Adoration is like photosynthesis. Just as a green plant extends its leaves towards the sun to draw strength for life, growth, and fertility, so too does a person in adoration extend their soul towards God to be alive with faith, grow in hope, and bear fruit with love. Cyril Jaroslav Brázda OFM, 09.08.2018 “If you want to grow in love, return to the Eucharist, return to adoration,” said Mother Teresa.
Illustration: www.istockphoto.com. Photosynthesis requires a green plant and sunlight. Similarly, two are needed for adoration: a person and God. Just as the sun is to a green plant in photosynthesis, so is God to a person in adoration. Just as a plant benefits more from photosynthesis than the sun, so it is with adoration; adoration is more a gift from God to man than a gift from man to God. What is adoration? The answer to this question can be found by delving into the “anatomy” of this word. It is derived from the Latin: ‘ad-oró’, meaning to address someone, and in two senses: namely, to ask for something (i.e., to beg someone for something) and to show respect (i.e., to pay homage to someone; to bow down to them). In pagan Roman society, where Latin was a living language, it referred to gods; in Christian culture, it refers only to Christ, the Lord and God (cf. John 20:28). The Latin word corresponds to the Greek “proskynésis”, which, like the Latin word, contains the dimension of subordination and recognition of the superiority of the person addressed, in our case Christ, the Lord and God (cf. Jn 20:28). In his homily at the Mass for the World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI offered a fascinating insight into the meaning of this word, namely that adoration involves paying homage with a kiss, and thus ultimately expresses love; submission therefore becomes unity, a community, because the one to whom we submit is Love (cf. 1 John 4:8). This “anatomy” of the word, or rather “etymology”, reveals the essential characteristics of the word “adoration”. It is an address to the Lord and God, whom we consider to be supremely greater, and we pay him homage in love and with love because we owe him something or ask him for something. In both cases, it is something that we are not capable of doing with our own human power, and which we have received or expect as a gift and grace. Ultimately, I would say that adoration is justice towards God —a significant value achieved simply by adoring, regardless of the ‘effect’.
This value takes on the characteristics of reconciliation or atonement, especially in a secular social environment, where God is mistreated by being ignored as Love. Adoration, from an external perspective, requires three things. Even in interpersonal relationships, when we ask someone for something or want to show them respect, we set aside other activities and focus on the person we are addressing; even better is when we withdraw with them for a while and remain in intimate communion. I think this is particularly important when the person we are addressing is the Lord and God. These conditions of adoration are found abundantly in the Old and New Testaments. For example, Moses ascends Mount Sinai and enjoys intimate communion with God, receiving the Ten Commandments (Ex 24:12-18). Similarly, Elijah ascends Mount Horeb and gets a new mission (1 Kgs 19:8-16). Finally, Jesus himself ascended a mountain to pray and spent the whole night in prayer with God the Father before choosing the Twelve Apostles (Lk 6:12-13).
Of the internal conditions, I see two as important. Firstly, ‘minority’, meaning an inner awareness, a conviction that we need ‘the greater’ to be complete. Because those who live with the delusional belief that they are self-sufficient (even in spiritual matters) and that they are solely responsible for everything they have and everything they are, are not capable of adoration. The second is patience. In adoration, we address the ‘greater’ Lord and God, and he does not have to respond immediately or in the way we would expect or desire. This ‘greater’ may also remain silent, hidden, and the desired ‘effect’ may not be achieved; adoration thus becomes arduous. However, the value of adoration is not lost; quite the contrary, it can be great. It activates the search, the desire, as expressed in the Song of Solomon, in which the bride searches for her bridegroom with pain. Her longing kindles love and the joy of finding surpasses the pain of searching. The bride in the Song of Songs is an image of the adoring human soul. God reveals himself to the soul that seeks him in his mercy at the right time; he may also reveal himself unnoticed. We may only realize this when we notice that something in our faith is clearer, or that our hope is steadier, or that our love is bolder and more generous. ‘Impatience’ is therefore incapable of adoration because it is not a minority. If we were addressing an equal or subordinate, we would certainly expect an immediate response, but the Lord and God are neither equal nor subordinate to us. Therefore, those who abandon adoration because they do not achieve the desired ‘effect’, which is ultimately just a human expectation and mostly emotional, are making a mistake. However, the Lord and God want to give us more; if we abandon adoration, we lose that ‘more’. Adoration culminates in the mystery of the Eucharist. Perhaps we ask ourselves, what is the most perfect and highest form of adoration?
The highest adoration or Thanksgiving to God the Father is offered by Christ himself, as Head, in inseparable unity with his mystical body, the Church, in the Eucharistic sacrifice. He is also the most humble prayer that he offers to the Father. I think the words of the holy bishop and martyr John Fisher will help us to understand this: ‘Jesus Christ is our high priest … first he offered a sacrifice on earth when he endured a cruel death. Then, clothed in the new garb of immortality, he entered the Holy of Holies, that is, heaven, and there he brought this blood of inestimable value before the throne of the heavenly Father … and this sacrifice is so pleasing to God that as soon as he saw it, he could do nothing but immediately have mercy on us and deal kindly with all who truly repent … (and this sacrifice is offered) every day for our comfort, in every hour and in every moment, so that we may have great strength … and all who truly repent and firmly decide not to repeat their sins, but to persevere in their efforts to be virtuous, participate in this holy and eternal sacrifice. The Church is not something ‘outside’ us; we are it, each of us who has been baptized; we can therefore participate in the mystery of the celebration of the Eucharist every day.
Pope Benedict XVI writes about this in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritas: ‘The Eucharist draws us into the act of Christ’s sacrifice … the substantial change of bread and wine into his body and blood instills in creation a principle of radical change, as if a kind of atom splitting were to be introduced into the deepest intimacy of being, a change intended to initiate a process of transformation of reality, whose ultimate goal will be the transformation of the whole world, until it reaches a state in which God will be all in all.’
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