THE USE OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES DICTATED BY RIGHT REASON.
By religious ceremonies we mean certain expressive signs and actions which
the Church has ordained for the worthy celebration of the Divine service.
True devotion must be interior and come from the heart, for “the true
adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
indeed seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit; and they who worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”(407) But we are not to infer
from this that exterior worship is to be contemned because interior
worship is prescribed as essential. On the contrary, the rites and
ceremonies enjoined in the worship of God and the administration of the
Sacraments are dictated by right reason, are sanctioned by Almighty God in
the Old Law, and by Christ and His Apostles in the New.
The angels, being pure spirits without a body, render to God a purely
spiritual worship. The sun, moon and stars of the firmament pay Him a kind
of external homage. In the Prophet Daniel we read: “Sun and moon bless the
Lord, ... stars of heaven bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all
forever.”(408) “The heavens show forth the glory of God, the firmament
announces the work of His hands.”(409) Man, by possessing a soul of
spiritual substance, partakes of the nature of angels, and by possessing a
body partakes of the nature of the heavenly bodies. It is therefore, his
privilege, as well as his duty, to offer to God the twofold homage of body
and soul; in other words, to honor Him by internal and external worship.
Genuine piety cannot long be concealed in the heart without manifesting
itself by exterior practices of religion; hence, though interior and
exterior worship are distinct, they cannot be separated in the present
life. Fire cannot burn without sending forth flame and heat. Neither can
the fire of devotion burn in the soul without being reflected on the
countenance and even in speech. It is natural for man to express his
sentiments by signs and ceremonies, for “from the fulness of the heart the
mouth speaketh;” and as fuel is necessary to keep fire alive, even so the
flame of piety is nourished by the outward forms of religion.
A devoted child will not be content with loving his father in his heart,
but will manifest that love by affectionate language, and by the service
of his body, if necessary. So will the child of God show his affection for
his heavenly Father not only by interior devotion, but also by the homage
of his body. “I beseech you,” says the Apostle, “by the mercy of God, that
you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy pleasing unto God, your
reasonable service.”(410)
The fruit of a tree does not consist in its bark, its leaves and its
branches. Nevertheless, you never saw a tree bearing fruit unless when
clothed with bark, adorned with branches and covered with leaves. These
are necessary for the protection of the fruit. In like manner, though the
fruit of piety does not consist in exterior forms, it must, however, be
fostered by some outward observances or it will soon decay. There is as
close a relation between devotion and ceremonial as exists between the
bark and the fruit of a tree.
The man who daily bends his knee to the Maker, who recites or sings His
praises, who devoutly makes the sign of the cross, who assists without
constraint at the public services of the Church, who observes an exterior
decorum in the house of God, who gives to the needy according to his means
and duly attends to the other practices and ceremonies of religion, will
generally be one whose heart is united to God, and who yields to Him a
ready obedience. Show me, on the contrary, a man who habitually neglects
these outward observances of religion and charity, and I will show you one
in whose soul the fire of devotion, if not quite extinguished, at least
burns very faintly.
The ceremonies of the Church not only render divine service more solemn,
but also rivet our attention and lift it up to God. Our mind is so active,
so volatile, so full of distractions, our imagination so fickle, that we
have need of some external objects on which to fix our thoughts.
Almighty God considered ceremonial so indispensable to interior worship
that we find Him in the Old Law prescribing in minute detail the various
rites, ceremonies and ordinances to be observed by the Jewish Priests and
people in their public worship. What is the entire book of Leviticus but
an elaborate ritual of the Jewish church. Not, indeed, that external rites
are to be compared in merit with interior worship, but because they are as
necessary for nourishing internal devotion as food is necessary for our
animal life.
Our Savior, though He came to establish a more spiritual religion than
that of the Hebrew people, did not discard the outward forms of worship.
He was accustomed to accompany His religious acts by appropriate
ceremonies.
In the garden of Gethsemani “He fell upon His face”(411) in humble
supplication.
