I am often asked, “Why do we worship the way we do?” The tendency is to answer the question by explaining the logic and elements of the liturgy. While such explanations are helpful, and necessary, there is a more basic, more simple answer: we worship on earth as it is in heaven. The Mass takes us up in the eternal rhythms and patterns of the worship of heaven. OT worship was a copy and shadow of heavenly worship (Hebrews 8:1-5). With Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, we no longer worship in copies and shadows of heaven, we now worship in heaven itself. Jesus has opened the way to heaven, to the worship of heaven. The liturgy makes us especially conscious of this reality at the Sursum Corda followed by The Preface and ‘The Sanctus:
After which the Priest shall proceed, saying,
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up unto the Lord.
Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
It is meet and right so to do.Then shall the Priest turn to the Holy Table, and say,
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.Here shall follow the Proper Preface, according to the time, if there be any specialty appointed; or else immediately shall be said or sung by the Priest,
THEREFORE with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying,
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, Lord God of, hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High. Amen.
In the Mass we lift up our hearts unto the Lord in heaven where we join with Angels, Archangels and all the company of heaven in praising God, singing the Seraphic hymn of heaven: Holy, Holy, Holy! (See Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4:8.)
In today’s MP Second Lesson, John the Apostle speaks of worship in heaven as worship “in Spirit.” When John was “in Spirit” on the Lord’s Day he was in heaven where he attends the worship of heaven. (Note: many texts translate “in Spirit” as “in the Spirit” … there is no definite article “the” in the Greek.)
Revelation 1:4-18
I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
St. John draws the connection between “in Spirit” and worship in St. John 4. The Samaritan raises the question about where worship rightly takes place — in Mt. Gerzim, which was sacred to the Samaritans, or in Jerusalem where the Jews worship.
The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain [in Gerzim], and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
In what place shall we worship, she asks, in Mt Gerzim or in Jerusalem? She asks where should worship take place, using the locative case - in Gerzim or in Jerusalem. (The locative case … that is, location, location, location.) Jesus answers that worship takes place “in Spirit” or in the place of the Spirit, in heaven itself. When John was “in Spirit” in Revelation 1 he was in heaven on the Lord’s Day. In Revelation 4, John was again summoned to heaven and immediately he was “in spirit” …
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. 3 And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. … 8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
John was “in Spirit” on the Lord’s Day where he attended worship in heaven. The Father seeks worshippers who worship “in Spirit,” in heaven. Why do we worship the way we do? In the liturgy we worship “in Spirit,” we worship on earth as it is in heaven.
JSH+