Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/777

 WORSHIP

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WORSHIP

what He gives the Father: "If two of you shall con- sent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or tliree gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt., xviii, 19, 20). The Apostles and even those who were not His disciples prayed to Him during His hfe-time: "Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come to thee upon the waters" (Matt., xiv, 28); "Lord, save us, we perish" (Matt., viii, 25); "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make mp clean" (Matt., rai, 2; cf. INLork, i, 40; Luke, v, 12); "Have mercy on me, O Lord . . . But she came and adored him, saying: Lord, help me" (INlatt., xv, 22, 25), etc.

He ordained that baptism should be given in His name as well as in the name of the Father, "baptizing (hem in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt., xx\'iii, 19). Exorcisms, im- position of hands, anointing of the sick are to be performed in His name: "In my name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay their hands upon the sick" (Mark, x\'i, 17, 18). In St. John this idea is emphasized: "That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father" (v, 23); "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask me anything in my name, that will I do " (xiv, 13, 14); "Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. ... In that day you shall ask in my name " (xvi, 23, 24, 26). • No sooner is He ascended to glory than He is beside the Father and in consequence of His equality with Him the object of the worship of the early Christians; "All whatsoever you do" — St. Paul has just been speaking of prayer^" in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him " (Col., iii, 17), which is hke the ending of our own prayers. It seems probable that the praj'cr for the choice of Matthias was addressed directly to Him: "Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men" (.\ct8, i, 24). His name becomes consecrated for prayer in the formulas, "By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts, iv, 10), "By the name of thy holy Son Jesus" (.Acts, iv, 30). St. Stephen praj-s to Him: "Lord Je-sus, receive my spirit" (Acts, vii, 58). The fornuilas of exorcism are also in His name: "I command thee [Satan] in the name of Jesus Christ to go out from her [the woman] " (Acts, xvi, 18). Indeed even the Jewish exorcists attempted to make use of this name in their exorcisms: "Some also of the JewLsh e.xorcists . . . attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth" (Acts, xix, 13). In St. Paul expressions hke, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Je.sus Christ. I give thanks to my God through .lesus Christ . . . [Christ] Who is above all blessed forever", and others similar are too numer- ous for quotation. They likewise abound in the Apocalypse, usually in the form of a doxology, e. g. "To him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever . . . Amen" (Apoc, v, 1.3, 14). The Apostolic Fathers and the wTiters of the first centuries likewise furnish us with an abundant harvest of similar formulas. (See Cabrol, "Monu- menta Uturgica", I, Paris, 1900-02, where the texts are collected in chronological order, especially nos. 612, 627, 649, 653, 654, 6.56, etc., and also Cabrol, "Diet. d'archCologie chr<;t. et de hturgie", I, col. 614, 6.54.)

In virtue of the same principle and of the equality of the Divine Persons in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost

also became the object of Christian worship. The formula of baptism was given, as has been seen, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In the do.xologj' the Holy Spirit also has a place with the Father and the Son. In the Mass the Holy Ghost is invoked at the Epiclesis and invited to prepare the sacrifice. The Montanists, who in the second centiu-y preached, and awaited, the coming of the Holy Ghost to take the place of the Son and announce a more perfect Gospel, made Him the object of an exclusive worship, which the Church had to repress. But it nevertheless vindicated the adoration of the Holy Ghost, and in 380 the anathemas pronounced by Pope Damasus, in the P'ourth Council of Rome, condemned whosoever should deny that the Holy Ghost must be adored like the Father and the Son by every creature (Denzinger, "Enchiridion", n. SO). These anathemas were renewed by Celestine I and Virgilius, and the oecumenical council of 381 in its symbol, which took its place in the liturgy, formulated its faith in the Holy Ghost, "Who to- gether with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified". These expressions indicate the unity of the adoration of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that is, that one or the other Person of the Trinity may be adored separately but not to the exclusion of the other two.

Beginnings of Christian Worship. — It has been, and is still sometimes, asserted that Christ did not establish worship or, rather, that He proscribed ex- ternal worship and was unwilling to allow any but interior worship, the adoration of the heart "in spirit and in truth". He wished, it is asserted, a rehgion without priest or altar, and admitted no temple save the soul. The complicated whole which constitutes the Catholic rehgion is not, according to these WTiters, of Christian origin and is to be con- demned in the name of a purer Christianity. These objections wore first formulated by the Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who violently attacked the ceremonies of the Cluirch, especially the Mass, as being tainted with idolatry and paganism. They have been repeated by Prot- estants of modern times, which is not astonishing, for if Protestantism is logical it will reach, as certain liberal Protestants have reached, the conclusion that worship should be purely individual and private. Each man should make his worship, like his religion and his creed, in accord with the ]irinciples of free inquiry (cf. Sabatier, "Esqui.sse d'une philosophic de la religion", 1905, 5). The attacks of the Protestants, especially those of the Protestant Middlcton, are cited in the articles on worship by the author of this article, quoted in the bibliograjjliy; we cannot here resume this discussion, but will merely summarize the origins of Chri.stian worship.

Christ did not aboUsh at one stroke the ceremonies of Jewish worship. When it is said that He was satisfied with a wholly interior worship, thereby condemning exterior worship, the a.ssertion is wholly gratuitous and is contradicted by facts. It is cer- tain, on the other hand, that Christ went to the Temple to pray, that He celebrated the Pasch and the Jewish feasts; He received baptism from John, subjected Ilim.sclf to fasting, laid His hands on the sick, drove out demons with exorcisms, and gave His disciples the power to drive them out in His name. It is almost certain that He carefully ob- served all the prescrijjtions of Jewish worship, for a deviation on one pomt or another would certainly have aroused protests of which some echo would have been j)reserved in the Go.'-^icls. The onh' point on which a ijrote.st of this kind was manifested was the obscr\'ance of the Sal>bath and certain prescrip- tions which the Pharisees followed in too narrow a spirit. The Apostles and di.sciplcs at Jerusalem continued to go to the Temple, as we see in the Acts