The most noble fruit of the Easter victory of our Lord Jesus Christ is the praise of God to the resurrection we have entered into that Sabbath rest. The worship, the worship of the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit is the most noble work of the Christian. We see that in the intro of tomorrow. Shout with joy to God all the earth, alleluia. Sing ye a psalm to his name, alleluia. Give glory to his praise, alleluia. Say unto God how awe-inspiring are your works, O Lord. because of the greatness of your strength, even your enemies.

[01:04]

What would that be, adulation, adulate you? Flatter you. Flatter you, that's it, flatter you. So this psalm would be good for you to read the whole psalm tomorrow realized so often is the case, I think it's the Psalm 65, which corresponds so well to the condition of the Christians, the newly baptized, who have just crossed the Red Sea and the Jordan River and have entered into the Promised Land. And we see in that psalm so clearly that the purpose of each one of these saving deeds of God is the praise, the praise of God the Savior.

[02:08]

As the Israelites going through the Red Sea in the end sing with Moses and Miriam the canticle, and then later on, going through the Jordan, offer then the sacrifice. And so the importance, therefore, of worship is impressed upon us during these days and weeks after Easter. And therefore those who have undergone the second baptism of monastic profession are even more deeply bound to the glorification of God through the Opus Dei. The central importance of worship in the life of the monk is evident to everyone.

[03:14]

However, For modern man, it is difficult to understand the central role and vital importance of what we do in the chapel in the Opus Dei. It is the response to the divine agape. God comes with his love to us, gives us his grace and mercy, and we respond then in the act of worship. So I thought that during these weeks after Easter, we should concentrate our attention in these Saturday conferences on just this, the vital importance of the worship.

[04:16]

Certainly what we do in chapel is a ritual. It is the recitation or singing of Psalms. It's an oral work. It's an intellectual work to a certain extent. And we who are so accustomed to separate the things of the intellect and the words and what we say and what we sing and what we read from our life and to us very often this Opus Dei that we perform as a community in the chapel seems to be empty of real spiritual power. And therefore a great deal of educating and of reforming and reorientating our thinking has to be done.

[05:25]

so that we become conscious again and then are able also to realize in our inner spiritual life the central place that the Opus Dei has, not as an intellectual occupation, but as a source of life. even as the manifestation of our deepest being. Now, I thought we could proceed perhaps in this way. Let us first just briefly point out the central position which worship occupies in Holy Scripture and, first of all, in the Old Testament. I think we have done that before, but let us just repeat it so that it becomes present again to our minds.

[06:33]

There is first the work of creation which ends in God's rest. on the seventh day. And then it continues and says, and God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Endowed this day with the power of life, growth, fruitfulness, plenitude, and sanctified it. It means set it apart as something absolutely pure, something that cannot be spoiled because it is removed from all possibility of disintegration, removed from the struggle of opposing tendencies, high and low,

[07:38]

of spiritual and sensual, sanctified. And here is, in this verse, the root of the celebration of the supper, which is the cornerstone of the worship of the Jewish people. As it is said later in Exodus 20, 11, But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh he rested from all his work. Then write in. Chapter 4, we meet for the first time the sons of Adam, Cain and Abel, offering the mincha, the gift, oblation, in Genesis 4.3.

[08:58]

Then we have as another important turning point in the history of the world after the flood, Noah building the altar and offering the Ola, another kind of sacrifice, the Holocaust as we call it. And God receives it And it is the occasion for him to establish the covenant with Noah. Genesis 8, 20. Then again, in that first blessing, in which Sem, Ham, and Japheth are blessed, three types. of people and it is said God dwells in the tenth of Shem Genesis 9 27 later on in Genesis 11 4 we meet for the first time the let us say false worship

[10:18]

men wanting to make a name for themselves, which is a cultic liturgical expression because the essence of worship is the confessing or sanctifying of the name of God. Here, men make a name for themselves trying to build a tower which reaches into heaven, Genesis 11, 4. And later on, Genesis 12, 7, Abraham, the one who is being called forth out of this world of Babel and the Tower of Babel. who does the opposite when he reaches the promised land and builds there an altar to God.

[11:37]

We also see in reading the story of Abraham that one of the most expressive and basic gestures of worship are here seen in Abraham for the first time. I mean that what we call proskynesis in Greek, or prostration, the act of adoration, and adoration and prostration in Hebrew, even the same in the word. We see also the center of the high point of the life of Abraham, the supreme test of his loyalty, and again the opportunity of God to establish the covenant, the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, which will later then be the central place of worship

[12:48]

for the chosen people in Genesis 22. Then, at another turning point in the history of redemption, we find Jacob. Jacob, the fugitive, who suddenly comes upon the place in Genesis 28, 10 and the following, comes upon the place which he then calls house of God or gate of heaven, and where he consecrates with oil the stone which is to grow into the house of God. for the whole history of worship, a very important central place.

