Sacramental Image of the Bishop (by Father John Baldovin, S.J.)

The bishop is a primary image of the praying Church gathered to worship its Lord. . .

One of the fruits of the theology leading up to, enshrined in, and inspired by the Second Vatican Council has been a renewed appreciation of the role of the bishop in the Church, a role whose sacramentality is now assured.  It is important here to be clear about what constitutes the sacramentality of orders. While in baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, and anointing, sacramentality is constituted by liturgical celebration, in the case of marriage and orders it is human beings themselves who become sacraments. Though weddings and ordinations are the public recognition and empowerment of this sacramentality, of themselves as liturgical celebrations they do not constitute it. Each of these two latter sacraments, therefore, is a manifestation of the self-sacrifice of the paschal love of Christ in the living witnesses of those who have received these sacraments. In fact, it is better to speak to people living these sacraments than receiving them. . .

If the bishop is to be a sacrament (i.e., a symbolic mediator of God's self-gift in Christ to the world), then he must be so in all the aspects of his life. Because of his symbolic position as the head of the local Church, he does this in a heightened way in those situations in which the Church is most focused--in which the Church enacts itself by its imitation of the paschal mystery.  This is true of all sacramental celebration but is true in a most important manner in baptism  and the Eucharist. What is most important, then, about the role of bishop as a liturgist is the quality of his personal presentation as witness to the paschal mystery.

The Role of the Bishop (from the Constitution on the Liturgy)

The bishop is to be considered as the high priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful is in some way derived and dependent.

Therefore, all should hold in great esteem the liturgical life of the diocese centered  around the bishop, especially in his cathedral congregation. They must be convinced that the pre-eminent manifestation of the Church consists in the full, active participation of all God's holy people in these liturgical celebrations.  This is so especially in the same Eucharist, in a single prayer, at one altar, at which there presides the bishop, surrounded by his college of priests and by his ministers. (41)

But because it is impossible for the bishop always and everywhere to preside over the whole flock in his Church, he cannot do other than establish lesser groups of the faithful.  Among these are the parishes, set up locally under a pastor who takes the place of the bishop.  These parishes are among the most important groups of the faithful.  In a way, they represent the visible Church, set up around the world.

Therefore, the liturgical life of the parish and its relationship to the bishop must be fostered theoretically and practically among the faithful and the clergy.     Efforts must also be made to encourage a sense of community within the parish, above all, in the common celebration of Sunday Mass. (42)

Zeal for the promotion and restoration of the liturgy is rightly held to be a sign of the providential dispositions of God in our time, as a movement of the Holy Spirit in his Church.    It is today a distinguishing mark of the Church's life, indeed of the whole tenor of contemporary religious thought and action. (43)