How Catholic Worship (aka Mass) Is Different From Non-Catholic's "Worship" (aka Service)
One time in a party, I introduced a family new to our town to an old friend of mine. As we were all having nice conversation of pretty much anything the family needs to expect as newbies, my old friend (a fallen-away Catholic and now an active member of a certain evangelical ecclesiastic community) brought up in the conversation that they have a new pastor in their church that is smart and charismatic, and invited the new family to come and attend their worship service sometime.
Now, as a Catholic, I always admire our Non-Catholic brethren's enthusiasm of inviting other people to their church. They always seem to make evangelizing so easy and natural than a Catholic would do the inviting. We can always learn from them, we grant them that.
However, I also wonder how come is it this way? How come for some reason inviting someone to a Catholic Mass does not seem to have the same, for lack of a better word, sentiment or ease as inviting someone to attend a Protestant worship service. I come to think that aside from praying and trusting the Holy Spirit as a given among other factors necessary to evangelize others, part of it is also because Catholics and Protestants, like a lot of other set of beliefs and practices, have a different understanding of what "worship" in church means and entails.
In today's culture and generation especially, indeed we tend to gravitate and appeal towards a more contemporary, emotionally high and loud, concert-like form of music, lively sermons, energetic speakers and a great coffee service among other amenities. Choosing what church to go to is like a form of religious or ecclesiastical consumerism. So if your church is, more or less in some ways, sounds like having these attributes, your work is almost half way done "evangelizing".
On the other hand, Catholic mass tend to get a bad rap. Commonly perceived and stereotyped to be old, boring and irrelevant. We already have a preconceived defeated notion that since there won't be anything entertaining to see attending Mass, our protestant friends surely may find it unappealing, even misconceivingly cultic. Plus the anti-Catholic one-liner rhetorics and indoctrination over the past centuries of misconstruing the Mass as idolatrous, "re-sacrificing Christ in Calvary" and the like, added insult to injury.
But to help us understand worship, the question we ask ourselves is not just why we worship, but what is worship really all about, and to look at how should one supposed to worship in the context of historical Christianity. How the prophets in the old and the apostles in the new worship God in the first place? Most of all, how our Lord Jesus intended for us to worship?
Now I won't try to go through enumerating and exegeting every bible verses of what worship really is, since I'm no bible scholar or anything but in essence, worship entails sacrifice. In the old testament (e.g. Genesis, Leviticus) we read quite a number of sacrifices and offerings that had been carried out (ie., burnt sacrifices/offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings, guilt offerings, food offerings, communion sacrifices). These were how the Old Testament people worship. God centered the worship of his Old Testament people on sacrifice because it was an essential part of His plan of salvation. These are prefigured in culmination for the ultimate and perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself for the atonement of the human race. “Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” as St. Paul said. (Eph 5:2; Hebrews 9, 10). Our Lord Jesus displayed all the dimensions of Old Testament communion sacrifice. He fulfilled a threefold role: offeror, victim and priest. In Genesis 22:7-8, Isaac asked his dad Abraham: "Hey Dad, the fire and wood are here but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" And Abraham replied “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (ie., God's own self).
As we walked through after Christ's death and resurrection, we find the continuing theme of worshiping God that entails sacrifice. Again St Paul tells the Romans (12:1) "to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." And even advised in Corinths (1 Corinthians 14:40) that "everything should be done decently and in an orderly way," not in a loud and boisterous freestyle fashion.
And we go through down the line in history to learn the successors of the apostles (like Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, the Early Church Fathers, all the 1st, 2nd, 3rd century Christians thru the 21st) all worship the same mode we find in the Catholic Mass.
The Mass is both a sacrifice and a sacrament, but primarily the former. The same offerer, victim and priest is present but in an unbloody manner. Nothing is as Christo-centric in worship as that in the Mass itself first instituted in the upper room by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And this is the way Christians ought to worship, regardless of how emotionally high or low we feel about the church's ambience, or how boring someone's homily, or how outdated the songs are, or how lousy the church coffee tasted like. Going to church to worship should not be a form of religious consumerism, where we cherry pick to look for the best sermon, the best speaker, the best-tasting coffee or the best songs and musical band.
How we convey that to somebody we want to invite to go to mass to really experience true biblical worship is a different story, because it is not as simple as inviting them to a birthday party or a concert. We just trust in the Holy Spirit to do the working when we put Christ out there for them by our invitation.
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BONUS READING:I found this write-up that was shared in one of the Facebook groups and thought this is another great read and perspective on the difference between Catholic Worship & Non-Catholic Praise Service, author unknown. It reads as follows:
Difference Between Catholic Worship & Non-Catholic Praise Service
The commands to "praise the Lord" are too numerous to mention throughout the Bible. For example, angels and the heavenly hosts are commanded to praise the Lord in Psalm 89:5; 103:20; 148:2. All inhabitants of the earth are instructed to praise the Lord (Psalm 138:4; Romans 15:11). We can praise Him with singing (Isaiah 12:5; Psalm 9:11), with shouting (Psalm 33:1; 98:4), with the dance (Psalm 150:4), and with musical instruments (1 Chronicles 13:8; Psalm 108:2; 150:3-5).
Praise is the joyful recounting of all God has done for us. It is closely intertwined with thanksgiving as we offer back to God appreciation for His mighty works on our behalf. Praise is universal and can be applied to other relationships as well. We can praise our family, friends, boss, or paperboy. Praise does not require anything of us. It is merely the truthful acknowledgment of the righteous acts of another. Since God has done many wonderful deeds, He is worthy of praise (Psalm 18:3).
Worship, however, comes from a different place within our spirits. WORSHIP SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR GOD ALONE (Luke 4:8). Worship is the art of losing self in the adoration of another. Praise can be a part of worship, but worship goes beyond praise. Praise is easy; worship is not. Worship gets to the heart of who we are. To truly worship God, we must let go of our self-worship. We must be willing to humble ourselves before God, surrender every part of our lives to His control, and adore Him for who He is, not just what He has done. Worship is a lifestyle, not just an occasional activity. Jesus said the Father is seeking those who will worship Him "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23).
In Scripture, praise is usually presented as boisterous, joyful, and uninhibited. God invites praise of all kinds from His creation. Jesus said that if people don't praise God, even the "stones will cry out" (Luke 19:40). When the Bible mentions worship, however, the tone changes. We read verses like, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 96:9). And, "Come let us worship and bow down" (Psalm 95:6). Often, worship is coupled with the act of bowing or kneeling, which shows humility and contrition (2 Chronicles 29:28; Hebrews 11:21; Revelation 19:10). It is through true worship that we invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us, convict us, and comfort us. Through worship, we realign our priorities with God's and acknowledge Him once more as the rightful Lord of our lives.
Just as praise is intertwined with thanksgiving, worship is intertwined with surrender. It is impossible to worship God and anything else at the same time (Luke 4:8). The physical acts often associated with worship—bowing, kneeling, clasping hands—help to create the necessary attitude of humility required for real worship.
Worship is an attitude of the heart. A person can go through the outward motions and not be worshiping (Psalm 51:16-17; Matthew 6:5-6). God sees the heart, and He desires and deserves sincere, heartfelt praise and worship.
Understanding the difference between praise and worship can bring a new depth to the way we honor the Lord.
