Worship

a) Definition and Division of Worship

By worship, taken in its general signification, we mean honor and homage paid to a person. We use the word in this ordinary sense in poesy, and we find it so used in the rituals of various societies: thus we have “worshipful masters” and “worshipful grand outside guards,” and so on. Thus, too, the British use the word worship objectively, meaning a person to be worshiped or honored, when they call their magistrates “Your Worship.” But in Ethics we employ the term worship to signify the expression of religion, and in this use it is more properly called divine worship. Divine worship, then, is defined as the sum-total of all acts by which a rational creature shows to God the honor and the homage that is His due. We distinguish divine worship as internal and external. Internal worship consists in the acts of mind and will by which due honor and homage are paid to God. External worship consists in the acts which sensibly express this honor and homage. External worship is called private when it is performed by, and in the name of, individuals. It is called public or social when it is performed in the name of a society.

b) The Obligation of Worship

Man is bound to render to God the duty of worship, both internal and external, both private and public. Man is bound to internal worship of God. We have already proved that man has the duty of religion towards God. Now internal worship is inseparable from the performance of the duty of religion. Hence, given the existence of the first duty (i. e., religion), the second (i. e., worship) necessarily follows. Man is also bound to external worship of God. Man is bound to show to God due honor and homage because God is his Creator, Preserver, and Master. Now God is the Creator, Preserver, and Master of the body as well as of the soul of man. Hence man is bound not only to the homage of soul (i. e., acts of intellect and will), but to homage of body (i. e., external bodily acts of worship). Homage of body, homage shown by bodily acts, is external worship. Therefore, man is bound to external worship. Again: internal worship itself requires certain external acts for its perfect performance. For it is in accord with the requirements of man’s nature that he express internal acts in sensible signs; and man’s internal acts depend, in a measure, upon things external, since all intellectual knowledge has its first beginnings in the action of sense, and will-acts depend upon intellectual knowledge. Hence it is connatural to man, and therefore requisite, that he give some external expression to internal worship. It is clear, then, that individual man has the duty of internal and external Worship. But it is also true that man in society has this obligation. For human society (as we shall see later) is not an artificial thing; it is natural to man, and therefore carries the requirements of man’s nature. Society itself is the work of the Creator, and, like individual man, must recognize and express its dependence upon Him in worship. Therefore, man is bound to public worship.

c) The Acts of Worship

The chief acts of internal worship are devotion and prayer, while the most notable acts of external worship are adoration and sacrifice. i. Devotion consists in a readiness of the will to elicit acts that belong to the worship of God. True and sincere devotion comes from the knowledge and love of God. Man, of course, is strictly bound to know God, and for this purpose he has been given power of reason and has, moreover, been enlightened by divine revelation. For if a-man do not know God, how shall be discharge the obligation of religion? Again, man must love God. This follows from the fact that man must, and can, know God. For to know God is to know the all-lovable, the supremely good, the all-perfect efficient and final cause of all creatures. And reason demands that what is known to be all-lovable, must, in fact, be loved. Given, then, the knowledge and the love of God, the will must be ever in readiness to render service (homage and honor) to God; and in this readiness consists the act of devotion. Devotion is obviously essential to proper internal worship of God. ii. Prayer is the elevation of the mind to God to praise Him, to thank Him, and to ask His blessings. Among the blessings asked will be that of pardon for sins, and so we may say that prayer also includes penance, or reparation, since by God’s free pardon of faults the relation of man and God, injured by these faults, is, so to speak, repaired. Prayer is either mental or vocal, according as it is perfected in the mind without exterior signs, or is expressed in words. Prayer is an act of internal worship when mental; when vocal, it is an act of external worship. Some men have denied the need and utility of prayer, saying that God’s immutability, or changelessness in eternal perfection, makes the answering of prayers impossible. But this is a short-sighted and unworthy objection. For, as St. Thomas says, prayer is not meant to change the eternal decrees of God, but to fulfill these decrees. For God, from eternity knowing all possible prayers, has from eternity decreed to answer them and to bless the man who prays. Hence, the answer to our prayers is eternally prepared for us if only we will pray. Our prayers do make a difference! There is no prayer that we can offer to God but has its answer, prepared from eternity, to take effect in time. The placing of the necessary condition for the fulfillment of the eternal decrees to answer prayers rests with us, is a matter of our freechoice to pray. 4. iii. Adoration, as an act of external worship, is an exterior manifestation of subjection to the divine excellence. Thus, a kneeling posture at prayer is an act of adoration. Adoration, as an internal act, is much at one with devotion. Adoration is the normal external expression of acknowledgment of God’s supreme control of the universe. It is an act of honor proportioned to the dignity of the Creator, on the one hand, and to the utter dependence of the rational creature on the other hand. Hence man owes to God the duty of adoration. 4 iv. Sacrifice is an external act by which a bodily object is offered to God, and destroyed (really or equivalently) to manifest the supreme dominion of God over creatures and the utter dependence of creatures upon God. It is the highest act of divine worship. Sacrifice has always been found wherever religion and worship are found, that is to say, among all men of all times. It is a rational necessity of man to give practical expression to his appreciation of the relation between the Supreme Being and dependent creatures by destroying, with symbolic ceremonies, something that is of value to himself. Even when, in false cults, sacrifice assumed monstrous forms, the impulse back of it was rational. Passion and the degredation of human nature through sins, may pervert the right understanding of sacrifice, but the idea of sacrifice as a duty is sound. When we speak of “sacrifice” as the giving up or “destroying” of our own convenience, or of our goods, for motives of religion, we use the term in an extended sense: and then it is but the normal expression or actualization of devotion.

Summary of the Article

In this Article we have learned the meaning of divine worship, and we have distinguished this as external and internal. We have established the obligation borne by rational man of performing the duty of worship, internal and external, private and public. We have mentioned and discussed the chief acts of worship, viz., devotion, prayer, adoration, and sacrifice.

By office we mean duty or system of duties. And by personal in our caption we mean that which is done by and to the acting person, the human agent. In a word, this Chapter discusses man’s duties towards himself. These duties are concerned with matters of soul and of body. Hence the Chapter is divided into two Articles, as follows:

His Soul

The soul of man has two faculties or powers or capacities for action, viz., the knowing faculty or intellect, and the choosing faculty or will. Duties are obligations, things to be done. Hence man’s duties of soul consist in things to be done by intellect and will.