Sunday, February 10, 2008

My wife on Liturgy

I heard all my life how the repetitive, empty traditions (of man!) were meaningless and dead and that liturgy (and Latin liturgy could only be worse) could only mean stone cold religion with no possibilities for connecting meaningfully with God. Three years in the Church has helped me understand through truth and experience that this is a very sad misconception that pollutes the minds of so many Protestants/Evangelicals and even more sadly, so many poorly taught former Catholics. I suppose I never tried to understand the Liturgy before becoming Catholic so I'm quite certain I had the same impression of liturgy myself. In fact, the thought of being in heaven and worshiping God night and day for the rest of eternity seemed a little boring to me.

John writes about the saints in heaven... Revelation 7:15-17 "For this reason they stand before God's throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

And there lies the difference between what we lived in the Baptist church (which was good!) and what we live in the Catholic Church (which is better!) The center of worship in the Baptist church was the Word of God, that is the Bible and the truth that God was speaking through it. Certainly the thought of knowing God better through Biblical truth was the path to a deep and meaningful relationship with God, right?! Yes! The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says..."He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the church." God is present in the Scriptures in a very powerful way (Jesus said "I am the Truth...") and that is why we could get to know Christ so well in the Baptist Church. But there is more!

The center of worship in the Catholic Church is Jesus HIMSELF, in the Eucharist. Jesus is present in the actual church building (yes, it is sacred!) in the form of bread and wine (of course a good reading of John 6 is always helpful in refreshing us on how biblical transubstantiation really is). His body and blood bring the salvation of the cross to us personally and physically. This is so powerful. The Salvation we receive from Jesus is present, present tense, "Now is the day of salvation" (that was in today's liturgy for Ash Wednesday!) kind of present in the Mass. The liturgy is only how Christ communicates this presence to us.

This liturgy also brings Jesus to us in another familiar way. The CCC writes, "Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised 'where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them'." Our prayers and songs, those of his bride, are integral to the participation, the self-offering, we make to God. It is not just me and Jesus (yes, it is the two of us but it is more), it is all the Church, with one voice, reciting the Our Father, The Nicene Creed, the Kyries (Have Mercy), the Glorias, the Alleluias. The Latin only ties linguistically, the whole church together from country to country, transcending the racial, cultural, social, showing the universality of Christ's body. We all speak the same worship and speak it as one. (By the way I have yet to attend a Latin Mass but it is something that I have been longing to do!)

I was listening to The Donut Man's testimony this week [On Journey Home] and he said of his conversion to the Catholic Church, "We had the Groom (Jesus) but we were missing the Bride!" The CCC says "...In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church. The liturgical assembly derives its unity from the "communion of the Holy Spirit" who gathers the children of God into the one Body of Christ."

Another thing about the liturgy is that it is entering into the activity (worship, of course) of Heaven! It is not just about understanding words, it is about BEING PRESENT with JESUS! This is where the 'boring' departs (repeating words, true as they may be - of course, for my husband NOTHING could be boring about truth :*)) and the joy and fulfillment comes. We are one with Christ our Savior. Michael Card has a song, "Present Reality" in which he nearly groans out to God, "Lord, I long to see, your presence in reality. But I don't know how. Let me know you in the now!" This is the liturgy, the Mass, the Eucharist. It is for seeing, touching and being with our Lord. Now, certainly, Jesus' presence is veiled under the appearance of bread and wine but His presence is real and a beautiful taste (Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!) of our face-to-face communion that is yet to come.

"To accomplish so great a work" - the dispensation or communication of his work of salvation - "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations." CCC.

This is what God did for his people. The ones who could not read, even if they could get a copy of the Bible, had Jesus. Before the Canon was even put together, the Church was the "pillar and foundation of the truth" (I Timothy 3:15). She preserved the Scriptures, read the Scriptures in her daily liturgy and taught the Scriptures. Yet she always offered Jesus, 'The Word' himself, as her primary gift.

Sometimes my hubby and I have a good chuckle about how we have an "altar call" (there really is an altar - as in a place to offer a sacrifice) at every Mass and all who are in communion with the Church come forward to 'receive Jesus'. We receive Jesus himself. WOW! Our salvation is not just that moment of conversion in the past (were saved), it is now (being saved) and we always look forward to how we 'will be saved' by Jesus' life, help and love in our lives in the future. He is giving us all these things in a new and sacramental way through the Catholic Church.