My last one-on-one conversation with my father was about liturgy. Specifically, what had I taken away from the online courses in Theology of the Divine Office and of the Divine Liturgy that I took as part of a credential program. My father was the head of the Liturgy, or Ritual, Committee at his synagogue in Manhattan, so this is both a personal and a 'professional' interest for him.
I had already picked up from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the Mass or Eucharist, which the Eastern Christians call the Divine Liturgy, is a re-enactment of the Last Supper. My studies in Eastern Christianity taught me the startling, profound truth that there is truly only one event of Sacrifice. The Eucharistic Consecration of any priest on any given day is not a representation of that event, nor is it a re-enactment that connects us to Christ, as if the priest were concelebrating with Him. Instead, the Eastern Theology of the Divine Liturgy teaches that the priest's act of consecration actually unifies the priest with Christ, and brings all participants into the one moment of His Sacrifice that is forever a present event. We are brought into Eternity.
My experience with the Theology of the Divine Office was similar. The Roman Breviary I have says that reciting the Divine Office is a "sactification of time." That never seemed a sufficient explanation. Again, my studies of Eastern Christian Theology gave me a deeper and richer insight, which I happily heard echoed in last Sunday's homily. The Christian perspective on the "End Times" is that they have already begun, that the death of Jesus on the Cross ended the "time" of the reign of Death, and since then we have been living the End Time that will last until He comes again in glory.
In the End of Time we hear that we will join with the angels and saints standing before the throne of our Lord, singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving. That is what we are actually doing when we recite the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office. We are stepping out of our mundane world into a parallel universe in which we are standing before Him, addressing our words to Him Who is ever present, though we may not see Him.
I try to remember this every day, though my fallen human nature makes my thoughts wander far away from Him into the mundane world. I pray often for the grace to be more aware of the alternate, parallel universe in which these petty frustrations and sorrows weigh me down. Lord give me strength to persevere!
Amen.
