“You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.” - N.T. Wright
My priest growing up used to always say, when he enters someone's house, he can see what they worship. If he sees posters of bands all over the place, they worship music or the band members. If he sees pictures of their kids all over the walls, they worship their family. I was curious what was on his walls to see if he followed what he preached. It was amusing the first time I visited him in his own home and there were countless pictures of Jesus from the nativity to His ascension hanging on his walls. So He showed his visitors that He worshipped God through the pictures He hung on his walls.
Of course there is nothing wrong with having posters of your favorite band or pictures of your family on the wall. Honestly, the priest’s wall of Jesus pictures felt like a bit too much for me, but it is always good to keep in perspective what we are surrounding ourselves with in our life and what we are putting first in our life. I always think about this as I redecorate my house and ask myself ‘what do I worship?’ I also take these same thoughts with me when I rearrange the apps on my phone making sure my prayer app is always more easily accessible than the social media ones. Many times, we as Christians don't really take the time to ask ourselves this question, and we should. Of course without thinking, a good Christian would answer ‘I only worship the One True God.’ But sometimes our actions (and homes and phones) speak louder for what we are actually worshipping.
God gave us the first commandment way back in the time of Moses saying "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me." (Exodus 20:1-3). Unfortunately, soon after giving this commandment to His chosen people, they went back to their old ways of worshipping the Egyptian gods and creating a golden calf. As Christians in the present day we sometimes don't understand how they could go back to worshipping a false god, when God himself told them to worship Him. However, even good Christians today still struggle with breaking that first commandment without even realizing it.
When we put anything before God, we are worshipping that thing as greater than the creator of the world. When we put a soccer game as more important than going to church, we are creating a false god of soccer. It's as if we are being like the Israelites and creating a golden statue of a soccer ball instead of the golden calf. When we put playing on our phones before bed as more important than our night prayers, we are worshipping our phones, apps, and social media as more important than the One True God. When we put a greater emphasis on the gifts, ornaments, and Santa Claus than on the birth of Christ at Christmas time, we again are showing what we are truly worshipping on that holiday.
Although soccer, phones, and old St. Nick are not bad in themselves, when we put them in a place of honor that belongs to God alone, then the problem is the false worship, not the thing itself. This can even be true about the people in our lives. We are a people made for families, friends, and community. God gives us these people in our lives to help us and accompany us on our journey to heaven with Him one day. He gives us the opportunity to form relationships and wants us to be in relationships with others. This is why matrimony is one of the seven sacraments. Our relationships serve a purpose to help us grow in holiness. God also gives us the great saints to be our role models of how to grow in holiness through their examples while still on earth. However, it is possible for our relationships with our family, significant others, and our role models to also become a danger of false gods.
When a couple starts dating or during the honeymoon phase of their marriage, it is very easy to be swept away in the feelings of love. Love is a beautiful and good thing. However, Love itself, God, should remain the only Being being worshipped. If we start to put our significant other's happiness and wants before our relationship with God, then again our worship has shifted to a false god of putting something or someone as more important than God.
This can even be a danger at the place of worship itself, the church. When we go to church, we may focus more on getting dressed up so that we look good and our attention becomes centered on our self, not God. Or we may love the sermons of a certain priest so much that we put that priest above our attention on God. We might even decide to choose to worship God the way that works best for us instead of worshipping God the way He asked us to. We may choose to go to a church because it is where our friends go, is the most fun or exciting, or we get the most out of it which again is putting ourselves as false gods before the One True God.
So if these are all ways that we can put other things before God, then what is the right way to worship God? The thing is, I think a lot of Christians don't actually know the answer to this question. It's not something they sit and think about. They follow the habits of their family and friends and accept that as sufficient worship without really thinking about how they worship God, and why they worship God in that manner.
Worship means to show reverence and adoration for a deity. Notice, nothing about that definition has to do with you. It's only concern is the deity, God, of which you are worshipping. Worship is not about how it makes you feel, how it makes you look, or even how it helps you learn about God. Worship is about showing reverence and adoration to the Creator of the World, our God. Because of this, how we worship God should match to how God wants to be worshipped. Where can we learn how God wants to be worshipped? Through the Bible. The very first book of the Bible shows us how to worship. In the story of Cain and Abel, we learn that God accepts the sacrifice of first fruits. Throughout the entire Old Testament, we see God teaching His people how to worship him. He leads people like Moses to teach the people the way God wants to be reverenced and adored. The entire book of Leviticus is just a big book of explaining how the priests are to offer sacrifices to the Lord as a form of worship. In the New Testament, Jesus gives us the new sacrifice of His Body and Blood to be offered in the breaking of the bread.
We can't choose how to show God reverence. Only God can decide that. Just like how in some cultures a hand shake is a sign of respect when meeting someone but in others a bow would be the correct etiquette. Even though you might prefer a handshake, if you go to give a handshake to someone where a bow is the correct sign of respect, then you are actually doing the opposite by not respecting their request for a bowing gesture. Instead of caring about the other person's culture, you are making the encounter all about your own wants, comfort, and preference. The same is true with worshipping God. We can't decide the best way to worship God based on what we like. There is a certain way to honor, adore, and reverence Him that He revealed to us through the Scriptures. This is what makes it so important for us as Christians to know the scriptures so that we can not only come to know God through His Word, but also come to understand how He wants us to worship Him.
There is a special holiness that God deserves that many times is lost to God in His places of worship. We need to remember that the church is a special place of God's special and real presence. Through the fulfillment of the New Testament, we are blessed to live in a time where God has us to worship Him in a special way where we are invited to be so close to Him. In the Old Testament, God would only be present in the one temple, behind the holy of holies, where only one high priest could enter. However, on Good Friday, Jesus broke the barrier between us and Him so that we can all be in His presence when we worship Him in the new temples, the Churches, around the world today. During that sacrifice on the cross, Jesus gave us the most perfect sacrifice to offer up to God by being the unblemished lamb. So instead of the animal and food sacrifices of the Old Testament, we have one most perfect sacrifice to offer up to God on the altar at every Mass. This is what makes the Mass so special. We are able to partake in the sacrifice that Jesus offered 2000 years ago on Mount Calvary. We are able to eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the unblemished lamb, Jesus, that was slain for the sake of the world.
So read the Bible, get to know the One True God. Get to know how He calls us to reverence and adore Him through the blueprints that were written to us in the scriptures. And then, when you start to understand the worship that you are partaking in at Mass, you can start to understand the beauty of beholding the Lamb of God when the priest holds up the sacrifice of the Eucharist just as John the Baptist proclaimed to all the people of the time of Jesus 2000 years ago.
"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:1-2
Comments