Divine Worship Is Not About You
Basic Catholic liturgical theology
And Moses said to Pharaoh, “we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there” (Ex. 10:26).
This statement of Moses in the book of Exodus is the primary thrust of the Catholic Church’s understanding of divine worship: true divine worship is not created—it is given by God.
Exodus and the freedom for worship
The whole story of the Exodus from Egypt, if we could summarize it quickly, is none other than freedom for worship. In the story of the Exodus, it says six times: “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 7:16; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; and 10:3). Primarily, the freedom from slavery was freedom for worship. It was not freedom from the punishment of slavery, or the freedom from the taskmasters; it was freedom to worship the God of Israel.
At the end of the plagues, we see that Moses implores Pharaoh to let the people go with all of their belongings and all their livestock. At first, Pharaoh tries to compromise and only let the some of the people, or certain classes of the people, leave. However, we see that that is unacceptable. As Exodus recounts:
Then Pharaoh called Moses, and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your children also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our cattle also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there” (Ex. 10:24-26).
This request is more than simply wanting freedom for all their belongings. This scene shows that it is necessary that all the Israelites and their livestock must go because when they get to the wilderness, they will need to offer sacrifice to the Lord. However, only when they arrive will God tell them how they are to worship.
Everything must go because it is God Himself who will tell them how they are to worship Him. As we see, worship, true worship of the living God, is given by God Himself—it is not created by the people.
Want to support In Defense of Theology? Subscribe and become a paid subscriber to get access to all the essays.
Protestant Worship as Improper Worship
Protestant worship is man-created. By this, I do not mean that it is not spiritually beneficial, which it certainly can be. By this, I mean something very particular: it is not divine worship. Divine worship is given. It is revealed by God, not created by man. Whatever form worship takes in Protestant services, they are, by necessity, always created by man. With this in mind, it is understandable why the music must be the best, the sermon must be great, the lighting must be perfect, and the building must be most suited for comfort. If it is man-created, all of these elements are not only beneficial, but they are necessary.
In this type of worship, the way people feel, what they see, and how they experience the Scriptures matters the most. The whole point is to entertain people so they get the most out of the service, experience God fully, and are charged to live the life of discipleship. In this service, there is a direct correlation between attendance and engagement. The more people enjoy coming, the more they get out of it, the better the Church does. This is why there is such a discrepancy in Protestant worship depending on the Church, the denomination, or the pastor.
I do not mean this in a derogatory way. This worship, and the elements that form it, are a necessary part of the experience. If worship is created by man and performed by man, it must be tailored to man’s senses and the engagement of the whole person. To their credit, the Protestant Churches have mastered this service, which is why many ex-Catholics (this is not even a correct term) turn to Protestantism: it is engaging, entertaining, and emotionally moving. However, is this actual worship? Is worship created by man, performed by man, and reliant on the work of man?
Basis of Worship in the Old Testament
Catholic liturgical worship is something altogether distinct. In Catholic liturgical theology, the liturgy is received. The Mass, the “fount and apex of the whole Christian life,”1 is not created by man or by the Church; it is an act that has been given by God to the Church and has been developed over the life of the Church.
In world religions, replacement, or the substitute of man’s sins with the sacrifice of animals, is the mode of expiation.2 What is meant as representation turns out to be merely replacement. As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says in The Spirit of the Liturgy, “this is not representation but replacement, and worship with replacements turns out to be replacement for worship.”3 In the development of the worship of Israel, we see the problem of replacement and representation addressed. In the dramatic story of the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham, God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son, and God Himself gives the lamb as representative sacrifice.4 In this example, we see that is it God who supplies the representation, not man, which will be important in the development to come.
Later, in Exodus 12, in the Passover account—”the center of the liturgical year and of Israel’s memorial of faith”5—we see that the lamb of sacrifice is “the ransom through which Israel is delivered from the death of the firstborn.”6 The importance of the first-born will be taken up by the Gospel writers in their emphasis that Jesus is the “first-born” (Lk. 2:7). As Ratzinger goes on to note, while the true God of Israel “is worshipped through an extensive sacrificial system, the meticulous regulations for which are set out in the Torah,”7 there is constant “prophetic disquiet and questioning.”8 For examples, we see phrases such as “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22) and “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). We see that, even in the time of the Old Testament, “Temple worship was always accompanied by a vivid sense of its insufficiency.”9 What then, if these sacrifices were insufficient, is true sacrifice and worship?
