Why the Mass needs both words and actions

The Mass, like the other sacraments, is composed of both words and actions that help us encounter God and enrich our spiritual lives.

The Catholic Church ensures that every liturgical celebration she celebrates is a combination of both words and actions.

The liturgy, especially the Mass, is never one-dimensional, focusing only on one type of communication.

Union of words and actions

The Catechism of the Catholic Church continues its reflection on the liturgy by explaining the importance of words and actions:

A sacramental celebration is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but the Word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to them, so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The liturgical actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free initiative and his people’s response of faith.
CCC 1153

The Mass, for example, is never simply the reading of the Bible. Instead, it incorporates a variety of actions that accompany the reading of scripture that help us enter into what is happening in front of us:

The liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations. To nourish the faith of believers, the signs which accompany the Word of God should be emphasized: the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of the Gospels), its veneration (procession, incense, candles), the place of its proclamation (lectern or ambo), its audible and intelligible reading, the minister’s homily which extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly (acclamations, meditation psalms, litanies, and profession of faith).
CCC 1154

Words and actions are united together in every celebration of the sacraments, speaking to our entire being:

The liturgical word and action are inseparable both insofar as they are signs and instruction and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. When the Holy Spirit awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the Word of God, but through the sacraments also makes present the “wonders” of God which it proclaims. The Spirit makes present and communicates the Father’s work, fulfilled by the beloved Son.
CCC 1155

The actions at Mass are designed to accentuate the words that are spoken, giving them greater emphasis and speaking a liturgical language that is only made possible by physical movements.