Form and Matter in the Liturgy—Sacrifice (Part 1)

When it comes to worshiping the Lord Almighty God, in my opinion, there is nothing too extravagant. All that we have we have received from him and therefore I think it is only fair to give him the better share of our toils. This, at least, is the lesson I take from the story of Cain and Able. As you remember, Cain kills his brother out of jealousy because God praises Able for his sacrifice (the best produce of the land) while ignoring Cain's sacrifice (a less than choice specimen of livestock). The moral of this story is that in offering sacrifices to God, NOTHING we could give God is a worthy repayment for what he is given us. However, acknowledging this, if we do give an “unworthy” offering it should be the best “unworthy” offering possible, it should be an offering not from our surplus but from our need. As Jesus says in the Gospels the poor woman's meager alms are better than the rich mans extravagant donation.

When it comes to the Divine Liturgy, the Mass, you often hear people say that God chose to be born in a stable, in squalor, and so, since he lived his life in relative poverty he doesn't need fine vessels, vestments, etc. when he is being worshiped. This of course is true—God needs nothing because all, that is, is his. The fruits of the earth offered by Able, belonged to God before Able sacrificed them to God. God had no need of them, but it pleased God that fallen man still realized that all that he had was a gift from God, and it pleased God that man was willing to sacrifice the best portions of his labors to the one who gives all things existence.

Today this is still the case, despite what we tell ourselves about our hard work, all that we “earn” is a gift from God. For nothing that exists exists without his willing it to be. “In the beginning was the Word...” In years past, poor peasants devoted huge portions of their labor to the construction of fabulous churches and the purchase of fine appointments for use in the liturgy. Today, while so many are fabulously rich compared with the masses of just a century ago, we scoff at fine vessels and vestments, while building inornate, drab, unprayerful churches. At the same time we build larger and larger homes, buy more extravagant toys, and live in greater luxury than even the Roman emperors of Jesus' era lived in.

Part of this is from an incorrect understanding of the Evangelical council of simplicity. There are those who ask, how one can justify purchasing beautiful things for the sacrifice of the Mass when there are poor among us. Isn't it socially unjust to have extravagant churches while the poor are homeless, hungry, without health care, etc. It of course shouldn't surprise you that Jesus predicted that the poor would always be with us. And yes, we are most definitely called to minister to them: to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick, etc. However, Jesus' trice-repeated instruction to Peter and the Church which he would lead, “Feed my sheep,” “feed my lambs,” “feed my sheep,” was not only an instruction to care for the temporal well beings of people but also to feed their souls. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that flows from the mouth of God,” and so feeding Christ's flock means feeding them with the bread of life, the word of God made flesh truly present in the Sacrifice of the Altar.

This brings us to the crux of the issue. God does not need sacrifice, yet sacrifice is present and requested by God throughout the Old Testament, and it is perfected by Christ in the New Testament. God does not need the best portion, and yet it pleases him that it is offered. Why is this the case?? Why does the God who is All in All, who owns all created things, place these burdensome requests for fine sacrifices upon the shoulders of his chosen people?? It is because, in truth, the sacrifices we offer are not to God's benefit but to ours. WE NEED THE SACRIFICE!! We need to learn how to sacrifice. Our sacrifices teaches us what true love is about. True love is the total emptying of self, a gift of self to another, with no expectation or guarantee of return. In turn, our sacrifices teach others what we believe in and they teach others how to love. Isn't this what Christ taught us on the Cross, to give ourselves totally? We may not be asked to give our lives, but ought we not give the best, choice, portion of our earnings to the worship of the one who gave us all we have?

When I visited Asissi a few months ago I was struck by seeing St. Francis' habit and his dalmatic (the vestment he wore while assisting at the Mass). His habit was really little more than a rag, far poorer then the rags that a poor person in the US might wear today. However, what struck me was that despite the fact that Francis was the evangelist of poverty, at the liturgy, serving as a deacon, the dalmatic he wore was at the same time a simple and yet quite beautiful woven silk and silver. I will conclude this first part of a multi-part series of the Catholic liturgy with this thought: when we celebrate the Mass, Catholics believe that Christ opens the gates of heaven to the faithful and that the priest steps to the threshold of heaven offering meager gifts of bread and wine and receiving in return the bread of everlasting life, the Word of God which sustains our life for all eternity. We as American's pay millions of dollars a year to transport our presidents and leaders safely and comfortably around the world, we also pay all that we can afford in order to transport our own families in similar safety and opulence, is it too much then to ask that we spend a couple dollars to transport our Lord and Savior's gift of his own flesh in similar safety, opulence, and reverance?


Form and Matter in the Liturgy—Why things matter in a created world (Part 2)Form and Matter in the Liturgy—Latin and Lace Smells and Bells(Part 3)