[13:54]

And in the same story of the same patriarch, in Genesis 32, we find for the first time a, we may call it, formal prayer. pronounced by Jacob in verse 10 to 13 of that chapter, followed then later on by the battle with the angel in verse 25 and the following, which also should be related to the mystery of prayer. Then later on again in Exodus, in Exodus 7, 16, where the Exodus is being prepared and the whole purpose of the liberation of Israel

[15:07]

and of the leaving of the people, leaving the land of servitude and entering into the land of liberty, the purpose of it is clearly told. Let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. that they may serve me in the wilderness. A word which the Septuagint translates with the Greek latroian, latria, latria, latria, which is still contained in our word idolatry, idolatry, latria, worship, service. in the sense of cult.

[16:10]

Instead, with this serving in the wilderness, cult acts, sacrifices are meant. It's evidence, then, in the whole context of the story, as, for example, in Exodus 10.26, where the Israelites take their cattle, take cattle with them, in order to, as it is freshly said, to offer them as sacrifices in the wilderness. So here we arrive at the exodus and the liturgical meaning of that act, which of course has immediately its implications for the exodus of Christ, when he passes through death into the promised land, sitting at the right hand of God, always interceding with his heavenly Father for us.

[17:25]

So this act itself also an act of glorification. I mean the act of our Lord's passing, our Lord's Pascha. And then that same applied to us in baptisms. Those who join Christ in this his exodus through the sacrament of baptism, they also then enter into the promised land in order to, as one people with one voice, in one spirit, to glorify the Father. That is the meaning of the Exodus of the New Testament. Let us then first, after just this little introduction, to which many other things and examples could be added, I just wanted to point out still one thing, and that is that later on in the clash between the Israelites and the surrounding nations,

[18:55]

The decisive thing which determines their relation to the other nations is always the worship, the question of serving the true God or of serving strange gods. That is the decision that Joshua puts before the people and that is the vital decision which shapes and determines their entire life, either to worship the one god, Curios Monos, or to run after strange gods, heteroitheoi, the other gods, as we say strange gods. And that's the question of idolatry as the greatest and central danger for the life of the chosen people all through their stay in the Promised Land.

[20:05]

The exile really as a punishment for their idolatry, the fact that they went on the heights of Palestine to commit adultery with the barley, with the lords of the trees and of the fields and of fertility and what they are. That is the decisive question. And later on in St. Paul still, we hear it rise in these days, an echo of that. That's the example when he says, when he warns and puts before us this list of vices, among them avarice, which is idolorum servitus, which means and is idolatry, where we see suddenly the connection between worship and life,

[21:13]

worship of the gods, of the idols, as practised, as inevitably leading and growing out of, in this case, Avaris, because Mammon is a god, and Avaris, in that way, is the cult and worship of that god. So, I just point that out, because for us, Again, as people of these modern times who are kind of accustomed in thinking about questions of toleration, tolerance, and of the various, let's say, values of various religions and so on, We are so accustomed to judge religions according to their, let us say, intellectual content, the truth that they contain as, let us say, as the revelation about the essence of God, things like that.

[22:33]

But we are not accustomed to think about religion at least not as much as in the antiquity, in terms of worship as the vital and central act of religion. So strange. I was just this day following up that idea for a moment. I looked through the book which this dear friend of mine, Gustav Mensching, just sent me and wrote about the... the doctrine of tolerance. Would one say tolerance or toleration? Tolerance. Tolerance of tolerance. I looked, you see, just in the index, if even the word Götzendienst would occur in it. No, not. And Götzendienst, I mean idolatry, of course, was the central question.

[23:35]

in this whole also problem, to say, of tolerance. Because, as you know, that was the decisive question in taking and conquering the Holy Land and treating the tribes there rather harshly. So therefore we are, as I say, it's difficult for us to realise the tremendous importance of worship as the vital and central act of religion, which at the same time informs, stamps, shapes, gives essence to our entire life. But of course, for us as monks, that is the central question. If we do not see the vital connection between what we do in chapel with what we do outside of the chapel, our whole monastic existence really is a failure.

[24:47]

We are not what we are supposed to be. So if the monk in choir rattles the things down without realization to get through with it, and considers this as a kind of burden which is rather a hindrance in doing much more needed work, then a help or even the simple act of his entire, the expression of his existence, then we simply are not amongst. So therefore, it is important to see that relation. Now, I thought that we might approach this problem also in still thinking a little about the first You see, we go now to take each one of these various points that I just mentioned.

[25:48]

And the first, and a very decisive one, of course, is the supper. One can say the mystery of the supper. I think to approach and to try, you know, to grasp the mystery of the supper is a good, very important step to realise the true vitality, one may say the ontological character of worship, not only in the Old Testament, but especially in ours, because the Sabbath, of course, is one of the legal institutions which has found its fulfilment, deep fulfilment, not only in our Sunday, but in our whole Christian existence. So let us just try to approach that essence of the Sabbath.

