Liturgy in Worship
The act of worship in Christianity is allowing God to enter one’s space and fully accept His presence and ability to be loved by Him through devotion. Liturgy is a form of worship that lays out the lawful laws of the Church. Liturgy, for Christians, is a strict and regulated worship that aims to honor God with the whole community in order to reach salvation through the forms of play, symbol, and festival. Liturgy is ruled by thoughts and controlled emotions which leave little room to stay from traditional practices.
In Guardini’s text, he described play as intentional movement that has an end goal that can be felt by the person. It is meant to bring forth love to fall deeper into communion with God. It is present in any form of art, but one has to attune their senses. Within Cyril of Jerusalem, Jesus is anointed with oil all over his body. It is playful due to the manner that one has to be anointed since there is a process beginning at a person’s forehead and heading downwards. The act of placing oil at the forehead is to be freed from shame, but once a person goes lower on the body more of the senses are evoked. The presence of oil is felt on top of the skin until it is absorbed which draws upon the sense of touch. Touching is a very powerful part of the anointing since it can be interpreted that Christ is drawing upon your love for him, and one is feeling His embrace around you, an imperfect human with sins that is devoted to him day in and day out. Hearing is given once the oil is gently caressed around the ears meant to bring forth the sounds of the divine mysteries. Smell is given by the aroma of the oil as it cocoons the anointed, and Christ freely gives His children the smell to those who have been saved. In addition, the intentionality of the oil is due to reflect the passage where “… Christ was truly crucified and buried and raised up, and you, by means of baptism, were made worthy to be crucified, buried, and raised up in likeness… (Cyril 107).” Christ’s movements were important to the story of our redemption. Without the play represented through his sacrifice, any play would not occur since the residing is to reach a state where man is similar to Christ. Thus, play is embodied in the very act of physically placing the special oil on one’s body to get closer to God. The act is not futile due to the divine purpose of standing against evil and supported by God.
An act found in the liturgy of the Christian Church is the way Christians show devotion to God in the form of the cross and the clasping of hands during praying and the opening of palms during “Our Father.” The playfulness of the action is known, but in Sacred Signs, Guardini is focused on the symbolic nature of hands play during worship. Hands are connected to the individual body that is an extension of Christ, but the manner in which hands are used reflect the intentionality of man’s love for Christ. To be a symbol, it is to be an extension of an idea that gives the public the ability to recognize what language cannot express. Crossing oneself is a sign of redemption since one invited God to permeate every corner of the body and fully accept his strength and protection. The hands are the tools a person uses to allow salvation to come to one, and without hands, one will not be able to contemplate the need man has to be whole and one with Christ and as an extension the community of parishioners. During “Our Father,” man’s hands are open with the palms facing upwards in a gesture of surrender to God. Man has been saved by the uptaking of Christ in man’s life, and the presence soothes the soul in which salvation is the answer to one’s love for him.
The final form liturgy takes in Church is festival. Festival is the experience of a nontemporal event that represents a community in its most perfect form. In Gertrude of Helfta, festivity is shown during mass. Mass does not have an exact time it is meant to be at. There is not a day in the calendar defining its spot nor is it constantly reminding man that time is passing. To be in mass, is to be oblivious to time since God should be at the main forefront of every person’s thought. During mass, community is at its strongest since they as one are able to be cleansed of any sins. Mass is able to represent the two aspects of festivity since time is not counted and community is emphasized through the actions of the parishioners that unite them as the body of Christ.
