Wednesday, May 20, 2009

At the mercy of the body

A quick thought on the fifth chapter of a fascinating book on sacramental theology, using as it does Wittgensteinian analysis, even if only to a slight degree:

I very much like conceiving of the symbolic language of the liturgy as a language game. To see it as such is not to trivialize it in the least, but to recognize it for what it is and to make sense of the thesis floated at the beginning of the book, namely that all of reality is mediated to us and that language plays a key and indispensible role in this mediation. Language is certainly the only way we are able to make sense- in the liturgy that is what we do- make reality, that which constitutes reality (i.e., the paschal mystery), sensible and sensory; reality being that which comes to us involuntary from outside ourselves. As he writes in the previous chapter: "Not only is language efficacious but it is what is most efficacious" ( The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body 91 italics in the original).


Veni Sancti Spiritus, veni per Mariam.

2 comments:

  1. So, can I use that for my reflection on chapter 5?! That is, if I ever get there!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Diana might notice one of your paragraphs being identical to mine

    ReplyDelete

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