[26:59]

The Sabbath was blessed and sanctified by God. the day on which he rested, as it is said, from all his works. Rested from all his works. Maybe we can do it this way, not to put your endurance on too much of a test, I call your attention to a beautiful passage that you are familiar with in Isaiah 58, verse 13 and 14, which reads in this way. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, That means if you don't walk with your own old shoes, you know, all over the sacred ground of the Sabbath, and if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath and from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight,

[28:28]

the holy of the Lord, the most honored one. And if you shall honor him by not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then shall you delight Yourself in the Lord. Now that seems to me is a beautiful, wonderful explanation of the meaning of the Sabbath. If you keep your dirty everyday's feet away from the Sabbath and from doing your pleasure on my holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight. The Holy One of the Lord.

[29:33]

It's beautiful how the Sabbath is personified as the Holy One of the Lord. In some ways we are identified with the Ebbet Yahweh, with the Servant of God. The Honorable One. Another title. And if you shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then shall you delight yourself in the Lord. See, the Sabbath is called a blessed and a holy Sabbath. blessed and sanctified by God. Sanctified, kadosh, is used of God, first of all, and designates God as a being which is totally, absolutely separated or set apart

[30:51]

from this finite sinful world and is exalted infinitely above it. Now when this word kadosh is used of men and of things then it designates them as separated from the worldly or the common what they call the profane. The representative of the worldly and of the common in the Old Testament is, as you know, Esau. He's called the profane in the epistle to the Hebrews in opposition to Jacob with his house of God and his battle with the angel. So it designates, then, either men or things as separated from the worldly, the common, raised above it.

[32:07]

The divine blessing endowed the seventh day with a treasure of grace flowing forth from the rest of the Creator, which rest is open for those who keep the Sabbath day. And the divine sanctification, or hallowing, removed the Sabbath from among the weekdays and invested it with a special distinguishing consecration. The reason for that was because on this day God entered into his rest.

[33:10]

I don't know if the English word rest renders the connotation which is in the Hebrew word and which is also contained, I don't know how, but it's a fact, in the German . It's a very, very good combination. The word has exactly these two meanings, to celebrate, It means to enter into an, shall we call it, exalted level of life on a higher plane, away from the common. The fire is in opposition to the everyday common, what we call down-to-earth existence.

[34:14]

It's an up-to-heaven existence. Thank God that that exists there too. And then the, because we are maybe too much always down to earth, you know, all down to earth. The fire has the other connotations, you know, of resting, see, and means abstaining from the common... work which fills the common day. So fire and the Hebrew Shabbat has the same double meaning. Therefore you can always see, celebrate the Sabbath, how? By stopping work. But this stopping work is of course absolutely not something negative. It is the entering upon a higher plane.

[35:17]

What is that higher plane? That higher plane is the rest of God. What is that rest of God? Oh, by the way, what time is it? What is the rest of God? Now, there you must read the third chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. There you find what the rest of God really is. It's that rest which follows, now let us put it this way, not only the work of creation, but the work of redemption, which is foreshadowed in the work of creation. In other words, the seventh day, which follows the six days of creation, foreshadows the seventh days, which follows the six days, let us say, of Holy Week, of the suffering, of the passion, of the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[36:25]

The Sabbath is in the terms of the New Testament, Christ the risen Savior as he sits at the right hand of the Father. Sits. To sit means to rest. As he sits at the right hand of the Father. This Sabbath, what is it? It is that the work of redemption has been accomplished in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God. and that therefore we now are called to enter into his rest. How do we enter into that rest? Not by redeeming ourselves, but by having ourselves redeemed by Christ. How do we have ourselves redeemed by Christ? By believing in his death and his resurrection for us.

[37:31]

Faith in that way is the Sabbath of the Christian and the way in which he enters into that rest which follows the work of redemption. He enters into the world of the Savior, into the world of the curious, the world of the Lord, the glorified Christ. Faith, yes, and the sacrament baptism, marching through the Red Sea, entering and joining Christ in his suffering, in his passion, sacramentally. In this way, through baptism, we enter into the rest. Rest, then, here is nothing but the treasure of grace, the treasure of glory, the treasure of divine life, that Christ, through his death on the cross, has put at our disposal.

[38:34]

Before he was glorified, the pneuma was not yet there. It's really in that way the Holy Spirit who is our rest, into which we enter. And so the Sabbath in that way is in the New Testament, points to that and is that word of the glorified Christ, the glorified Kyrios, the Lord. So that in the New Testament, the Sabbath becomes the Dominica, the Dominica, the Lord's Day, the day of the Kyrios. the one who has conquered. And that, of course, is the victory which conquers the world, our faith. And that really also is the meaning of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the day in which God, resting from all his works, after he created this world, as it were,

[39:45]

Going out of himself, he enters into his rest. He returns into himself. Not for himself, because he blesses and sanctifies the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is the whole day of human history which follows the creation. In order that, in this way, the human race gives. The whole world may enter finally with him into this rest. And the Sabbath in the Old Testament is the central means of education through which man is prepared to enter into the rest of the Creator. In the New Testament, this rest is there in the risen Savior, in the curious. We enter into this rest through baptism.

[40:49]

We celebrate the Sunday as the symbol of that rest. Now, if we think about that a little more, then we see right away the tremendous, central, vital, one can say mystical importance of the cult of worship. Worship is really following God into his rest. But about that, let us speak later.

[41:22]

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