In this episode I explain why God wants our worship and share an early church father's to help understand this point.
Article: https://catholicplebs.wixsite.com/home/post/why-does-god-desirer-worship
In this episode I explain why God wants our worship and share an early church father's to help understand this point.
Article: https://catholicplebs.wixsite.com/home/post/why-does-god-desirer-worship
Speaker 1 0:01
So I did not properly communicate this in the initial recording of the audio. So here's your warning, this is going to be diving into some heavy stuff in this podcast so not friendly for kid ears. So please if you're listening to this and you have some children running around you some earbuds or whatever is appropriate thank you
Speaker 1 0:53
welcome friends again to another week of the CatholicPlebs podcast excited to have you here today we're gonna be doing a meditation day where we reflect on why God wants us to worship Him. And today it will be a little bit different format, which I'm excited for. I'm going to lay out my argument my case, and I'm going to end with a work from a saint, I believe it's St. Irenaeus. And history's against heresy. So pretty solid way to end when we're talking about kind of, I wouldn't say private revelation, but like this is just my ways that I came to reason why God wants us to worship Him. So it's a bit personal. It's not necessarily a Catholic Church's teaching, but it's very much rooted in Catholic tradition. So I'm in fact, like, the whole question of this of why does God want us to worship him came from me listening to the cat was the Catechism in New York podcast with bothered regiments, which is wonderful, highly recommend listening to it. But yeah, it it's a really interesting concept. And it's really weird, because right we think of God, we think of total love, we think of him when God says, you know, I did not come to be served, or sorry, I did not come to be served, but I came to serve. And we think of Jesus Christ, as you know. He who like glory incarnate became flesh, gave his glory away, suffered, and then eventually had his passion crucified, and died on the cross. So we see this, this total outward love of God. And then when we think of this quality, that God says, Hey, I actually I demand your worship. It's really interesting. And it just seems almost contrary to God. But we will see that that is not the case. Before we get into kind of my process of coming to understand God and coming to know him, I would like to say I'm going to post a link to it. But I actually wrote a small page and a half article on this, that is much more eloquent, as I had much time to look at my words, make them more condensed, concise, instead of me just kind of fumbling my way through the podcast. This is take number seven, so we can see it's it's gone pretty sketchy for me today. So if you'd like to see a more condensed, more eloquent version of what I'm saying now where I quote some scriptures, please feel free to click on that and read the article itself. Without further ado, let's go into those questions that I reached my way to this understanding of why does God want us to worship him? Alright, so I have three questions today. The first question is, how can we come to understand God, which is going to be important because this is going to be our foundation from which everything we build today is, is built on. So how can we come to worship God? Question number one, question number two, what is worship? And then question number three, what is it and the nature of worship, that makes it exclusive? Why is it that God says He demands our worship and demands it exclusively? So coming to the first question, how can we come to know God? Ah, this is pretty interesting. So it's just sitting in silence and meditating on this, after of course, listening to the Catechism, your podcast is like, Okay, why does God want us to worship him? It seems almost egotistical, but we know that's not him. So let's, let's take some time, a science for this. And I would come to me was the scripture on which John, Jesus's disciples, excuse me come to him and say, Jesus, like a master, and they don't say Jesus, like, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray, and what do we get from that? But the very familial prayer, familiar prayer of our Father, and it begins with Our Father who art in heaven. And what's so beautiful about this and what's so amazing about this is that of the lord of Lord, the King of kings, the true God from true God does not seek to be related to us and an authoritative position. That is not his primary relation that he wants to have with us. Now the primary position he has is our father. And then after that we have who aren't in heaven. So we do have that authority there. But when Jesus is revealing the father, when he's revealing the unseen God, the first person, the Trinity. He's revealing him through our humanity as a father, showing us that that first person in the Trinity is good. He's concerned about us, like a father's concern for the children. He wants to protect us, like a good father wants to protect his children. He wants to provide for us, like a good father wants to provide for his family. And he wants to love us, like a father loves his family. So it's immensely beautiful. And it's something that I believe either St. Catherine Siena, or Teresa of Avila, one of those great doctors, the church got so hit with the profundity of the father that he couldn't get past those four words, our Father, to think, Oh, God loves us, the God who is everything who is Almighty loves us