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The True Meaning of Sabbath Worship

  • DIETRICH VON HILDEBRAND

Only the God-man, Jesus Christ, can truly offer adoration and love to God.


jesusdavinciHe alone is entirely holy, he alone truly glorifies God through his holiness, and he alone can truly praise God.  The final, supernatural vocation of every person is, therefore, transformation in Christ.  Only from Christ, with him, and in him, can we offer true adoring love to God and praise him; and we can become holy only to the extent that we cease to live, and Christ lives in us; that is to say, to the extent that the divine life implanted in us in baptism is fully developed.  Our transformation in Christ is the essence of sanctity.

This transformation of a person into Christ includes not only the loving adoration of the Father with Christ and in Christ, but also the participation in the sacrifice of Christ and in the uttering of the "Word," the only true praise and glorification, addressed by Christ to his heavenly Father.  Even now, in spite of our imperfection and infirmity, we are permitted to join in the praise of the angels, because as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we pray with the Head.  And the more fully we participate in this expressed glorification of the Father in the laudare, the more we shall be transformed into Christ.  We are drawn increasingly into the adoring love of Christ for the Father in that very action by which we consciously present to the Father the fruit of that adoring love.

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Acknowledgement

vonhildebranddDietrich von Hildebrand. "The True Meaning of Sabbath Worship." from Liturgy and Personality. (Steubenville, OH: Hildebrand Project, 2016).

Reprinted with permission of the Hildebrand Project.

The Author

hildebrand2hildebrand1Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977) was a German philosopher known for his seminal works in ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, and philosophy of religion. He was one of Europe’s most outspoken voices against Nazism and Communism. Pope John Paul II greatly admired the work of Hildebrand as did Pope Pius XII and Pope Benedict XVI. He is the author of many books, including Transformation In Christ In Defense of Purity, Marriage: The Mystery of Faithful Love, Liturgy and Personality, My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third ReichThe Nature of LoveHumility: Wellspring of Virtue, and The Dietrich von Hildebrand LifeGuide.

Copyright © 2016 Hildebrand Project