|
Offer yourself
daily in 'spiritual worship' concretely, not in the abstract
On Wednesday, 7 January
[2009], at the General Audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, continuing
his Catecheses on the teaching of St Paul, the Holy Father focused on
the meaning of "true worship" as highlighted in Paul's Letter to the
Romans. The following is a translation of the Holy Father's Catechesis,
which was given in Italian.
Dear Brothers and sisters,
At this first General
Audience in 2009, I would like to express to all of you my fervent good
wishes for the new year that has just begun. Let us revive within us the
commitment to open our minds and hearts to Christ, to be and to live as
his true friends. His company will ensure that this year, even with its
inevitable difficulties, will be a journey full of joy and peace. In
fact, only if we remain united to Jesus will the new year be a good and
happy one.
The commitment of union
with Christ is the example that St Paul also offers us. Continuing the
Catecheses dedicated to him, let us pause to reflect today on one of the
important aspects of his thought which concerns the worship that
Christians are called to exercise. In the past, it was fashionable to
speak of a rather anti-religious tendency in the Apostle, of a
"spiritualization" of the idea of worship. Today we understand better
that Paul sees in the Cross of Christ a historic turning point that
radically transforms and renews the reality of worship. In particular,
there are three texts in the Letter to the Romans in which this
new vision of worship appears.
In Romans 3:25, after
speaking of the "redemption which is in Christ Jesus", Paul continues
with what to us is a mysterious formula, saying: "through his Blood, God
made him the means of expiation for all who believe". With these words
that we find somewhat strange: "means of expiation", St Paul mentions
the so-called "propitiatory" of the ancient temple, that is, the lid
covering the Ark of the Covenant that was considered the point of
contact between God and man, the point of his mysterious presence in the
human world.
On the great Day of
Atonement
—"Yom
Kippur"
—
this "propitiatory" was sprinkled with the blood of sacrificed
animals
—
blood that symbolically brought the sins of the past year into contact
with God and thus sins cast into the abyss of divine goodness were, so
to speak, absorbed by the power of God, overcome and forgiven. Life
began anew.
St Paul mentions this rite
and says: This rite was an expression of the desire truly to be able to
cast all our sins into the abyss of divine mercy and thus make them
disappear. With the blood of animals, however, this expiation was not
achieved; a more real contact between human sin and divine love was
required.
This contact took place on
the Cross of Christ. Christ, the true Son of God, who became a true man,
took all our sins upon himself. He himself is the point of contact
between human wretchedness and divine mercy. In his heart the grievous
mass of the evil perpetrated by humanity is dissolved and life is
renewed.
In revealing this change,
St Paul tells us: the old form of worship with animal sacrifices in the
Temple of Jerusalem ended with the Cross of Christ
—
the supreme act of divine love become human love. This symbolic worship,
the cult of desire, is now replaced by true worship: the love of God
incarnate in Christ and brought to its fulfilment in his death on the
Cross. This is not, therefore, a spiritualization of true worship; on
the contrary it is true worship: real divine-human love replaces the
symbolic and temporary form of worship. The Cross of Christ, his love
with Flesh and Blood, is the true worship that corresponds with the
reality of God and of man.
In Paul's opinion, the
epoch of the temple and its worship had already ended prior to the
external destruction of the temple. Here Paul finds himself in perfect
harmony with the words of Jesus who had predicted the destruction of the
temple and had also announced another temple, "not made with human
hands"
—
the temple of his Risen Body (cf. Mk 14:58; Jn 2:19ff.). This is the
first text.
2. The second text I would like to speak of today is
found in the first verse of chapter 12 of the Letter to the Romans. We
have heard it and I shall repeat it: "I appeal to you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship".
There is an apparent paradox in these words: while the sacrifice
normally requires the death of the victim, Paul speaks on the
contrary of the life of the Christian. The expression "present
your bodies", independently of the successive concept of sacrifice,
acquires the religious nuance of "giving as an oblation, an offering".
The exhortation "present your bodies" refers to the person in his
entirety; in fact, in Romans 6:13, he invites them to: "yield
yourselves". Moreover the explicit reference to the physical dimension
of the Christian coincides with the invitation to: "glorify God in your
body" (1 Cor 6:20). In other words, it is a question of honouring God in
the most practical form of daily life that consists of relational and
perceptible visibility.
Conduct of this kind is
described by Paul as "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God".
It is here that we actually find the word "sacrifice". In this usage the
term belongs to a sacred context and serves to designate the
slaughtering of an animal, part of which can be burned in honour of the
gods and another part eaten at a banquet by those who are offering the
sacrifice.
Paul applies it instead to
the Christian's life. In fact, he describes this sacrifice using three
adjectives. The first
—"living"
—
expresses vitality. The second
—
"holy"
—
recalls the Pauline idea of holiness not linked to places or objects but
to Christians themselves. The third
—
"acceptable to God"
—
recalls perhaps the recurrent biblical expression of sacrifice "a
pleasing odour" (cf. Lv 1:13, 17; 23:18; 26:31, etc.).
Immediately afterwards,
Paul thus defines this new way of living: "which is your spiritual
worship". Commentators on this text well know that the Greek expression
(tēn logikēn latreían)
is not easy to translate. The Latin Bible translates it as: "rationabile
obsequium". The actual word "rationabile" appears in the
First Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Canon: in it the faithful pray
that God will accept this offering as "rationabile". The usual
Italian translation "culto spirituale" [spiritual worship] does
not reflect all the nuances of the Greek text (or of the Latin).
