Thinking about liturgy

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time it will be clear by now that I have a great love for the liturgies of Eastern Christianity. There is a reverence there and a beauty which I find extremely attractive. It feeds my soul.

A few days ago I came across this video of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, speaking about the liturgies of the Church and about the need for liturgical renewal, particularly in the Western Church:

While watching this video I was reminded of an article I read on the blog “Neal Obstat” where the author recounted a conversation he had with a member of the Coptic Church. Rather surprisingly, this Coptic Christian argued that the chief obstacle to reunion with the Catholic Church was not a matter of dogma, but the “banalization” of the liturgy in the West.

For the sake of space I’ve cut down the text, but I’d invite you to read the the rest of it as there’s real gold there:

“What we Copts find most frightening about reunion is not the resolution of our theological differences, but the liturgical culture Catholics tend to bring with them from the West.

“For us, the divine Liturgy is an act of…reverence for God’s deep and unutterable mystery. Worship is sobered by holy fear, yet joyful with love…. [T]he priest…is not a personality or creative dramatist but an icon [of Christ]…  The Liturgy is not a show or celebration of ourselves… 

“Our church is full of [angels]…who come to lift us up…into the heavens… Communion is fraught with danger even as it is with joy and life, as we commune with the all-pure, all-holy, all-true….God”

I have to admit that these words resonate with me, particularly after having been exposed to the liturgies of the East. In these  liturgies it is very clear that we are participating in something transcendent, something awesome (in the true sense of the word).

I’d like to close with some more words from the Coptic Christian quoted above:

“My fear if we have reunion? It’s that the seeming loss of liturgical awe and reverence in your church, the loss of a sense of what is really and truly happening in divine Liturgy, will dilute the Coptic faith that has been penned in martyr’s blood, and will lure Copts into the seduction of a westernized God — a God whom we are desirous to tame and domesticate and house in a safe and gated community where He obeys our soft and individualistic mores and values; and resists troubling our idolatrous consciences with those fiery darts of the Gospel of the Kingdom that sting us to the heart.”

He’s not a tame lion.