Fr. Dominic Savoie, FSSP
Last Sunday’s gospel parable recounted how “two men went up into the temple to pray.” The publican, whose prayer was favored by God, is familiar to us. He “stood far off,” with his “head down,” and “struck his breast.” We see the publican’s prayer imitated in our liturgy at every Mass. The priest and ministers, before ascending the altar, stand far off, profoundly bow while saying the Confiteor, and strike their breasts while publicly confessing their faults. These rubrics, which direct the ministers’ bodily postures, are a school in humility.
Too many people assume God does not care about how you pray, dress, sit, stand, or kneel when worshipping Him. They casually equate a modern value, which is narcissistic and misguided, with a divine one. “Be your authentic self—that is what is important!” Authenticity is acceptable insofar as it is charitable to others and properly ordered to the good, but it cannot be a fundamental principle of right living—especially when worshipping God. We should first discern whether God has indicated how we should worship.
In a twist of irony, Protestant worship, which claims to subordinate all to the written word of God, has largely rejected ritualism for individualistic, expressive worship. In contrast, Catholic ritual is predominantly based on a humble imitation of the divinely revealed word. Even beyond those references that clearly indicate the basis of our Sacraments—e.g., Baptism (John 3:5), Confirmation (Acts 8:14-17), Eucharist (1 Cor 11:23-25), Penance (John 20:22-23), Extreme Unction (James 5:14-15), Holy Orders (1 Tim 4:14), and Matrimony (Mt 19:4-6), to name a few—much ritual symbolism is derived from Scripture rather than merely invented by man.
