ritual and liturgy

Life as liturgy 

Condensing abstract

transcendence of Trinity

to reality

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"Ritual serves as the point of interaction between the abstract and the mundane, the human and the divine. It simultaneously enacts transformations in two different realms, drawing from each to make something unnatural to both. It makes practical actions transcendent and the transcendent realm concrete. In the course of ritual, mundane actions are transformed so that they are more than mere actions; they become actions that surpass what can be achieved by ordinary physical means alone. A ritual's combination of actions can simultaneously affect the interrelated states of an individual, society, the world, and God. For example, in the case of the חטאת ritual, the ritual actions may effect כפר, bring forgiveness to the individual, reconciliation with God, and a restoration of order to the world.

At the same time, these ritual actions concretise the abstract. They make complex ideas, the divine and the immaterial, practical and accessible. Ritual can condense a complex theory that functions on multiple levels into mundane ritual action. Through ritual, humans can communicate with God, bringing Him and His power to bear in their world. Through ritual, a group of actions an make tangible the immaterial world, which is believed to be real but transcends mundane representation. In the חטאת ritual, sin and impurity become quasi-physical. The ritual transforms a bloody mess into an effective response to sin and impurity."

— Michael B. Hundley, "Keeping Heaven on Earth", 2011.

Review here: http://www.jhsonline.org/reviews/reviews_new/review607.htm

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Briefly browsed through this book when I made a (semi)wasted trip to school because I got an appointment date wrong. Well, at least I discovered some exciting content that prompted my oft-floating thoughts on worship and liturgy, and why churches should have some form of ritual in its worship services. Documenting them here so that I can refer back some time.

Ritual as liturgy in a church reflects the degree of its compliance to tradition (regardless of what strand originates/is created from), but the depth of its ritual is seen within its relationship with God, with one another, and with the world. Ritual brings to bear the abstract upon the real, the concept upon the practical, the ineffable upon the limited.

Interestingly, for the Christian ritual, this exchange never stops at the two parties of deity and worshipper; the Trinity or otherness of the deity pushes the worshipper to reflect the deity to the other, the neighbour (John 13:33-35).

Ritual as liturgy even in the individual life is inescapable. The most mundane activities of our lives reflect some kind of ritual — take a day in the life of a stereotypical Singaporean for example — we wake up, brush our teeth, get changed, eat breakfast, leave for work or school, return home, take our dinner, shower, unwind, brush our teeth, go to sleep. It is a tradition of daily routine that is taught to us by our parents, but even in this routine there is embedded meaning.

We get out of bed because we have a task to accomplish for the day. We brush our teeth because we have been told it is good hygiene. We get changed because we need to look appropriate for the task. We eat breakfast because it is necessary to have energy to do our task. We do the task because it is expected of us, and because we will gain something from it. The list of reasons go on.

The liturgy of life thus becomes an order of rituals carried out in our daily living. But how often do we stop to consider each of these reasons? And the deeper question beckons — what meaning does all these rituals contain, and for what purpose? What does the liturgy of our life reflect, and more so, if we are created in the image of the Triune God, how does it reflect Him?

The dialectic between the individual's life and community living as Christians — as the Catholic (universal) Church — thus continues. The Christian ritual carries meaning within itself and the worshipper's participation and contemplation of it should enrich the being of the individual and its immediate cultic community and thus the world.

However, a weak(ened) understanding of the ritual also means that the ritual loses its value and therefore to the worshipper, its power is diminished. But as analogous as it is, we as Christians would say that the Divine that gives it the meaning (and therefore) power reserves final comprehension of its true value in the worshipper's life. The analogy of ritual has to contain some intrinsic power to maintain its divine content, perhaps in the form of its illocution. Such retained mystery in the transcendence of ritual thus preserves power; the sharing of the ritual form with the worshipper to partake is but a means of grace. But intrinsic power cannot be mistaken to be literal power, lest the mystery of the ritual and its Divine Participant turns into yet another idol or amulet to be manipulated...


NB: Thoughts of the blog owner are always still in progress and should not be taken as her dogma, because sempre reformanda.