Conferences on the Virtues
By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd
Number 74
Adoration…
Adoration
means, literally, the moving of the hand to the mouth and kissing it. In ancient times, this was done as a sign of
reverence and respect. (cf. Job 32:27).
In a wider and
less proper sense, it means any external act by which honor and reverence is
shown to a superior being, such as an angel, a saint, a prince (a person high
up in civil society), etc.
Theologically, adoration
is an external act directed to God, which manifests the very special
reverence due to Him alone. Generally
speaking, it refers to any external act of worship of God. Specifically, it is an act, which gives
formal witness to the surpassing Divine Excellence, and of our submission to
His Will.
Religious
adoration is twofold, internally, it is a mental act of submission to
God, and this is identified with devotion. Since the angels do not have bodies, and therefore cannot
manifest outwardly their witness to the supreme excellence of God and
their willing submission to Him, Devotion and Worship are, for them,
essentially the same.
Externally,
adoration is the witness of our submission to God by some outwardly
perceivable act of the body. This
is adoration in the strictest sense, and may be done in various
ways: by a prostration, by a
genuflection, by bowing, by the joining of hands, by the expansion of the arms,
by the lifting of the eyes to heaven, etc.
Although there
can be internal adoration without an external manifestation, it cannot be the
other way around. That is because God
cannot be worshipped without the [internal] intention of offering Him
worship. Thus, the external adoration
is both a sign of the worship and its effect, since any fervent
internal act spontaneously and automatically makes itself known by some
movement of the body. Of course, the
internal worship is then the cause of the external.
Internal acts
of worship (adoration) do not require an appropriate external locus in which to
be performed. But we can speak of
appropriate places in which to manifest worship externally (adoration). That is why Churches and Chapels and
Oratories are either consecrated or blessed.
Holy places
help the ones praying and adoring to evoke more fervent devotion within
their soul. Which devotion is more
powerful in moving God to pay closer and more benign attention to their
prayers. Of course, it is the presence
of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the presence of statues of Jesus, His Mother
and Saints [as signs of the Mercies of God], as well as the fact that Holy Mass
is offered in those places, that excites and nourishes devotion.
Also, whenever
a large number of people gather in those consecrated and blessed places to
worship and pray together, their prayer becomes more efficacious.
Question
2 – The Observation of Feasts…
The observation
of Feast Days usually includes many acts of religion because they were
instituted by God in the Old Testament as a social exercise of the
virtue of Religion. Among them is the refraining
from physical, gainful employment, which is considered a negative way of
giving the body over to the divine.
Thus a consideration of this topic is logically connected to the
doctrine on worship.
We can ask the questions: Is there a Law that obliges us to observe
Feast Days?
And if so:
To what does that Law oblige?
There is more
than one Law that does so. The Natural
Law obliges us to devote some time to the external worship of God.
Because there
is a natural inclination in our humanity to exhibit reverence for and
submission to the divine [however it is understood, naturally speaking], it is
one of those necessary things, such as eating, sleeping, recreating and
the like, to which in a general way we are obliged by the Law of Nature.
The specific
times and manner, however, were decreed by God in the Law of the Old Testament
for the People of Israel. For New
Testament times, Jesus left both the determination of times and the
manner to the Church. The Feasts we
observe now, and to which this section applies, are called Holy Days of
Obligation. As you know, the Holy
Days of obligation are every Sunday of the Year throughout the entire
world, and, depending upon the country or nation in which one lives, some from
among the following: The Nativity, The
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, (formerly the Feast of the Circumcision),
Epiphany (where it does not fall on a Sunday), the Ascension, Corpus Christi
(where it does not fall on a Sunday), the Immaculate Conception and the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Her most
chaste Spouse, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and All Saints.
We’ve already
mentioned the negative way of observing Sunday and the Holy Days of
Obligation: the abstention from gainful
employment. When nations used to be
entirely Christian, civil government activities ceased as well. As you know, now that civil society is no
longer Christian in spirit and outlook, Catholics with family responsibilities
have no choice but to work on the Holy Days of Obligation that fall on work
days.
The positive
way of observing Sundays and Holy Days is by attendance at the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. The Mass will be spoken of
further along when we consider the topic of sacrifice.
Once upon a
time there was a distinction between servile and no-servile
work. The former was the kind of
physical work done by slaves and servants.
(Servus, a Latin word, is translated both as Slave and as
Servant). The latter was the kind of
activity engaged in by Freedmen and Masters.
Generally, non-service work is any kind of activity of the mind or
mental faculties and physical activity engaged in for the good of the soul and
to replenish spiritual and psychic energy as well as to reduce stress.
Nowadays, it is
engaging in gainful employment, the cares making it necessary, and the cares
associated with it that draw the attention away from God and Divine
Realities. They are also the cause of
stress and the depletion of psychic energy.
This is so whether the employment requires physical exertion or not.
Although the
non-servile work as described above is not done for gainful employment but for
a good and necessary purpose, engaging in it nowadays as the primary and
principal objective of ones activities on a Sunday or Holy Day, can also
effectively withdraw one from devoting time and attention to the consideration
of God and Divine Realities. Still, it
is not forbidden, provided it does not exclude attendance at Mass nor the giving
of some time and attention to God and the spiritual needs of our souls.