so much. But he wants to be our father, he doesn't want to be exclusively king, he doesn't want to exclusively be Lord, but he wants to first before that be our father. So with that being said, the first answer to the question is, to our first answer to our first question is, we can come to know God through our humanity, because this is what Jesus did when he was on earth, is he relayed to us that the first person of the Trinity can be known to our humanity, and our familial bonds, the first person Trinity is a father. And then furthermore, you can even say that Jesus Christ is what the only begotten Son of God, the Son of man, as he likes to refer himself as. So he can sit up both this familial relationship of father and this familial relationship of son are two different qualities of humanity that God relates himself to us. So, with that being said, we'll move forward to our second question. What is worship? So immediately, when asked myself, What is worship, I realized I actually didn't know what it was. I was like, Well, is it like really good, complimenting? Like, you're like, you have pretty hair, pretty teeth, but like, just in a more glorious way of just like, Ah, you are such a good person. Thank you. And then, of course, I was like, that's not it. Alright, because you can compliment anyone. And that's not a bad thing. Probably you need to be encouraged. But I realized that just I didn't have this understanding of what worship was. So then I had to start examining okay, what are the qualities of worship? And I and, you know, we get into our third question, and that is, why is worship exclusive? Right, because why does God commanded us and the mosaic laws, that he is the only god, I mean, you have the Shema, which is, you know, you hear, O Israel, the LORD your God, as your Lord alone, you show, love them with all your heart, with all your mind with all your strength. And with all your hearts, I always butcher it. There's, I think, three of those I can't remember I have four of them that I think of, but very close to the Shema. And then you also have the 10 commandments, like you should have no other God before you, which is I believe part of the Shema, but also our Lord says, Yeah, I the LORD jealous God, and shall have no other gods before me. So we see this exclusivity was like God does one our worship and he created two different Levitical laws are different mosaic laws, Levitical law in the, in the love from Deuteronomy on how to worship and properly which then is fulfilled when we have our, you know, the new covenant that we currently are enjoying the last iteration of the covenant. So we see that okay, God does want to worship and but it is also exclusive. And that's kind of that's a that's a weird and interesting quality. So it's not something as benign as a compliment. It's something much more profound. So to answer this question, I thought back to the first question, which was, how can we come to know God, and that is within our humanity. And then I realized that worship is the divine act of saying, I love you. And I realized that worship is most perfectly related to us in the gift of our sexuality, which is why it is such a grievous thing to abuse our sexuality, but that worship, like sex is a total gift of love. But where sex is a spiritual thing, yes, but it's more of a, it's the physical and spiritual way to give our love totally and completely to another person. And it is also exclusive. Worship is the spiritual way that we can totally and utterly give ourselves to God. And it is exclusive, but it's in a spiritual sense. And then, in the article, I referenced that you know, like sex is exclusive, it is intimate, it is a full gift and is dignified.
Speaker 1 10:56
So one thing I would like to say is like with, with worship, this is something that I have thought in kind of, incompletely before very disjointed ly. But it is the act of their spirits. So we can talk about I love you. But it's, it's beautiful, it's perfect. Because it is, you, it's the one time that you can totally give yourself over. And just be completely okay. Right, you can completely give yourself over to God, and know that when you give yourself and the totality of who you are, as a person to God, that you're fine, because you have a father who loves you. You're giving yourself and love. It's not a matrimonial it is actually very much so close to matrimonial love. But I mean, it is, it is important to say like, worship is not sex, and it's not the same. But these qualities of sex are so very, perfectly relatable to us. Because there is an intimacy there. And there's a full gift of self. And the beauty of what I was trying to get up before was that you can give yourself totally and utterly and completely and you know that that love and that gift of yourself will never be betrayed by our Lord will always care for us. And he's actually the only perfect being and that he will perfectly love us and that we never have to worry about giving ourselves to Him. Which is how it Yeah, fulfills all of those those qualities. I said like it is exclusive. You can't give yourself that totally to someone else. Like if you give yourself in worship to your spouse, then eventually your spouse is going to let you down. And you're going to realize that your happiness cannot be found in your spouse alone. And that if you put the weight of your heart on your spouse, it's going to crush them. You can't put it on your children. You can't put that weight on anything other than God, He is the only thing that is strong enough to hold our hearts and keep them whole.
