 |
| 40 Hours of Adoration at the Brompton Oratory |
To [God], we owe the service which in Greek is called λατρεία, whether this be expressed through certain sacraments or performed within our own selves...
We are taught to love this good with all our hearts, with all our mind and with all our strength. We ought to be led to this good by those who love us, and we ought to lead those whom we love to it. Thus are fulfilled those two commandments upon which hang all the Law and the prophets: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy hear and with all thy mind and with all thy soul;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Matt. 22:37 ff. For in order that man may know what it is to love himself, an end has been appointed for him to which he is to refer all that he does, so that he may be blessed; for he who loves himself desires nothing else than to be blessed. And this end is attained by drawing near to God. And so, when one who already knows what it is to love himself is commanded to love his neighbor as himself, what else is being commanded than that he should do all that he can to encourage his neighbor to love God? This is the worship of God; this is true religion; this is right piety; this is the service which is due to God alone.
If any immortal power, then, no matter how great the virtue with which it is endowed, loves us as itself (e.g. the Angels and the Saints in heaven), it must desire that we find our blessedness by submitting ourselves to Him, in submission to Whom it finds its own blessedness. If such a power does not worship God, it is miserable because deprived of God. If, however, it does worship God, it does not desire to be worshiped in place of God. Rather, it confirms and sustains with all the strength of its love that divine decree in which it is written: "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed." Exod. 22:20.
The City of God, Saint Augustine, Book X, Chapter 3, edited by R.W. Dyson, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 394-396.
P.S. In heaven there is no divided allegiance! All worship the Lord and the Lord alone. That is the Catholic faith.