(Apostolic Office, page 2)
Liturgical actions are, first and foremost, a special form of expression of the faith of the Church. Through this representation Christ's presence as source of the faith is mediated--a presence more real and efficacious than the community's presence to itself. The special mode of Christ's presence derives from the fact that the liturgy is a festive exercise of the faith. Analogous to feasts of daily life, which serve as transparency for the permanent values hidden in ordinary living, the liturgy highlights the graceful realities less clearly recognized in the daily life of faith. Moreover, just as a family feast represents the whole family even in the absence of some members, so the ecclesial assembly represents the whole Church first and foremost by its festive character. The official servant of the unity of the Church, much in the way of a father of a family, becomes in a special way transparency for the grounds of the unity of the Church: Christ.
Yet, as Langemeyer states, "As servant and representative of the one Church, the priest acts in the celebration in a specific way in persona Christi. But he represents Christ, since he represents the Church united in faith and love."
The presence of Christ is given as personal presence through the faith of the Church. Therefore it obtains a certain objectivity. It is neither dependent on the faith of the minister nor on the faith of any particular community. But it is not indepently linked to definite institutions or actions. The obedience of Christ is the way by which the Lordship of God was fully inserted into the world; and the obedience of faith of the Church is the way by which Christ remains personally present and effective in the Church. The apostolic officer is a sacrament of the efficacious presence of Christ and the Spirit. But taking this statement a step further, and employing the Scholastic distinction between sacramentum, res et sacramentum, [and] res tantum, to express levels of signification, we should more accurately say: The apostolic officer is sacramentum of the Church united in faith and love, which in turn as res [et sacramentum] is also sacramentum of Christ and the Spirit, the res tantum. In this way, apostolic office is correctly ordered to the Church, sacrament of Christ, and to Christ, as sacrament of God.
Note from the editor: In speaking of sacraments, the Scholastics distinguished the visible sign, the sacramentum [in the Eucharist, the bread and wine], the essence of the sacrament, the res tantum [in the Eucharist, the presence of Christ], and the purpose of the sacrament, the res et sacramentum [in the Eucharist, the unity of the Church]. Here, in this context, Kilmartin is saying that the presider at the Eucharist is a visible sign, a sacramentum of the Church. In turn, that Church is itself a sacramentum of Christ and the Spirit, the essence or res tantum of the Church. To be sure, this double level of signification is not what the Scholastics said; it is, rather, what Kilmartin says. At the second level of signification, the author is saying that the essence of the Church is Christ and the Spirit. While Kilmartin's explanation of double signification makes sense, it seems that his use of these Scholastic terms may be neither faithful to their original context nor completly accurate in the secondary identification of the res tantum of the Church with Christ and the Spirit. On the other hand, that identification could be defended if we speak of the Church as the Body of Christ, head and members, and of the Church as the unity of the Spirit; in both cases, we are talking about the people of God. Now, all these terms are not used univocally; whatever is said of the Eucharist and the Church can only be said equivocally of the other sacraments. Furthermore, Kilmartin is using these terms only to illustrate his point, not to establish it. In a sense, Aquinas was doing the same thing with his own use of Aristotelian terms, for example, with hylomorphism. One is simply attempting to clarify the faith and illumine it by means of analogy.
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