Freedom in Worship

Freedom in Worship

by: Mathew Samuel

Freedom: “I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy “– says the Psalmist (Psalm 43:4). Note the words - I will go to my Lord, as opposed to - I have to, or I am constrained to or I will be forced to - go to the altar of God – the verse is as much an expression of our free will as it is an expression of our joy. And what do we do when we “go to the altar of God”? We adore Him. We worship Him. Worship is the expression of our freedom.

Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Baby Varghese, an outstanding scholar in liturgical studies, says that it is through prayer that we truly understand the meaning of freedom. 1“True Freedom is freedom from evil. Prayer leads us to true freedom, which is freedom from evil”. Thus when we pray, when we are in the presence of God - we find freedom. On the other hand, when we wander far away from the presence of God, from acknowledging His sovereignty over us, from worshipping Him - we find ourselves in slavery – to sin. Then as the Scripture points out, we experience the “hardening of hearts” like in the case of the Pharaoh. “The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh” (Exodus 9:12). St. Gregory of Nyssa explains that it is not God who is the cause of the hardening of the heart in us; rather it is our own refusal to repent and turn to God that causes this. Blaming God for our refusal to repent is like someone who has not seen the sun blaming the sun for the darkness causing him to fall into the ditch2 - says St. Gregory. By our choice, by our free will, we move away from God; but that journey leads us away from freedom and into bondage of sin. Thus worship makes us free, while lack of it binds us into sin, enslaves us in evil passions, makes us unrepentant and hardens our heart. When we surrender ourselves before God in worship, we experience freedom. The surrender actually leads to freedom – one of the many paradoxes of Christian living!

Born to worship: Baby Varghese achen further teaches that worship is our primary vocation. This means that while we may have the ambition to grow up to be an engineer or doctor or lawyer or business person or whatever else may give us a good life – none of that will be what we are most suited for. The things that we feel we are naturally drawn to do -- like being a singer, painter, musician, orator, motivator or whatever else we do well –those are still not what we are naturally created for. Our charity works, our good deeds -- all these, however important they are in our life - are not what we are primarily "called" to do. Rather, as achen rightly points out, primarily our vocation as human beings, as the crown of creation - men, women, old, young, rich, poor, everyone - as the only created ones in the “image of God" - as the representative of all creation, is to worship the Creator. No wonder then that we as a Church are called a "Eucharistic" society and the Holy Qurbana is at the center of our Church life (which is supposed to be at the center of our secular life). These other vocations we engage in throughout our life, however important and critical they might be for our daily sustenance in this fallen world, we ought not to forget our primary vocation to adore and worship the Lord. So, since we are created to worship God, since that is our primary calling, worship comes most naturally to us. In worship alone do we find complete freedom. Everything else we do does not compare to our experience in worship.

Realign our priorities: Worship is not worship if it is forced on us. Worship should come out of our free will. But sometimes we just feel too burdened to go to Church. When this happens, we must recognize that something is wrong. It might be a cue for us to reexamine our priorities. Maybe we are focusing on the wrong things in Church? Probably this happens when we do not have the right attitude towards worship, when we do not recognize or are not aware that this is what we are fundamentally made for – like the angels and the spiritual beings, along with the saints and departed ones, together representing the rest of creation - to worship God. Once we begin to orient our body, mind and soul in this truth, then we also, like the Psalmist will be able to cry out “I will go to the altar of God” because in Him is ultimate freedom and for this purpose (of worship) I am fearfully and wonderfully made.3

Reference:

1. Abba Father – Divyabodhanam P.O.C.E., Fr. (Dr.) Baby Varghese
2. Life Of Moses – St. Gregory of Nyssa
3. Psalm 139:14 (NKJV)

Review Questions:

1. True freedom is freedom from evil – Explain.
2. Why is worship important?
3. Why does ‘hardening of heart’ happen in us?

Exercise: Have you ever felt constrained or burdened at the thought of coming to Church?

If so, list 3 reasons why you think this happened. List 3 changes we can make to remedy this.

If not, list 3 reasons why you think you are always keen to come to Church.