He went in procession to Jerusalem, accompanied by a great multitude, who
sang Hosanna to the Son of David.(412)
At the Last Supper He invoked a blessing on the bread and wine, and
afterward chanted a hymn with His disciples.(413)
When the deaf and dumb man was brought to Him, before healing Him, He put
His fingers into his ears and touched his tongue with spittle, “and,
looking up to heaven, He groaned and said: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou
opened.”(414)
When He imparted the Holy Ghost to His disciples, He breathed on them(415)
and the same Apostles afterward communicated the Holy Ghost to others by
laying hands on them.(416)
The Apostle St. James directs that if any man is sick he shall call in the
Priest, who will anoint him with oil.(417)
Now, are not all these acts which I have just recorded—the prostration and
procession, the prayerful invocation, the chanting of a hymn, the touching
of the ears, the lifting up of the eyes to heaven, the breathing on the
Apostles, the laying on of hands and the unction of the sick—are not all
these acts so many ceremonies serving as models to those which the
Catholic Church employs in her public worship, and in the administration
of her Sacraments?
The ceremonies now accompanying our public worship are, indeed, usually
more impressive and elaborate than those recorded of our Savior; but it is
quite natural that the majesty of ceremonial should keep pace with the
growth and development of Christianity.
But where shall we find a ritual so gorgeous as that presented to us in
the Book of Revelation, which is descriptive of the worship of God in the
heavenly Jerusalem? Angels with golden censers stand before the throne,
while elders cast their crowns of gold before the Lamb once slain. Then
that unnumbered multitude of all nations, tongues and people, clothed in
white raiment, bearing palms of victory. Virgins, too, with harp and
canticle, follow near the Lamb, singing the new song which they alone can
utter.(418)
How glorious the pageant! How elaborate in detail!
Surely there ought to be some analogy and resemblance, some proportion and
harmony between the public worship which is paid to God in the Church
militant on earth, and that which is offered to Him in the Church
triumphant in heaven.
Strange would it be if God, who, in the dispensation past and that to
come, is seen delighting in external majesty, should have deprived the
Christian Church (the living link between the past and the future) of all
external glory. “For,” as St. Paul says, “if the ministry of condemnation
is glory, much more the ministry of justice aboundeth in glory.”(419)
It is true that God uttered this complaint against the children of Israel:
“This people draw near Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.”(420) It is also true that He was
displeased with their sacrifices and religious festivals.(421) But He
blamed them not because they praised Him with their voice, but because
their hearts felt not what their lips uttered. He rejected their
sacrifices because they were not accompanied by the more precious
sacrifice of a penitent spirit.
The same Lord who declares that the true adorer shall adore the Father in
spirit commands also that public praise be given to Him in His holy
temple: “Praise ye the Lord,” He says, “in His holy places.... Praise Him
with sound of trumpet. Praise Him with psaltery and harp. Praise Him with
timbrel and choir. Praise Him with strings and organs.”(422)
If He says in one place: “Rend your hearts and not your garments,”(423)
immediately after He adds: “Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast,
call a solemn assembly. Gather together the people, sanctify the
Church.... Between the porch and the altar the Priests, the Lord’s
ministers, shall weep and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare Thy
people!”(424) The Prophet first points out the absolute necessity of
interior sorrow and contrition of heart, and then he insists on the duty
of performing some acts of expiation, penance and humiliation, as you do
when you have your forehead marked with ashes on Ash Wednesday, and when
you observe the fast and abstinence of Lent.
When St. Paul says that though he speak with the tongues of angels and of
men, and distribute all his goods to feed the poor, and deliver his body
to be burned, and have not the love of God, it profiteth him nothing,(425)
he points out the necessity of interior worship. And when he says
elsewhere that “in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those that
are in heaven, on earth and under the earth,”(426) he shows us the duty of
exterior or ceremonial worship.
When political leaders desire to influence the masses in their favor they
are not content with addressing themselves to the intellect. They appeal
also to the feelings and imagination. They have torchlight processions,
accompanied by soul-stirring music discoursing popular airs. They have
flags and banners floating in the breeze. They have public meetings, at
which they deliver patriotic speeches to arouse the enthusiasm of the
people.
What these men do for political reasons the Church performs from the
higher motives of religion. Therefore, she has her solemn processions. She
has her heavenly music to soften the heart and raise it to God. She
consecrates her sacred banners, especially the cross, the banner of
salvation. She preaches with a hundred tongues, speaking not only to our
head and heart by the Word of God, but to our feelings and imagination by
her grand and imposing ceremonial.