“Praise the Lord, all peoples.”
Praise and worship have come to be words easily infected by the liberals amongst us, for they tell us with much arm-waving and bongo-banging that the lofty prayers of old, offered with dignity and royal majesty, were unpleasing to Our Lord. “He would want that money and thought to go to the poor.”
But Our Lord also reprimanded the traitor bishop Judas when at the house of St. Martha:
“Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? 6 Now he said this not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief and, having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. 7 Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always.”
So the verdict of Our Lord is, of course, to love and serve the poor as we would love and serve Christ Himself, but when confronted with His Real Presence, we should venerate and spare no expense for Him. “For the poor you have always with you.”
Indeed, the liberal notions of “praise” and “worship” deal not with the honoring of God, but with the honoring of humanity. There is nothing so humbly full of praise than a simple chanted Sequence, nothing so humbly offered as the rising clouds of incense about the altar of God. Our Lord would be affronted by any showing of disrespect – look no further than his reaction to the irreverence and worship of humanity He found in the Temple in Jerusalem. He reacted to this unbridled lust for money out of love for two things: love for the poor and love for Divinity. For both were being disrespected.
Disrespect was not tolerated by Our Lord. Indeed, it was the only thing in the Gospels to which he violently reacted. The liberal mindset ends here: “Jesus punished excess.” The truly Catholic mindset continues forward to the statement, “Jesus punished excess, but there can be no notion of ‘excess’ when God is the recipient.” The majesty of God is so great that gold is as dirt before Him. This is no reason whatsoever to literally place Him, present in the Holy Eucharist, into clay pots and wooden chalices. Of course Jesus didn’t have anything better at the Last Supper! For the Jews and Gentiles did not grasp the notion that God was among them. If they had, rest assured, Our Lord would have been draped in the purple garb of royalty in honest adoration as opposed to the mockery of His Passion when the soldiers so disdainfully declared, “Behold the King of the Jews!”
“Great is the Lord, and worthy to be praised.” Yes, He is great indeed, and worthy to receive our praise. No expense should be spared, for at the Mass God comes into our presence, descending “meekly, lowly at the words of the priest.” What a Divine mandate! That we should be so honored that the God of all descends onto our tables of stone and timber, and takes His dwelling in vessels of silver and gold!
The goal of beauty and of musical splendor is to render to God the glory due unto His Name, not to deprive the poor or to give power and riches to the Church. No, praise and worship constitute the humble offerings of the best things we have on this Earth which, when compared to the inestimable majesty of Heaven, seems as mere dust. Remember this the next time your priest brings Our Lord down to us into a clay pot. Remember this the next time you see your “pastoral administrator” self-communicating without so much as a bow, in deference to God’s omnipotence. Remember this the next time you see altar girls whose albs are so short as to reveal the latest fad underneath. Remember this the next time a guitar is pulled out to render glory unto God.
We are unworthy enough as it is, so why compound our state even more by lowering God to be “just another parishioner?” He is God, and could wish all existence out of being in the time it takes to read just one more word. Do not be a Judas, and attempt to remove from Our Lord the laud which all people must render to Him. “Laudate Dominum, Omnes Gentes.”
Tags: Orthodoxy at Work
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Best reflection I have ever read.
Ditto to above.
An FYI: The purple that was the best at that time was Tyrrhenian purple. It was use to make the temple ceremonial robes and for royalty. I don't remember where I picked that up, but it was probably in some Bible history class.
St. Francis of Assisi who was very, very devoted to the poor only use the absolute best for the sanctuary and for adoration of God.
""He would want that money and thought to go to the poor.""
Here's an idea for those who claim we should give the money we spend on churches and worship to the poor: use only one chalice in your parish. Instead of having 10 glass or wood or clay chalices, have one chalice of metal used exclusively by the priest. The money saved could be given to the poor.
Problem solved.
~Dr. K