses disturb me so much.
What the church does when it worships is enact the divine. Our action, in and through Christ,
makes God real in the world. A teaching Mass reduces the role of the believers to students in
need of tutoring.
We are, after all, members of the royal priesthood, a holy people set apart. We do not need
tutoring. We need faith. And we need good art with which we give shape to that faith.
Your turn
Who – or what – determines the liturgical environment for your parish? What do you use that
“truly serves the full participation of the people”? What do you need to let go of? Share your
thoughts in the comments below.

Signs and Symbols: Introduction

One of the more remarkable achievements in the evolution of humankind
is how we learned to communicate through symbols. In our language,
images, and gestures we convey messages that must be learned and
interpreted by others. A symbol is something that represents or stands in
for something else. The term symbol originates from the Greek
word symbolon meaning token or sign. Symbols must be learned as they
represent, stand in for, or suggest something else such as an idea or
object. Anthropologists and sociologists define symbols as
“representative forms of thought.” For Robert Sapolsky, “Symbols serve
as a simplifying stand-in for something complex. (A rectangle of cloth
with stars and stripes represents all of American history and values.)
And this is very useful. To see why, start by considering basic language
—communication without a lot of symbolic content.”
Symbols bridge the gap between the what we experience as reality in
the physical world and what we imagine this experience is or could be.
Symbols link the abstract world of ideas and the imagination with
sensual experience. In other words, unlike other species, human beings
have adapted to the physical environment by creating a dimension
beyond physical reality – a symbolic universe that reaches beyond the
external reality of the natural world. Human beings learned how to
separate what they were experiencing in the moment from the meaning
they attributed or associated with the experience. Symbols function in
society because they provide as sense of belonging, social cohesion,
aesthetics, authority, and identity. Berger & Luckman
(1966) define the symbolic universe as "a set of beliefs “everybody
knows.” "As an ideological system, the symbolic universe “puts
everything in its right place”. It provides explanations for why we do
things the way we do. Proverbs, moral maxims, wise sayings,
mythology, religions and other theological thought, metaphysical
traditions and other value systems are part of the symbolic universe."
Through association, memory, extrapolation, innovation, and imagination
symbols make this possible. Moreover, humans developed
the cognitive powers of higher level consciousness such as
introspection, contextualization,  innovation, intuition, proposition and
deduction. For instance, the creation and use of tools or the ability to
build a fire are signs of the emergence of higher consciousness in
humans. In other words, our ancestors, beginning about 1.9 million years
ago encountered radical changes in how they experienced reality as well
as how to interpret the possible meanings from that reality. As Wendy
Doniger suggests, the emergence of higher-level consciousness in
humankind led to making “cognitive sense out of chaotic data provided
by nature.” As the primitive brain evolved, the capacity to use symbolic
forms such as language and images to think abstractly emerged.
Sapolsky believes, “We evolved a uniquely dramatic means of
separating message from meaning and intent: lying. And we invented
aesthetic symbolism; after all, those 30,000-year-old paintings of horses
in Chauvet cave are not really horses. Our early use of symbols helped
forge powerful bonds and rules of cooperation, as human societies grew
increasingly complex and competitive.” No other animal on the planet
has the capacity to use symbols as extensively as humans (Donald,
1993). “Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of
human understanding, we constantly use symbolic expressions and
image when referring to them (ecclesiastical language in particular is full
of symbols). But this conscious use of symbolism is only one aspect of a
psychological face of great importance: we also produce symbols
unconsciously and spontaneously in our dreams.” (Carl G. Jung, Man
and His Symbols).  For Joseph Campbell, a symbol can also be an
agent that directs and evokes energy.
J.E. Chirlot suggests prehistoric cultures believed the essential rhythms
of life were found in daily routines, natural world, and on a spiritual level.
The use of symbols appears to be an essential step in the evolution of
consciousness - one that afforded humans the capacity to express
intangibles  -- the imagination. Symbols connect us to recognizing the
world outside of our immediate self-ness.
For prehistoric culture, the sun, moon, planets and stars were symbolic
and sacred because they offered a sense of order in an otherwise
chaotic world. Richard Heath observes for example, “The variations of
the Moon becomes an interesting and important phenomenon to people
who live largely outdoors...The fact that the human female reproductive
cycle has a natural synchronization to the Moon’s phases...” (p. 30).
During this era, around 50,000 years ago, human beings began to mark
the solar cycle, the rising and setting of the sun and the orbit of the
moon, on bone -- our ancestors began to count the passage of
time.  Symbolically, such acts demonstrate the evolution of human
consciousness. The sun and moon were no longer merely physical
objects in the sky, but possessed a duality symbolized by opposition --
night/day, dark /light,  winter/summer/ male/female. Symbolic stones
were eventually placed strategically to create solar calendars as an aide
memoire of the cosmic universe (Heath, p. 37).
