Lent 3 - Right Worship

 

Homily for Lent 3

March 3, 2024

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi – Giving Right Worship to God

 

            Have you ever received a gift that’s just a miss? Growing up I had an aunt who totally just checked it in and bought all of her nephews socks for Christmas. And not good socks either – just a cheap package of tube socks from K-mart. I supposed I should have been grateful, but truthfully I felt like she didn’t care enough to even bother.

            When we get someone a gift, we have to consider what type of gift they would really enjoy. And so it is with God – when we offer Him worship, we have to offer Him the worship that He truly desires.

            In the first reading, God is clear about how NOT to worship Him – “do not worship Me by making any kind of graven image”. Unlike the other gods of the surrounding nations, the Lord did not want Israel to make a statue of their God. Of course, we know how that ended up – just a few chapters later, Israel constructs the Golden Calf. People often misinterpret the Golden Calf scene. The Golden Calf was not idolatry – they weren’t trying to worship a different god. They were trying to worship the True God, but in a way that He expressly forbade. Rather than this being pleasing to God, it was offensive to Him.

            So, God had to give them very strict instructions on how to worship. In the Old Testament, He spends chapter after chapter detailing how they were to offer sacrifice, what type of vestments the priests would wear, how the altar was to look, and how the feasts were to be celebrated. God had to teach the people how to worship Him!

            And then comes Jesus to give a new way to worship – as evidenced by today’s scene in the Gospel. This, too, is often misinterpreted. Jesus does not have a problem with money-changers per se. They were necessary in the Temple because Roman money, which the Jews were forced to use, bore the image of Caesar, who declared himself a god. Obviously they couldn’t use a coin with pagan imagery in the Temple, so it was necessary to exchange it for temple money, which didn’t bear such imagery.

            Rather, Jesus cleanses the Temple for two other reasons. First, because of where the money-changers were located. They were set up in a part of the Temple called the “Court of the Gentiles” – a place for non-Jews who were seeking the Lord to come and pray. In essence, Jesus is trying to show the Jews that fitting worship could be offered by non-Jews (Gentiles), and that they needed a quiet and respectful place to do it.

            But the other reason why Jesus cleanses the Temple is because He was trying to pave the way for a new way to worship. Remember, this event occurs three days before the Last Supper. So He is showing the Jews that there will be a new, purer temple: the Temple of His Body, which He will offer on the Cross and then give us to eat in the Eucharist.

            Worshiping God rightly is important! First, it demonstrates a profound obedience to God. There’s a great story from 1 Samuel, where King Saul is instructed by God to conquer a certain town that had oppressed Israel. God was very clear that Saul had to destroy everything in the town, lest the townspeople come back and claim their property. But Saul decides, rather, to keep the sheep and oxen alive so that they could be offered as a sacrifice to God. But God is displeased with King Saul for doing so, and sends the prophet Samuel to reprimand him, saying “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

            So has the Lord told us how to worship Him? Yes, when He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” The Mass is how God is properly and fittingly worshipped.

            Secondly, worshiping God rightly helps us to order our life properly. There is a principle in the Church: lex orandi, lex credendi. This means, “The way we worship becomes the way we believe” – and the way we believe becomes the way we act. When we have a right relationship with God, ordered properly, then the rest of our life becomes ordered properly as well. I know some of us here feel like our lives are chaos, and we’re stressed and over-busy and anxious. If that’s the case, the first place to look for a solution is with the foundations – is our relationship with God rightly-ordered?

            Once, former Wall Street journalist Rod Dreher was feeling that modern chaos. He was under so much pressure with deadlines, pressures at home and work, and stress. He went to his parish priest for help, who told him, “If you wish to get better and find peace, you must pray for an hour a day.” He said that was impossible – he had too much to do – there was no time to pray that much! The priest responded, “Do you have time for a nervous breakdown?” The point made, Rod began to cultivate a serious prayer life – and he found that peace which had been so elusive to him.

            So what does all this mean for us? Two things. First, if we want a rightly-ordered life with less stress and greater peace, it begins with a right relationship with God – one which is grounded in weekly Mass, regular Confession, and daily prayer. Everything in our life flows from this foundation of right worship.

            Second, it means that any authentic spirituality must be centered around the Eucharist, since the Lord has told us that this is the proper way to worship Him. Sometimes people will seek peace through all sorts of esoteric ways – Eastern meditation, yoga, positive-thinking, or being “spiritual but not religious”, or even more extreme types of spiritualism like psychics, wicca, or other spiritual practices. Aside from being sinful, these practices do not lead us into a right relationship with God. Not every spiritual path leads to God – many lead to nowhere, or worse, to a connection with evil spirits and demons. God has told us how to worship Him – and it is here, in His Body and Blood in the Eucharist and through the spiritual exercises that have been practiced for centuries in the Church.

            My friends, what a great gift we have in knowing how to worship God! This not only gives us peace, it also reveals the depths of His love for us. As Mother Teresa once said, “When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then; when you look at the Sacred Host, you understand how much Jesus loves you now.”