True Sacrifice and Right Worship
One of the integral moves from Old Testament to New Testament worship, to the true worship of God, is the scene of the cleansing of the temple by Jesus (cf. Mt. 21:12-13; Mk. 11:15-19; Lk. 19:45-48; and Jn. 2:13-22). Ratzinger points out that this event, “in the final analysis…had to be seen as an attack on the Temple cult, of which the sacrificial animals and the special Temple moneys collected were a part.”10 The cleansing of the Temple and the prophecy of its destruction are necessary. Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19). As is clearly evident in Scripture, Jesus is speaking about His death on the Cross and the raising of the perfect and true Temple: His sacred Body.
The death of Jesus is at the same time the death of the Temple and Temple worship. From now on, “the living body of Jesus Christ… will now stand in the sight of God and be the place of all worship.”11 Tying everything together, which we have discussed above; lamb, first-born, God offering the sacrifice, comes to its fulfillment.
Worship through types and shadows, worship with replacements, ends at the very moment when the real worship takes place: the self-offering of the Son, who has become man and “Lamb”, the “First-born”, who gathers up and into himself all worship of God, takes it from the types and shadows into the reality of man’s union with the living God.12
It is the self-sacrifice of the Logos on the Cross that is the true form of worship acceptable to God. Replacement worship becomes true representation in the sacrifice of Christ.
True Worship of the Eucharist
As we mentioned at the start, true worship is given, not created. As well meaning as Protestant worship or services might be, they ultimately fall short because they are improperly ordered. It is a God-action, not a human action. We cannot create worship. Worship is not something we do. Rather, as is evident in both Old and New Testament, worship of God is ordained by Him, created by Him, and given by Him.
In the Last Supper, as Our Lord took bread and gave thanks, took the chalice and gave thanks, He told His disciples (and us) to “do this in remembrance of me” (Lk. 22:19 and 1 Cor. 11:24). It is the celebration of the Eucharist, the true Body and Blood of the crucified and risen Lord, that is the true representative sacrifice that is pleasing to God. By becoming man and uniting divinity and humanity, Our Lord ushered in right worship by drawing mankind into Himself and offering His own body to the Father on our behalf. That is what we celebrate at the Mass.
Since it is true that God tells us how to worship, it is imperative that we participate in that worship.13 It is not incumbent upon us to “get something out of it” or “be entertained.” That is starting at the wrong foundation. The Mass is ordered to God for His own sake. We are called by God’s very nature to give Him right worship. It is therefore necessary that we celebrate the Mass correctly. It is not a personal playground where you do whatever you want. It is ordered and regulated for the right worship of God, safeguarded and developed by the Church.
It is not difficult.
Say the black, do the red.
Get your personality out of the Mass. Worship God with your whole being, body, soul, mind, and emotions.
Just simply do what the Church has done for 2,000 years. The Mass isn’t a place for rogue experiments and personal play.
It’s not about you—it’s about God.
If you like this essay, consider subscribing and sharing it.
If you want to support me and In Defense of Theology, where I teach you in-depth Catholic theology, become a paid subscriber!
Second Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 21 November, 1964," in The Word on Fire Vatican II Collection: Constitutions, ed. by Matthew Levering (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Institute, 2021), §11.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Commemorative Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2018). 50.
Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy. 50.
Ibid., 52.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 51.
Ibid., 53.
Ibid., 53.
Ibid., 56.
Ibid., 57.
Ibid., 57-58.
Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium Nos. 11, 14-20, 21, 27, 30, 41, 50, 79, 113-114, 121, and 124.
Very well written!
I love the last points especially. They really get to the heart of the matter, and they just lay out precisely what "Gen Z Catholics" have been wanting this whole time. . . get the personal preference out of the Mass!