Worship, rituals, and rites are symbolic because they point toward
something beyond the our physical presence.   In his essay, “The
Archaeology of Symbols,” John Robb points out, “Many powerful
symbols in any culture are the commonest things: bread, water, houses,
the river, and the hills beyond. Powerful symbols are not irrational and
ethereal but are often highly rationalized and concrete: Money is a
symbol rather than mere gold, paper, or numbers in an account. Nor can
the symbolic aspect of these things be magically separated from a
logically prior economic or material use; indeed, much of our modem,
supposedly rational economy is structured by massive efforts to protect
symbolically important things-the environment, the small farm, the family
home.”
 Symbols unify abstract mental thoughts together with the reality of living
experience. Although, this definition may seem a little anemic, it does
stress symbolic thinking preoccupies the human psyche.  Humans are
fallible when it comes to accounting for origins, function, and context in
which symbols are used. As observers we must learn to detach
ourselves from the emotions that lead us to pronounce judgment and
promulgate opinion about a sign or symbol. We must recognize that
symbols have histories -- many of which are overlooked and
misunderstand. For instance, when a cultural artifact becomes arbitrarily
introduced into another culture with no experience of its symbolism,
meaning is lost. 
 Symbols visually represent a system of signs – a system that connects
the creator of a sound, word, gesture, or image, to the interpreter. The
goal of any interpretation of a sign or a symbol is to unpack its meaning
– to understand the culture, ideological, and religious ideals that give it
power and influence.
Hurford notes, “A symbol embodies a relationship between a signified
(some concept or intention) and a signifier (the actual signal, a noise or a
gesture).” Directly and indirectly, a signifying system of symbolic forms
reflect a society’s underlying beliefs, attitudes, moral values and spiritual
practices. Ultimately, signs and symbols act as bridge from the material
world to abstract. Symbols tie thought to action, regulate social
experience, promote self-expression, shape individual and cultural
identity, and represent power and authority.   
What can we learn from exploring signs and symbols? By appreciating
the relationship between he human condition and symbolic forms such
as language, art, mathematics, or music we become more aware of who
we are, how we think, feel and act.
For traditional societies, night and day, the movement of herds, access
to water and shelter, calamity, and the seasons, inextricably bound
peoples to the natural world.  Over time, as humans developed the
sense of self-awareness and higher-order consciousness, the world
changed. People began to assign meaning to experiences and dreams.
Humans learned to solve problems, make sense of emotion, rationalize
fear and desire, assess and survey, plan and organize in numerous
ways. Without over simplifying the significance of symbolic forms it is
possible to explore and some of the stages of human consciouness such
as the human proclivities for innovation, imagination, symbol making,
rites, language, and myth. It should be noted that these stages coincided
with particular epochs or eras. Prehistoric cultures may be broken down
into periods such as the stone age, paleolithic age, neolithic age; all of
which are associated with advances in how humans communicate.
Understanding the importance of signs and symbols is complicated by
many factors such as culture, history, ideology, and religious belief. The
challenge in understanding symbolism extends beyond the “science of
the concrete” and observable, the pitfalls of fallible historical
assumptions, the formalism of aesthetic beauty, or the irrevocability of
religious beliefs.
By 8,000 B.C.E. the Sumerians had developed a system of wedge-
shaped designs on clay tokens to keep track of grain transactions.  In
Egypt, 5,000 years later, scribes and artists ornamented great halls and
tombs with hieroglyphics to recount stories of gods and kings.  As
civilizations emerged around the world, people found more innovative
and efficient ways of organizing and expressing themselves by using
symbols. Today, we take the presence of symbols as a natural occurring
part of life, but the capacity to create representations or signs that
virtually stand in for or approximate something else is extraordinary.
However, theorists, depending upon which discipline, attempt to unlock
the meaning of symbols in different ways such as through philosophy,
history, religion, anthropology, or semiotics.  Every theorist utilizes the
tools they feel most appropriate to solve hypothesizes or answer
particular questions about phenomena.
A symbol is something that represents or stands in for something else.
The term symbol originates from the Greek word symbolon meaning
token or sign. Symbols must be learned as they represent, stand in for,
or suggest something else such as an idea or object.  Anthropologists
and sociologists define symbols as “representative forms of thought.”
Whitehead observes, “The human mind is functioning symbolically when
some components of its experience elicit consciousness, beliefs, and
usages, respecting other components of its experience.” For Joseph
Campbell, a symbol can also be an agent that directs and evokes
energy. Meanwhile, for Carl G. Jung symbols represented something
unknown – something hard to define in our consciousness.  Like our
ancestors we rely on symbols in many ways.  When the meaning of a
symbol is shared and interpreted as relevant and culturally significant it
becomes part of a system of knowing. Words in a book, a painting on
wall, a mathematical equation, or a sign on a restaurant door can all
solicit attention from our consciousness – symbols make us aware of
where and who we are.
