To many, an emphasis on liturgy may appear to be extra of a legal responsibility than a assist for ethics. Admittedly, the connection between liturgy and ethics can simply be framed negatively. Citing passages from the prophets reminiscent of Amos 5:21–27 or Isaiah 1:11–17, the place God declares his displeasure in rituals carried out by unjust, oppressive, idolatrous, and in any other case untrue worshipers, liturgy may be considered empty type or mere motions, too typically masking exhausting hearts and unjust palms.
But there’s one other method to contemplate the prophetic denunciations of such hypocritical worship: It’s exactly due to the right marriage between liturgy and ethics that the hypocritical apply of the previous is so abhorrent. The reality of liturgy just isn’t present in naked type, however in complete transformation and reorientation of life and, the place the latter is absent, the previous is made right into a mockery. Liturgy orders us in the direction of apply and is confirmed—and infrequently falsified—in it.
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