Saint Worship? The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. It comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which means thecondition of being worthy of honor, respect, or dignity. Toworship in the older, larger sense is to ascribe honor, worth, or excellence to someone, whether a sage, a magistrate, or God. For many centuries, the term worship simply meant showing respect or honor, and an example of this usagesurvives in contemporary English. British subjects referto their magistrates as "YourWorship," although Americans would say "Your Honor." This doesn’t mean that British subjects worship their magistrates as gods (in fact, they may even despise a particular magistrate they are addressing). It means they are giving them the honor appropriate to their office, not the honor appropriate to God. Outside of this example, however, the English term"worship" has been narrowedin scope to indicate only that supreme form of honor, reverence, and respect that is due to God. This change in usage is quite recent. In fact,one can still find books that use "worship" in the older, broader sense. This can leadto a significant degree of confusion, when people who are familiar only with the use of words in their own day and their own circles encounter material written in other times and other places. In Scripture, the term"worship" was similarly broadin meaning, but in the early Christian centuries, theologians began to differentiate between different types of honor in order to make more clear which is due to God and whichis not. As the terminology of Christian theology developed, the Greek term latria came to be used to refer to the honor that is dueto God alone, and the term dulia came to refer to the honor that is due to human beings, especially those who lived and died in God’s friendship—in other words, the saints. Scripture indicatesthat honor is due to these individuals (Matt. 10:41b). A special term was coined to refer to the special honor given to the Virgin Mary, whobore Jesus—God in the flesh—in her womb. This term, hyperdulia (huper [more than]+ dulia = "beyonddulia"), indicates that the honor due to her as Christ’s own Mother is more than the dulia given to other saints. It is greater in degree, but still of the same kind. However, since Mary is a finite creature, the honor she is due is fundamentally differentin kind from the latria owed to the infinite Creator. All of these terms—latria, dulia, hyperdulia—usedto be lumped under the one Englishword "worship." Sometimes when one reads old books discussing the subject of howparticular persons are to be honored, they will qualify the word "worship" by referring to "the worship of latria" or"the worship of dulia." To contemporaries and to those not familiar with the history of these terms, however, this is too confusing. Another attempt to make clear the difference between the honor due to God and that due to humans has beento use the words adore and adoration to describe the total, consuming reverence due to God and the terms venerate, veneration, and honor to refer to the respectdue humans. Thus, Catholics sometimes say, "We adore God but we honor his saints." Unfortunately, many non-Catholics have been so schooled in hostility toward the Church that they appear unable or unwilling to recognize these distinctions. They confidently (often arrogantly) assert that Catholics "worship" Mary andthe saints, and, in so doing, commit idolatry. This is patently false, of course, butthe education in anti-Catholic prejudice is so strong that one must patiently explain that Catholics do not worship anyone but God—at least given the contemporary use of the term. The Church is very strict about the fact that latria, adoration—what contemporary English speakers call "worship"—is to be given only to God.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 05:16:40 +0000
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