When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Repetition is not mala in se, but it can be, as Jesus points out.
In fact, repetition is inescapable.
So, the question then is not between vain repetition and sincere novelty, it is between vain repetition and sincere repetition. Something will be repeated. Liturgy is inescapable. The point Jesus is making is not that we must avoid repeating things, but we must avoid vainly repeating things and that we also must avoid repeating vain things. In other words, do not mindlessly adhere to orthodoxy and be careful to avoid being indoctrinated in heresy. Because repetition is given, you will either be repeating God's commands from the heart or you will be repeating them heartlessly or you will be repeating the world's pattern from the heart or by default.
Faith has never been an accident. It requires intention and sincerity. Liturgy does not have to be hurdle to sincerity. It can be, but it isn't inevitable. In fact, sincere belief is the result of liturgy. Without repetition, you are left to novelty which is not, by definition, orthodox.
"Liturgies train our loves by aiming them toward a certain telos." — James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
No one falls in love. Affection is not the end result of inattention. You do not "fall for" anything you haven't been preparing to embrace. You don't spend your entire life feeding an affection for virtue and then fall head over heels for vice. You do not mull over an affinity for sports cars and then fall in love with a minivan. You don't love by accident. You can fall in lust, but not in love.
How we organize our days and how we regularize our delights determines our affections. It trains our hearts in a particular direction. You do not backslide into affection. You fall, in that sense, for what you have been hoping to trip into.
"The reason culture trains our heart is that, in a sense, it is a type of liturgy." — Raymond Simmons, The Confessional County
Culture is a kind of repetition. It is a smell that always accompanies a moment, a flavor that pairs with a routine. Culture is a liturgy of livelihood. It trains our affections in a certain direction. It provides the grammar of delight and the logic of loveliness. It provides the scripts and sets the expectations.
"You can't not love." — James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
Love is inescapable. Liturgy is inescapable. Repetition is inescapable, .Culture is inescapable. You will love something. You will organize your days around something. Your will train your affections towards something. You will do something over and over.
"Christian culture is putting God's ethics into public action." — Raymond Simmons, The Confessional County
Christendom is Christ's commands incarnate. It is not merely private sentiment. Jesus is not only the Lord of the few inches between your ears, He is Lord and Savior of every inch inside of you and the world around you in which you live, move, and have your being.
Christendom is Christian civilization organized around a Christian calendar, fueled by a Christian culture, and built on a Christian foundation.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment