Worship as the Response of a Community

Worship is the action of a people made one body in Christ, the source of its life. Ultimately, then, worship is an act of Christ the High Priest. In the liturgy there is a vertical movement, an out-going of human beings to God. But there is also a horizontal movement. Liturgy is celebrated with others, and the relationships between the members of the worshiping community are of the highest importance. "Private acts of public worship" is a phrase of contradictory terms. The Pauline teaching on the church as "body" emphasizes at once the closeness of the relationship between Christ and the people-they are members, limbs, of the body-and the horizontal relationships between the members of the body (1 Cor. 12:8-31). In other words, perhaps more strongly than before, it is indicated that the priestly people is also a community, the community of Christ, with which he has a vital relationship. He is the source of all its life; it is totally dependent on him as the branches of a tree are o…