the catholic mass is a continuation of
this deep
biblical instinct that we
need liturgy ritual
to keep ourselves on line
my fear is we're gonna fall back into
this kind of easy you know moralism
no no the moral law is indispensable
a spirituality of trust indispensable
but the second half of exodus
liturgy sacrifice priesthood prayer
all of that is also essential
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well recently in connection with an
academic project i'm working on i've
been reading a lot of the book of exodus
and commentaries thereupon exodus i
think you could say
is the story of how god is shaping
israel as his
special people i've said many times
before
god chooses israel not for its own sake
but for the sake of the world
that through israel the world might be
drawn to god
and i think the formation takes place in
three basic stages
in exodus the first one i call spiritual
second one
moral the third one liturgical
the spiritual formation takes place
through the
exodus process so the lord delivers them
from bondage in egypt
they're slaves they're powerless they
can't do it on their own
but by trusting in the lord they come to
freedom
there's the basic spiritual formation if
you want of israel to learn
how to trust in the power and action of
god
the second type of formation is probably
the one that we're most familiar with in
the book of exodus
namely moral formation so think of the
great
law that comes on mount sinai summed up
in the ten commandments
god indeed tells israel here's how i
want you to behave
but then there's a third level i'd call
it liturgical and i'll say more about it
as i go but
from chapters 25 through 40 and the book
ends in chapter 40
we have almost a complete devotion to
the liturgical and ritual formation
of the people israel now here's what i
think is kind of interesting
most of us are rather kantian when it
comes to religion and again i've talked
about this before
immanuel kant the great 18th century
philosopher said
religion basically comes down to ethics
and we thought everything in religion is
meant to make us
good and decent and ethically wholesome
people
our version of it and you'll hear this a
lot on the lips of people today
is you know doesn't really matter what
you believe or how you worship as long
as you're a good
and decent person that's all that
matters well
that's uh continuism now look is the
bible
interested in our moral formation yes
yes and
exodus is massively interested in it
because
if you want to be like the god of israel
who is love and who is
justice well then you've got to become
conformed to love and justice
hence the the very stringent moral
formation
so so far so kantian but see what again
is really interesting that whole
almost second half of the book of exodus
is devoted not to moral formation but to
liturgical and ritual formation can i
give you just a couple of examples but
it covers almost that entire section of
the book
but listen now as they're describing how
the ark of the covenant should be
constructed they shall make an arc of
acacia wood
it shall be two and a half cubits long a
cubit and a half wide
a cubit and a half high you shall
overlay it with pure gold
inside and outside you shall overlay it
and mind you this goes on for
pages and pages here's a second one now
about the ornament
on top of the ark you should make two
cherubim of gold
make one cherub at one end one chair but
the other the cherubim shall spread out
their wings above overshadowing the
mercy seat and again
pages and pages of these descriptions uh
find descriptions of the furnishings
within
the tabernacle around the ark of the
covenant we're talking about
a lamp stand a table for the so-called
bread of presents et cetera et cetera
and then a lengthy section so any any
priest is interested in this
description of the priesthood what
priests are to wear
what priests are to do and so on here's
a sampling
these are the vestments they shall make
a breast piece an ephod a robe a
checkered tunic a turban and a sash
when they make these sacred vestments
they shall use gold blue
purple and crimson yarns and fine linen
again
pages and pages of this fine description
now here's the interesting thing there's
no indication given in the book of
exodus that somehow
these liturgical and sort of sacrificial
and ritual prescriptions
are somehow less important than the
moral law
so we've heard the ten commandments
we've heard all of the moral
requirements and then we move right into
these prescriptions
and in fact if i might press it turn
from exodus you come
immediately to the book of leviticus
where you have 28 chapters dedicated to
temple priesthood ritual sacrifice clean
and unclean
i mean if anything the biblical author
seems more interested
in the sort of ritual liturgical side
than the moral side
okay so what do we post kantians make of
this we who tend to think
what religion is all about morality
here's the first observation
god does not need any of this so please
don't fall into the trap of thinking
that
god has got some sort of psychological
hang-up
god so needs to be praised and requires
this kind of
fussy devotion because of his um
personality problems no no god has
no needs the god who made the whole
universe from nothing
can't possibly benefit from anything in
the universe
it's not as though god is requiring all
of this
if you doubt me by the way take a look
at chapter 1 of the book of the prophet
isaiah and look at psalm 50 sometime
both give you a very clear sense of how
god does not
need any of the sacrifice and ritual and
so on
but here's the point we need
it what is all of this doing and i mean
everything from how the priest dresses
to how he gestures how he moves what he
does
sacrifices what the ark of the covenant
looks like what does all of this do
it aligns israel unto god
sin basically comes down to a false
form of worship i make something other
than god
into the supreme value all of these
ritual and liturgical
gestures and vesture are meant to
align israel unto god
if the moral law brings the will into
line with god's will
all this liturgical law is meant to
bring our
minds and hearts and imaginations
online with the divine splendor
and see all of that is of basic
importance
to the right ordering of the people
israel
okay now you're wondering why is this
bishop telling me all this
well because i think it does have a
special relevance to our moment
in relation to covet now here's what i
mean
for good reasons now mind you i'm not
questioning this for a minute for good
reasons we've had to
you know close the churches and now
people are allowed back but in in
restricted ways
but there's been a a distantiation of a
lot of people from the formal
worship of the church from the mass from
the eucharist
again understandable but here's my
concern
the catholics might revert to this kind
of default
kantian position what i mean is hey look
i've got a basically good relationship
with god i'm a decent person
i've been away from ritual and mass and
sacrifice and liturgy for all these
months you know
who cares why does it matter if i'm a
decent person
a spiritually alert person why does it
matter well
read the second half of the book of
exodus
mind you too i speak now as a catholic
and maybe especially two catholics
altar sacrifice temple vestment
priesthood incense well all that you
find in the book of exodus in the book
of leviticus you find in the catholic
mass
that's a hyper biblical
grounding and not just old testament go
to the book of revelation what do you
find
as the seer looks into the heavenly
court this great liturgy going on which
involves
priests investments and altar and
sacrifice and incense and candles etc
so the catholic mass is a continuation
of this deep
biblical instinct that we
need liturgy ritual
to keep ourselves on line
my fear is we're going to fall back into
this kind of easy
you know moralism no no the moral law is
indispensable a spirituality of trust
indispensable but
the second half of exodus liturgy
sacrifice
priesthood prayer all of that is also
essential so
isn't being a good person enough
short answer no
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