The new liturgy

Thomas Merton was a man with an unequalled ability to express his Christian faith without ever closing himself into any sort of fundamentalism. He was a Catholic monk of the very strict Trappist order, and yet in his writings and personal exchanges he interacted with all major religious traditions, including Eastern Orthodox, Judaism, Islam, Zen Buddhism, Daoism, and more. He had a special interest in the Asian philosophies and religious traditions and one of his best books is The Way of Chuang Tzu. It was his own personal favorite among his books. Here is the story of the Three Friends in The Way of Chuang Tzu as retold by Thomas Merton.

There were three friends 
Discussing life. 
One said: “Can men live together 
And know nothing of it? 
Work together 
And produce nothing? 
Can they fly around in space 
And forget to exist 
World without end?” 
The three friends looked at each other 
And burst out laughing. 
They had no explanation. 
Thus they were better friends than before.

Then one friend died. 
Confucius 
Sent a disciple to help the other two 
Chant his obsequies. 

The disciple found that one friend 
Had composed a song. 
While the other played a lute, 
They sang:

“Hey, Sung Hu! 
Where’d you go? 
Where’d you go? 
You have gone 
Where you really were. 
And we are here— 
Damn it! We are here!”

Then the disciple of Confucius burst in on them and 
Exclaimed: “May I inquire where you found this in the 
Rubrics for obsequies, 
This frivolous carolling in the presence of the departed?” 

The two friends looked at each other and laughed: 
“Poor fellow,” they said, “he doesn’t know the new liturgy.

New liturgy? Yes, it’s happening all around us. Liturgy, λειτουργία, is a bigger word than the Divine Liturgy we do here this morning. The world is re-writing the liturgy of life and how things work. Consider what happened to the Mississippi state flag just last week! The liturgy of race relations is being re-written right in front of us. And it’s about time. And do we need to talk about the liturgy of daily life, work and shopping that is being rewritten by the Coronavirus?

The centurion in today’s Gospel reading re-wrote the liturgy of how he related to others. And Jesus helped him do it. Jesus re-wrote the liturgy of religious boundaries when he said: I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The centurion’s faith and humility opened Jesus’ eyes to the openness that can exist in human beings, when we overcome our narrow views  of the world. 

Make no mistake about it, how one behaved in Palestine 2,000 years ago toward a Roman commander had its own liturgy, its own ritual. Here, the centurion is overturning the established liturgy and adopting, creating, a new one. Humility is only one part of the story today. It is a new order that the centurion represents. That is why Jesus says the extraordinary thing, that he never found such faith even among God’s people in Israel. I wonder what would he say about God’s people today, about our faith?

Faith is not only about following established rituals and orders. Fatih also has to do with moving forward and having the courage to change the orders of the world – and the orders of the church. 

What does Paul tell us today from Galatians?  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law… Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another… Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

The law of Christ – not the law of human traditions! Judging anyone’s faith as weak is simply wrong – especially when it’s about human traditions. What would St. Paul say about today’s controversy about Communion? What would Jesus Christ say about it? Is it weak faith to believe what science and medicine are saying? Is it weak to be concerned about one’s own health and how one’s health might impact one’s family and everyone one comes into contact with? Is it weak to believe in facts and scientific evidence, instead of fake news? And believe me, there’s a lot of fake news circulating in the churches right now. Is it weak to accept change and progress? Jesus might say that it is those who are stuck in one way, and one way only, who have weak faith. But that’s not a game I wish to play. Just as I don’t want to be labeled, I don’t want to label anyone else – especially anyone else’s faith!

When I judge or label someone else according to my usual understanding of things I am closing myself to the miracle of the new liturgy. The miracle that the centurion experienced. The new liturgy the two ancient friends of Sung Hu celebrated. Because the miracle is happening. The new liturgy is happening. But we choose whether we see it. The coronavirus is the new narrative in our lives. And it is creating a new Liturgy of love, patience, kindness, self-control and the other fruits of the spirit that Paul celebrates. 

The new liturgy I’m talking about is not a rewriting of the Liturgy that we celebrate here – though it needs some rewriting of its own, to make it less exclusively male in its language. No, the liturgy I’m talking about is not the Orthodox Liturgy. The liturgy I’m talking about is the liturgy of relations, the liturgy of our lives in harmony with God’s creation and with each other. Isn’t that what happened in the encounter between the centurion and Jesus? Isn’t that what happened in every encounter with Jesus in the Gospels? Jesus saw the centurion the way no one else did. It is the same with us. While we label each other so easily, so blindly, Jesus looks at us, at each of us, like no one else looks at us. He sees in us what no one else sees in us. That is the new liturgy. And the Coronavirus pandemic is helping to open our eyes and hearts and minds to the new liturgy of life. Can’t we have both the Liturgy and the new liturgy?

Tags: Centurion Chuang Tzu Coronavirus Fourth Sunday of Matthew Thomas Merton