Why should we worsip God?

[AdriannaJean]

Hey Everyone,

I was struck by an odd thought today so I’m going to fire it off on here and see what is said.

God is a Father to us all and loves us personally. He wants us to love Him in return, which is why He gave us free will, because our love means nothing unless it is freely given. If what God wants from us is love, then why do we worship Him? Why can’t we treat Him like other people we love and have a close relationship with? Why isn’t a personal relationship (the type of prayer that is “talking” to God) better than worship? Why would God want our worship when our love is so much better?

Job is praised by God for getting angry with God. Job has a personal relationship with God whereas Job’s friends worship God, and God appreciated Job more. Why then do we worship God?

If that’s blasphemous I don’t mean it to be at all. Responses?

 

[RobNY]

There probably is no distinction between true worship and love. All true worship is essentially an act of love, animated by the infused theological virtue of charity. It is charity alone with gives value to our worship.

After all, if you check the Catechism’s treatment of the first commandment it quotes these forms:

“YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND”

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.3

It is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."4

And the Catechism comments:

2093 Faith in God’s love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him.12

The first commandment, which tells us to worship God first, the Catechism tells us, is really telling us to love Him above all things.

And again:

2096 Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,” says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.13

The supreme human act of worship is the act of worship which Christ offered to the Father through His passion, on the Cross-- His suffering and death. And yet if you check the theology behind this, it is the supreme act of worship not because it is the most painful act, but because it was the most loving act.

Pope Pius XII, in Haurietis aquas, says:

“the mystery of our divine Redeemer is fundamentally a mystery of love; the mystery, namely, of that love of Christ for his heavenly father by which he offers him the sacrifice of the cross in a spirit of love and obedience and achieves the superabundant and infinite satisfaction”

And this is the teaching of St. Thomas regarding merit. Charity is that which is the basis of merit, and so Christ’s infinite satisfaction for our sins is really due to the infinite love with which He loved us (not primarily due to the suffering he suffered, but to the love with which He suffered for us).

But then, don’t all of your questions slide into place?

Solemn high worship, that is, the Holy Mass, is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice on the Cross, which is the greatest act of love.

This doesn’t diminish in any way the importance of offering oneself as a sacrifice to God. Paul does say, after all, “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.” (Rom 12:1).

But we offer ourselves as a perfect living sacrifice to God by becoming perfectly holy, that is, perfectly loving, and indeed… we do this best by participating in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The Catechism notes, “the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins.228 By giving himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in him” (CCC 1394) and,

1416 Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ increases the communicant’s union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, and preserves him from grave sins. Since receiving this sacrament strengthens the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ, it also reinforces the unity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

Does this help? God bless.

-Rob

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi “Adrianna”

Your question is not blasphemous. It’s an honest question, based on a desire to know why we worship God. Many people have asked it. I will take a stab at answering it. I ask your forgiveness, in advance… if my wording is clumsy.

Human beings do not worship God… because He is some sort of “ego-maniac” who desires praise. God needs nothing from us. We worship God… for OUR benefit. Because we were created by God… “to know Him, to love Him and to be happy with Him for all eternity”.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says this:

(27) The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to Himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his Creator."

I hope this is some help to you. God bless.

 

[requieroveritas]

With respect to why we worship God, I think the words worship, or glorification, and the word love, are being used synonymously in this discussion, when they shouldn’t be.

All, or most of what has been said in previous posts on this thread deal with our loving God, and His love for us, and all of this is true- with respect to love. For God’s part, Love is the attribute by which He calls us to Himself, and our love for God is a reflection of His Love for us, manifested in our desire to be with Him, by keeping His commandments and maintaining our faith and hope in Him.

However, when we glorify God, we give to Him respect in the extreme, respect for who and what He is: A being capable of all creation, a being who simply is, and who has no end that can be reached. This respect, or “fear” of the Lord, as scripture tells us, is the first step in attaining wisdom. Wisdom leads to a better, deeper understanding of God, and thus enables us to love Him more deeply, but it is not the same as love.

It was, to be known, praised, and glorified, that God set all of creation in motion, for in creation, His infinite attributes could be seen. His love for us is only one of His many perfections made manifest in creation.

As to God being “stuck up,” or exhibiting a tendency towards egomania, keep in mind that Perfection is one of God’s attributes. Being perfect, He can have no flaws, ergo, His demand that we worship, or glorify Him cannot be a fault; God cannot be seen as an ego-maniac because He demands glorification from us. Likewise, as MarieVeronica stated, God needs nothing from us. A need is in essence, a fault, a defect, an imperfection. He, being perfect, can have no faults, therefore, He has no need of us.

This demand for glorification, therefore, belongs as part of one of His other infinite attributes; Justice-, or perhaps another, to which, I cannot put a name. He who brought all things into being, and sustains them, requires that His creation give Him glory, or worship, or if you like, the respect or fear due Him, for His Omnipotence, His Power, His Wisdom, His Love and Mercy, His Justice, His Magnificence, and on and on. God’s infinite attributes demand recognition, and in His Perfection, HE is the ONLY one entitled to demand such glory.

All creation glorifies God by it’s mere existence, for by the mere act of existence, God’s infinite attributes are on display for all to see. We, by reason of our position in God’s creation, give Him glory through the use of our faculties of intellect and free will; when we return His love for us in the things we do, whether it be in keeping tightly to His commandments or simply by doing the best we can in our station in life.

We also give Glory to God, when we bow our heads in silence and acknowledge that all honor and glory, praise and exaltation are His, now and forever.

So continue to love God with “ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND", but give Him the glory that is His due, for who and what He is…. GOD!

 

[RobNY]

So continue to love God with “ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND", but give Him the glory that is His due, for who and what He is…. GOD!

To give God the glory that He is due is the same as to have rightly ordered love for God. St. Augustine speaks of rightly ordering love a great deal, but it involves loving God first and primarily, and loving created persons “in God.” And the rest of creation is loved in a way subordinate to God. There is thus a hierarchy of loves, which corresponds rather nicely to worship: we love God first and exclusively for His own sake, and indeed, we worship and reverence God first and exclusively. The reverence and love we show to created things is only in relation to God.

God bless,
Rob