11 October 2023
This is the function of the Divine Service in the Christian life: to be
taken out of ourselves and into the life of God. At the core, the problem of
our anxiety is the problem of our constantly drifting away from the center of
our lives, which is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Under the pressures
of daily living we wander and sometimes run to the edges of life, where we
eventually come face-to-face with our own anxiety. This anxiety is a warning
sign that we have drifted far. We begin grasping for a secure place to hang on
that will prevent us from falling over the mind’s edge into the abyss of
despair. […] We tell ourselves all we need to do is try harder or its opposite,
relax more. We try to discover some new technique or lifestyle that will resolve
the tension. The farther we drift from God, the more we are doomed to our own
failing resources. In the end this destroys us both physically and spiritually.
God’s response to our drifting is dealt with in the liturgy of public worship,
and He begins by giving us a password by which to enter into His presence. That
password, given us in the Invocation, is His holy name of “Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.” In the Invocation, in the Benediction, and when we speak or sing
in praise saying, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit,” we call on God to lift us out of ourselves and into His healing
presence. There, our vision of life is broadened and the air becomes fresh once
again. It is there, in the presence of God and lifted out of ourselves by God,
that we find healing for all our anxieties, worries, and fears. And if we are
willing, they can all be left behind so that we may return to our homes in
peace.
Richard C. Eyer, “They Will See His Face”
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