For Sapolsky, “Symbols serve as a simplifying stand-in for something
complex. (A rectangle of cloth with stars and stripes represents all of
American history and values.) And this is very useful. To see why, start
by considering basic language—communication without a lot of symbolic
content.”
The folklore and mythological stories of indigenous peoples around the
globe demonstrates the incompleteness and fragility of constructing
meaning from a euro-centric perspective. The symbolism of the tree, for
example, in Iroquois culture reveals a complex relationship with nature.
In colonial descriptions from the 1600s, the Iroquois of northeastern
United States planted a tree in peace where the top touches the sky.
When the Mohawk reconciled with the French and English, Chief Gives
Two Beavers said, “We now plant a Tree who’s tops will reach the sun,
and its Branches spread far abroad, so that it shall be seen afar off; and
we shall shelter ourselves under it, and live in Peace, with- out
molestation.” Metaphor, in this case, the “peace tree” is emblematic of
symbolic thought that is embedded within concrete reality and context. A
spiritual connection and reverence for trees was as for the Iroquis as any
religious practice found today.
As human consciousness developed self-awareness and higher-order,
consciousness increased. Over time, the separation between sensory
experiences and the meanings people began to assign to them changes.
Langer believes, “Every society meets a new idea with its own concepts,
its own tacit, fundamental way of seeing things; that is to day, with its
own questions, its peculiar curiosity.”
“Symbolic consciousness is a world created from symbols that evolved
to language and writing that allowed humans to express their inner world
with the outer world. Just as today, all words are symbols for something
much deeper. Our self-awareness allowed us to create a symbolic world
in order to pass on information, ideas and mythology. We began to
create a world around us to symbolize what has existed within.”  --
Brennenman
In the 1980 film, “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, an African bushman
encounters an empty Coke bottle that has just fallen to earth after being
discarded from an airplane above.  As the bushman attempts to explain
the incident to his tribe all sorts of inferences about its significance of the
bottle are made.
From a euro-centric perspective, the object, as a part of our consumer
culture, is immediately recognizable, but for the so-called primitive
bushman the bottle is an object of curiousity and mystery.
“Human languages contain tens of thousands of arbitrary learned
symbols (mainly words). No other animal communication system
involves learning the component symbolic elements afresh in each
individual’s lifetime, and certainly not in such vast numbers” (Hurford,
2004). Scholarly research suggests signs and symbols occupy an
important space in the history of our evolution (Russell, 2016; Donald,
1993; Cassirer, 1946). As Merlin Donald explains, human beings
developed an external memory – a cave wall lined with the imaginative
art of its inhabitants may be analogous to a computer’s hard drive loaded
with poetry and pictures. No longer, were peoples reliant merely on
gestures and guttural speech.”
Although we may experience the same event or view the same object,
our responses will never be exactly the same.  Humans are sentient
creatures that rely not only on vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell to
make sense of the world, but also on subjective factors such as ego,
propositions, arguments, personal truths and feelings, cultural tastes,
beliefs, and memories. For Carl G. Jung, symbols represent the
unknown and something difficult to define. Like our ancestors we rely on
symbols in many ways.  When the meaning of a symbol is shared and
interpreted as relevant and culturally significant it becomes part of a
system of knowing. Words in a book, a painting on wall, a mathematical
equation, or a sign on a restaurant door can all solicit attention from our
consciousness – symbols make us aware of where and who we are.
Ultimately, symbols act as referents for expressing experience. In many
forms, symbols communicate more effectively than words. Cassirer, in
his book “Language and Myth” observes, “… All mental processes fail to
grasp reality itself, and in order to represent it [experience], to hold it at
all, they are driven to the use of symbols. When we assign meaning to a
sign, a higher level of consciousness or awareness is required.”
Using symbols goes beyond the classical definition of humankind as
rational beings – we are emotional, superstitious beings subject to
delusions and the construction of mythologies to justify our existence
and experience. We develop conceptual languages to convey ideals,
express thoughts, feelings and affections. For Cassirer, human beings
are enveloped in “linguistic forms, in artistic images, in mythical symbols
or religious rites that he cannot see or know anything except by the
interposition of this artificial medium [symbolic activity].
Hovers et al., contend symbols reflect the logic of our thought processes.
Look around and you will recognize that most everything you see is a
sign – an object, primarily, that represents or stands in for something
else.
Researchers suggest humans routinely use symbolic behavior to refer to
“things in the world.” Further, “The referential powers of symbols are
derived from their positions in an organized system of other symbols.
These allow the recognition of higher-order regularities, which in turn
enable symbolic predictions.