God's Right To Our Worship
Revelation 4:11 | Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.
Why do we worship God? In a day and age when people seem perfectly content, even rabidly so, to worship themselves (and things less themselves) in an attempt to maximize control over their own lives and those of others, the question hardly seems relevant when people are so fixated on fleeting matters.
Let's look at a couple of authors who dig into the issue of worship to enrich our understanding so as to be proactive in our daily journey, so that we might be better prepared to meet the temptations that may distract us from the One Who rescues us from darkness and Who offers us His very life.
Excerpt from The Theo-Centric Character of Catholic Liturgy by Raymond Leo Card. Burke.
The Thomistic Institute, Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies, Thomistic Circle: “St. Thomas Aquinas and Theo-Centric Ecclesiology”, Washington, D.C. 11 May 2011.
Why is it necessary to devote attention to the truth that the Sacred Liturgy is centered in God, that it is, in fact, the action of God the Son Incarnate, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father and, at the same time, active in the Church, on our behalf, for the salvation of the world? What has happened, in our time, to make it necessary to address the God-centered character of the Sacred Liturgy? In canonical terms, why is the discussion of the ius divinum, of the divine right of God to be worshipped by us in the manner in which He wishes to be worshipped, so seldom taken up, in our day?
To speak of the theo-centric character of the Sacred Liturgy or of the ius divinum and the Sacred Liturgy is, in simple terms, to speak of the right relationship between God and His creation, especially man, the only earthly creature created in the image of God Himself. Clearly, such a conversation has to do, first of all, with the Sacred Liturgy as the highest and most perfect expression of the relationship between God and man. There is no other aspect of the life of the Church, in which the truth about God’s relationship with man should be more visible, than the Sacred Liturgy.
From this brief look at the content of the covenant between God and man, one sees as the fundamental principle, the ius divinum, the right of God to receive the worship of man in the manner that God commands. It is clear that divine worship and the sanctification of the people, which is its fruit, is ordained by God Himself. It is not the invention of man, but the gift of God to man, by which God makes it possible for man to offer “the sacrifice of communion” with Him.
In the Sermon on the Mount, in which Our Lord Jesus communicates the law of the new covenant, the first Beatitude is the poverty of spirit, which recognizes the Lord as the source of being itself and of every good: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” All of the other Beatitudes depend upon the recognition of our relationship with God and and the efficacious expression of the same.
After having announced the Beatitudes as the law of the new covenant and after having exhorted the disciples to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world,” so that others, seeing the holiness of the people, may give “glory to your Father who is in heaven,” the Lord declares His mission in what pertains to the Law:
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The words of the Lord confirm the fundamental service of the law, which is to honor and to safeguard the ius divinum, the divine right, and, thereby, to honor and safeguard the order written by God in His creation.
THE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER – THE ROMAN CANONThe Priest then begins the Eucharistic Prayer with the Preface Dialogue.The Priest, extending his hands, sings or says: The Lord be with you.People: And with thy spirit.The Priest, raising his hands, continues: Lift up your hearts.People: We lift them up unto the Lord.Bowing his head and joining his hands, the Priest says: Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.People: It is meet and right so to do.
"IT is very meet, right, and our bounden duty that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, through thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ... ."
The Essence of Religion (from Part two: Liturgy as the worship of God; originally published in the Catholic Sun, newspaper for the Diocese of Phoenix, AZ).
“The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve” (Mt 4:10). With these words, the Lord Jesus reminds us that the essence of religion is the worship of God. God created the universe for this very purpose. In addition, He set men and women, created in the divine image, over all other created things; He entrusted them with dominion over the world and wrote on their hearts the command to worship God who created all things. God gave this command out of love, not because He has any need of our worship, but because it is a blessing for us to worship Him. Worshipping God allows us to grow to full maturity in His sight, and to satisfy the deepest longings of the heart.
God is indeed worthy to be praised. This is the reason for the First of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other gods besides me” (Ex 20:2). As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains (#2084), “God’s first call and just demand is that man accept Him and worship Him.”
To worship God means acknowledging, in all humility and honesty, that all we have and all that we are comes from Him. It consists in submitting to His holy will, not grudgingly but gladly. The Blessed Virgin Mary offers us the perfect example of how to do this. We see this especially in her Magnificat, where she says (Lk 1:46ff), “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior…The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear Him.”
Stephen Beale at Catholic Exchange provides an excellent addition to our investigation.
https://catholicexchange.com/what-is-worship-sacrifice-participation-and-beauty/
The Church teaches that the Mass is the highest form of worship it has. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it,
The Eucharistic celebration always includes: the proclamation of the Word of God; thanksgiving to God the Father for all his benefits, above all the gift of his Son; the consecration of bread and wine; and participation in the liturgical banquet by receiving the Lord’s body and blood. These elements constitute one single act of worship.
The Mass is the foundation for our understanding of what worship is. It is what forms and informs our devotions outside of the Mass and it is the end to which we are constantly journeying in all our prayers and works.
At the center of the Mass is Christ’s sacrifice and ours which is joined to His. In our society, this notion of worship as sacrifice is a foreign concept, perhaps even in some Catholic circles. Instead we tend to think of worship in terms of praise, as this writer points out.
Why is sacrifice at the core of worship?
Let’s go back to the definition of worship offered by the Baltimore Catechism as giving honor to God. One way of defining honor is giving someone what is due to Him. In the case of God, what is due to Him, as our Creator, is nothing less than our whole selves (...).
On the cross, Christ showed how to render perfect worship to God. In imitating Christ, we too must offer our whole selves to God. This acknowledgement of the debt that we owe to God establishes a relationship between man and his Creator. Sacrifice to God thus leads to communion, as St. Paul said,
The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread. Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? 1 Corinthians 10:16-18; Douay-Rheims translation
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One final thought: the per ipsum of the Mass, which concludes the Canon and leads into the Communion Rite, draws our attention to the very Lord to Whom we offer our worship.
The Celebrant takes the Host and Chalice, raising both, he says:
BY whom and with whom and in whom, to thee, O Father Almighty, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory throughout all ages, world without end.
The People respond: Amen.
In that moment, we see Jesus, we adore Jesus, and so we honour and adore the Father Who sent him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. There, before our eyes, we see with the eyes of faith the One God by whom and with whom and in whom we offer all honour and glory.
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The Main Theme of Scripture is Right Praise | Bishop Robert Barron
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