Speaker 1 13:18
So we see that worship is actually a divine act of love. It's the divine act, I love you. So then we begin to understand okay, all right. So this this idea of God creating us to worship Him is actually not an egotistical thing. But it's really God drawing us into His interweaving of love and the Trinity. Right? And that's how it's dignified. Because God, from the beginning of time, there was nothing but himself. And he was the perfection of love and like love, he had all three necessities there, in order for there for there to be love so and love, you have to have a lover, a beloved and love between the two. Right? So like sometimes, sadly, marriage you could have a lover, the beloved, but they don't have a perfect love. They have a selfish love where they just they're in it for themselves. And then you see the love between them dies. And so you have the two love, the beloved, beloved and the lover. But there's no love between them. And there is no love but God from all time, being perfect, and in absolute fullness. God the Father, being lover looked at the son with love with a father's love, a complete love. And the son looked back to the Father with complete and total love and was able to receive If His love his father, and give back the Father's love, as the Son, and that love between them as a living love, that we call the Holy Spirit. So he has always been the perfection of love, it has lacked nothing. So we see that we being created for worship is not actually an egotistical thing. But it's actually a wondrous and incomprehensible thing, that our Lord who was perfect from all time and needed nothing created us, not to serve Him. But He created us to draw us in to himself and this inward act of an infinite giving of love, so that when we hear, God demands our worship, we realize that God is inviting him, inviting us, excuse me, and to His eternal act of being, His act of love. And this is the divine act, right? This is the divine act of being, God says that He is love. And we know from Thomas Aquinas, that God is being itself, but what does it mean to be and God teaches us that God is love. So in order to love means that you have your being in your existence, that's the fullness of existence is loving well. So we see that the amazing thing is that God is calling us into the perfection of his love to participate in his divinity, which is absolutely crazy. And we come to the answer, how can I God who is so selfless and so loving, and so outwardly focus, demand our love and our worship. And we see that that is actually not so much a burden upon us, but it's actually the great invitation that God is calling us into that perfect act of love, which is worship.
Speaker 1 16:58
So, so that's what that's where I'm at. I mean, if you disagree, feel free to comment, feel free to send me an email. You guys have that information. But before we close, I have this wonderful work from St. Irenaeus, on his treaties against heresy. And without further ado, let's get into that. From the Treatise Against Heresy by St. Irenaeus as bishop, our Lord, the word of God first drew men to God as servants, but later he freed those made subject to him. He himself testified to this, I do not call you servants any longer, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, since I have made you know, since I have made known to you everything that I have learned from my father, friends, friendship with God brings the gift of immortality to those who accept it. And the beginning God created Adam, not because he needed man, but because he wanted to have someone on whom to bestow His blessings. Not only be for Adam, but also before all creation, the word was glorifying the father in whom he dwelt, and was himself being glorified by the Father. The word himself said, Father, glorify me with that glory that I had with you before the world was, nor did the Lord need our service. He commanded us to follow him. But the his was the gift of salvation. To follow the Savior is to share and salvation. To follow the light is to enjoy the light. Those who are in the light do not illuminate the light, but are themselves illuminated and enlightened by the light. They added nothing to the light, rather, they are beneficiaries, for they are enlightened by the light. The same is true of service to God. It adds nothing to God, nor does God need the service of man. Rather, he gives life and immortality and eternal glory to those who follow and serve him. He confers a benefit on his servants and return for his service and on his followers and return for their loyalty, but he receives no benefit from them. He is rich, perfect and in need of nothing. The reason why God requires service from men is this because he is good and merciful, He desires to confer benefits on those who persevere in His service. And proportion to God's need of nothing is man's need for communion with God. This is the glory of men to preserve and remain in the service of God. For this reason, the Lord told His disciples, you do not choose me, but I chose you. He meant that his disciples did not glorify Him by following him. But in the following the Son of God, they were glorified by him. As he said, I wish that were I am, they also may be that they may see my glory
Speaker 1 20:54
So brothers and sisters, my friends, I hope that hope that clarifies some things for you. I hope that's very inspiring. And you see, just like how wonderful it is. Another week, under 30 minutes, just as promised, or as mad as I guess. But yeah, I'm enjoying this podcast. I'm so happy to have you guys along here with me on this journey of just transmitting the beautiful things of God. So, France, thank you for another week, and I hope you're doing well. Praying for you guys. Please pray for me.