With regards to
Catholics working on Sundays, in States where stores are open on Sunday, the
Law of Charity is supreme. A Catholic
must sincerely and diligently try to obtain gainful employment that does not
require working on Sunday. But if that
is impossible, given the state of the economy and the availability of gainful
employment, the mere obligation to work to supply the basic human needs of
family and dependents excuses and dispenses one in such a predicament from the
prohibition of working for pay on Sundays.
The Law of
Charity alone governs the situation just mentioned. Nevertheless, every so often occasions arise wherein other kinds
of urgent needs must be satisfied. In
the past, when the observation of Sundays and Holy Days obliged under pain of
grave sin, someone experiencing an incompatible need would have to ask for a dispensation
from one’s parish priest. Now that the
obligation is no longer that serious, a person acting in good faith and with no
contempt for divine worship would be able to dispense himself. That is because a person of good will would
not dispense himself on some slight and trivial pretext.
Chapter
III – The Acts By Means of Which we offer something to God…
This can be
done by offering some physical thing to God, and it is called Sacrifice.
Or the “thing”
offered to God can be something non-physical as when one makes a vow, or
promises some kind of conduct or activity.
Question
1 – Sacrifice…
The word sacrifice
comes from the Latin sacrum facere, which means to make sacred or
holy. It has, however, several
different meanings depending upon the context in which it is used.
1. In
the widest sense, it signifies any act of virtue or other good work done in
honor of God and which entails a denial or mortification of self will or self
interest. These are acts or deeds that
have their origin in the virtue of Religion, such as acts of obedience or works
of mercy.
2. In
a more strict sense sacrifice means any act that is performed under the
influence of the virtue of Religion, that is done for the honor of God,
even those that are neutral or otherwise not considered to be religious acts in
and of themselves. What is operative
here is the fact that the Virtue of Religion, which informs, (give its character)
to the act, implicitly involves the offering of one’s soul to God. The sacrifice here would be internal
only.
3. In
the most strict and truly proper sense, a sacrifice is the highest and
principal act of external, public worship, distinct from all other human
acts. As understood in this way,
sacrifice is the most solemn, most perfect and most excellent manner of
acknowledging the Supreme Excellence and Dominion of God, and of our Total
Dependence upon Him. Such an act is naturally
very holy.
By
extension, and thus less properly, the word sacrifice is also used to designate
the effect of the sacrificial action upon the victim offered. The victim is thus formally set aside for
God alone and offered to Him. It then
becomes holy in itself as now being united to Him either by a very special bond
or as His special property.
To
sacrifice, or to offer a sacrifice, is something inherent in human nature. From time immemorial human beings have
always reserved and exhibited certain forms of conduct as means of giving
special honor to individuals in society.
These were intended to give public witness to qualities of an order and
degree above and beyond the ordinary in the person so honored.
It
isn’t surprising then, that, also from time immemorial, human beings have
intuited that there is at least one higher being above and beyond themselves
upon whom they were dependent, and whose good will and favor they were obliged
to cultivate in order to continue to receive the blessings of the earth and of
the womb so necessary to their personal and collective (social)
well-being. Sacrifice was an important
and necessary element of their religion, whose purpose was to appease
that higher being (in the event they had offended him) and insure that he would
always be kindly disposed in their regard.
Since
we are blessed with the knowledge of the One True God, Who has revealed to us
His Intimate Nature as a Trinity of Divine persons, and further, since we have
learned that He remained so infinitely benign and merciful toward us even while
we were sinners, it stands to reason that we ought to have a Sacrifice to offer
Him that does perfect justice to Him as Supreme Lord, Creator, Redeemer and
Most Tender Father. Thus we are acting
out of the deepest instincts of our human nature, purified and refined by
Faith, Hope and Love, when we offer God the Perfect Sacrifice of the New
Covenant, Who is, of course, Jesus Himself, the Lamb of God.
Primitive
sacrifice was always a social act, an act of the entire society, and so it behooves
each and every one of us who believe in the One True God, to participate often
in the public offering of That Sacrifice which gives perfect homage, honor and
praise to our God.
For
us Catholics, Sacrifice is strictly defined as: The external offering of something useful and of great
value to humans, and thus tangible [and enduring] to God by
means of a change or destruction performed by a priest for the purpose
of bearing witness to His dominion over us and of our [willing]
submission to Him.
a. An
external offering – performed publicly and witnessed by others, and so
distinguished from devotion and from an offering made internally only.
b. Tangible
and enduring – Something perceived by the senses and of a
material nature, such that it has a separate existence. The fact of the separate existence of the
thing offered symbolizes the permanence of God’s dominion over us human beings
and over all creation. It’s value
and usefulness symbolizes the supreme excellence of God.
c. By
some substantial change or destruction, - such that it is effectively
removed from human use and profit. Were
this not so, it would not be an offering and would still be subject to human
dominion.
d. By
a priest – who is the public person officially designated to
represent the society in its relationship with God.
e. To
God – making it a true and efficacious act of the
virtue of Religion.
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