“The Justice of Christ Become Fruitful:” Thomas Aquinas and Romano Guardini on the Iustitia of Worship

Priest:

Sursum corda.

People:

Habemus ad Dominum.

Priest:

Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.

People:

Dignum et iustum est.

At the heart of the Holy Mass, perhaps its most pivotal point, comes an invitation to the people of God at worship—gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro (“Let us give thanks to the Lord our God”), to which the people’s response is the beguilingly brief: dignum et iustum est (“It is right and just”). Josef Jungmann, in his venerable two-volume history of the Roman Mass, suggests that this phrase likely derives from a public statement of approval following the announcement of newly elected public official or bishop.¹ The original non-liturgical phrase thus bears the tenor of an enthusiastic “so let it be!—this is a good!—I concur!” The historical origin of this response of the people permits us to hear it anew, in a charged and more vital manner. It leads one to hope for an added frisson of energy to an acclamation that often enough sounds impassive.

Yet, having migrated into the Church’s worship—and at no insignificant place in the Eucharistic liturgy, dignum et iustum est is perforce re-contextualized and transfigured. The praefatio of the Eucharistic prayer begins with the priest’s reiteration of the people’s acclamation, a repetition which introduces a new connotation of propriety and obligation:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,always and everywhere to give you thanks,Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,through Christ our Lord.

The people’s terse “it is right and just” now becomes subject to the principle of ritual expansion which we see at work throughout the liturgy.² The “rightness” of giving thanks is underscored by the adverb vere, and iustum is distended conceptually and sharpened by the addition of the words “duty” and “salvation.” Each Preface, of course, goes forward to give evidence of why it is indeed meet, just, our duty and salvation to thank God: “For through his Paschal Mystery he accomplished the marvelous deed, by which he has freed us from the yoke of sin and death…;” “For out of compassion for the waywardness that is ours, he humbled himself and was born of the Virgin...;” “For by his birth he brought renewal to humanity’s fallen state…;” etc.³

Such punctuated reasons for the giving of thanks, however, do not themselves resolve (and only further invite) the question about the nature of the liturgical act itself as iustus, justice. That is to say, we are drawn yet to ask how the virtue of justice is operative in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and why the liturgical act of thanks and praise to God is a properly just act. These are the questions that occupy this essay. Because a just act is also necessarily a rightly-ordered act, the “rightness” of giving thanks will be considered concomitantly. From the rich storehouse of the Christian theological tradition, two figures will guide our reflections on this topic: the Angelic Doctor Thomas Aquinas and Romano Guardini.⁴ At first blush, it may seem odd to congregate these two rather disparate thinkers, but their theologizing on the relationship between liturgical acts and the virtue of justice are remarkably complimentary. Thomas Aquinas provides the conceptual tools to understand religious acts as fundamentally related to justice, pointing to the truth that acts of religion are fundamental to human fulfillment. For his part, Romano Guardini articulates a rich, and one might say existentially-driven, vision of the virtue of justice. He clarifies that justice in the Christian sense is ultimately the justice of Christ, and that it is the life of prayer and worship that grants access to a participation in divine justice. Though speaking in different theological idioms, both Thomas and Guardini are convinced that the human being is most fully human when engaged in acts of prayer and liturgical worship. Absent such acts as adoration, thanksgiving, and sacrifice, the life of the rational creature is fundamentally disordered, out of balance, and far from...