"what is worship?"

“A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).

Not too long ago, someone posed the following question to me and to several others: “What is worship?”

Initially, I wasn’t sure how to respond. There are many allusions to worship throughout the Bible. I felt that in order to answer that question, no short answer could be given. The Bible itself has much to teach us about worship. Worship has even been the subject of many authors, poured into many books; but it is a difficult question to answer in any short response. That is at least how I felt.

So I decided to write a blog about it. It may even turn into several blogs. In any case, I realize there are probably countless ways to approach this question. Since one of the emphasis for my blog is Catholic roots, I will begin there, and approach it from there.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts about how God wishes for us to engage all our senses in worship, and for all our senses to be filled with him. This is because it is how we were created: with bodies, with senses. It is why Catholicism is such a “sensual religion”, with all of her “smells and bells” – so we can engage all our senses in worship of God. In a word, it is so we can fully participate as human beings in worship of God, and participate “to the depths of our being”. And if this sounds a little strange to us, it shouldn’t – if we are Christian. By virtue of the “Word made flesh” (cf. John 1:14), Jesus Christ – who became a “body among bodies” – fully reveals the dignity of our humanity, our status as creatures, specifically made this way, “in the image and likeness of God” (cf. Genesis 1:27).

With this in mind, lets get back to the question: “what is worship”?

There is a term used in Catholic theology that is used to denote the ways in which Heaven and earth meet in worship; it is called the ‘sacramental imagination’. In essence, it refers to the ways we can experience the graces and glory of Heaven here on earth, in and through our senses, in and through our bodies, and the "stuff" of this world (and lets not forget: "God saw all that he made, and it was very good," Genesis 1:31). This, too, may at first sound strange.

But consider the revelations given to St. John. The visions given to St. John were the apocalypse – a Greek word that means “to unveil”, or “an unveiling”. What was unveiled for John? Heaven was unveiled. John, in fact, beheld the “new Jerusalem” (cf. Revelation 3:12; 21:2), and the worship that took place there. The descriptions of the heavenly worship are quite elaborate, to say the least. A question arises: why would heavenly, spiritual worship be depicted in such earthly terms? Why were so many things of our material creation seen to be in use in the worship of Heaven?

If in Heaven we will not find such things as harps and candles, then what was being unveiled (“apocalypsed”) was a way by which we could participate in the worship of Heaven. This is, in fact, how the sacramental imagination of the Catholic Church has looked at worship. It even seems to be something revealed by God, given to St John on Patmos; it is how a sacramental imagination has “made sense” of these “sensual realities” concerning worship - and in particular the worship of Heaven, revealed to John. This is how the Church “entered into worship" from the beginning; it is how the Church worships still, today. “Taste and see” for yourself (cf. Psalm 34:8):

An altar (Rev 8:3)
Priests (presbyteroi) (Rev 4:4; 11:15; 14:3; 19:4)
Robed clergy (Rev 4:4; 1:13; 6:11; 7:9; 15:6; 19:13-14)
Candles, Lamp stands, Menorah (Rev 1:12; 2:5)
Incense (Rev 5:8)
Manna (Rev 2:17)
Chalices (Rev 15:7; see Rev chapter 16; 21:9)
“Lift up your hearts” (Rev 11:12)
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (Rev 4:8)
The Gloria (Rev 15:3-4)
The Sign of the Cross (tau) (Rev 14:1)
The Alleluia (Rev 19:1, 3, 6)
Reading from Scripture (see Rev chapters 2-3)
The “Lamb of God” (Rev 5:6, and throughout)
Intercession of angels and saints (Rev 5:8; 6:9-10; 8:3-4)
Antiphonal chant (Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:10-12; 18:1-8)
Silent contemplation (Rev 8:1)
Sunday worship (Rev 1:10)