In any case it is not a
matter of less real worship or even worship that is only metaphorical
but rather of a more concrete and realistic worship
—
a worship in which the human being himself, in his totality as a being
endowed with reason, becomes adoration, glorification of the living God.
This Pauline formula, which
returns later in the Roman Eucharistic Prayer, is the fruit of a long
development of the religious experience in the centuries before Christ.
In this experience
theological developments of the Old Testament and trends of Greek
thought are encountered. I would like at least to show some elements of
this development.
The Prophets and many
Psalms strongly criticize the bloody sacrifices of the temple. Psalm
5o[49], in which God speaks: "if I were hungry, I would not tell you;
for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of
bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of
thanksgiving..."
The following Psalm says
something similar: "You have no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a
burned offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to
God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not
diespise" (Ps 50[51]: vv. 18ff).
In the Book of Daniel, at
the time of the new destruction of the temple by the Hellenistic regime
(second century B.C.), we find a new step in the same direction. In the
heart of the furnace
— that is,
of persecution, suffering — Azariah
prays in these words: "And at this time there is no prince, or prophet,
or leader, no burned offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, no
place to make an offering before you or to find mercy. Yet with a
contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted, as though it were
with burned offerings of rams and bulls... such may be our sacrifice be
in your sight this day, and may we wholly follow you" (Dan 3:15-17). In
the destruction of the shrine and of worship, in this situation of the
privation of any sign of God's presence, the believer offers as a true
holocaust his contrite heart
—
his desire for God.
We see an important and
beautiful development but with a danger. There is a spiritualization, a
moralization of worship: worship becomes only something of the heart, of
the mind. But it lacks the body, it lacks the community. Thus we
understand, for example, that Psalm 51 and also the Book of Daniel,
despite the criticism of worship, desire a return to the time of
sacrifices. Yet this is a renewed time, a renewed sacrifice, in a
synthesis that was not yet foreseeable, that could not yet be conceived
of.
Let us return to St Paul.
He is heir to these developments, of the desire for true worship, in
which man himself becomes the glory of God, living adoration with his
whole being. In this sense he says to the Romans: "present your bodies
as a living sacrifice... which is your spiritual worship" (Rm 2 :
1 ) .
Paul thus repeats what he
pointed out in chapter 3: the time of animal sacrifices, substitute
sacrifices, is over. The time has come for true worship. However, here
there is also the danger of a misunderstanding. One might easily
interpret this new worship in a moralistic sense: in offering our life
we ourselves become true worship. In this way, worship with animals
would be replaced by moralism: man himself would do everything on his
own with his moral strength. And this was certainly not St Paul's
intention.
However the question
remains: how therefore, can we interpret this "[reasonable] spiritual
worship"? Paul always presumes that we are all "one in Christ Jesus"
(Gal 3:28), that we died in Baptism (cf. Rm 1) and that we now live with
Christ, for Christ, in Christ.
In this union
—
and only in this way
—
we are able to become in him and with him "a living sacrifice", to offer
"true worship".
The sacrificed animals were
meant to replace the human being, the gift of self, but they could not.
In his gift of himself to the Father and to us, Jesus Christ is not a
substitute but truly bears within him the human being, our sins and our
desire; he really represents us, he takes us upon himself. In communion
with Christ, realized in faith and in the sacraments, despite all our
inadequacies we truly become a living sacrifice: "true worship" is
achieved.
This synthesis forms the
background of the Roman Canon in which we pray for this offering to
become "rationabile"
—
for spiritual worship to be made. The Church knows that in the Holy
Eucharist Christ's gift of himself, his true sacrifice, becomes present.
However, the Church prays that the community celebrating may truly be
united with Christ and transformed; she prays that we may become what we
cannot be with our own efforts: a "rational" offering that is acceptable
to God.
Thus the Eucharistic Prayer
interprets St Paul's words correctly. St Augustine explained all this
marvellously in the 10th chapter of his "City of God". I cite
only two sentences from it.
"This is the sacrifice of
Christians: we, being many, are one body in Christ...". "The whole
redeemed city, that is to say, the congregation or community of the
saints, is offered to God as our sacrifice through the great High
Priest, who offered Himself..." (10, 6: CCL 47, 27 ff.).
3. Further, at the end, I
add just a few words on the third text of the Letter to the Romans on
the new worship. St Paul thus said in chapter 15: "The grace given me by
God to be 'a minister' of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly
service (hierourgein) of the Gospel of God, so that the offering
of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit"
(15:15ff.).
I would like to emphasize
only two aspects of this marvellous text, with regard to the unique
terminology in the Pauline Letters.
First of all, St Paul
interprets his missionary activity among the world's peoples to build
the universal Church as priestly service. To proclaim the Gospel in
order to unite the peoples in the communion of the Risen Christ is a
"priestly" action. The apostle of the Gospel is a true priest, he does
what is central to the priesthood: prepares the true sacrifice.
And then the second aspect:
the goal of missionary action is
—
we can say
—
the cosmic liturgy: that the peoples united
in Christ, the world, may as such become the glory of God, an
"acceptable [offering], sanctified by the Holy Spirit".
Here the dynamic aspect
appears, the aspect of hope in the Pauline conception of worship:
Christ's gift of himself implies the aspiration to attract all to
communion in his body, to unite the world. Only in communion with
Christ, the exemplary man, one with God, does the world thus become as
we all wish it to be: a mirror of divine love. This dynamism is ever
present in the Eucharist
—
this dynamism must inspire and form our life. And let us begin the new
year with this dynamism. Thank you for your patience.
|