WORSHIP TO BE TRANSLATED INTO SERVICE

 

WORSHIP TO BE TRANSLATED INTO SERVICE

Dr M. D. Thomas

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The word ‘worship’ would mean ‘praying to and showing respect for God or a god’. In other words, ‘worship’ is ‘reverence offered to a divine being or supernatural power’. It also means ‘loving or admiring somebody or something, very much’. It includes ‘an act of expressing such reverence’, too.

As a system, ‘worship is a form of rigorous religious practice with its creed and ritual’. Further, it is an ‘extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to a person or an object of esteem’ applied into a system. The Hindi equivalents to worship are ‘poojaa, aaraadhnaa, archnaa, upaasna, ibaadat’, and the like.

‘Service’, in the official sense, is a ‘system or organization that provides the public with something that it needs’. It is also ‘the job that an organization does’, like bus service or postal service. In the personal sense, ‘service is an act of help or supportive activity’. It means ‘doing a service to someone’ or ‘doing good to someone, even out of the way’.

‘Service’ in the humanitarian sense, implies ‘human service’ or ‘service of the humans’. Service in the qualitative sense is ‘free of cost’, i.e., ‘without expecting anything in return’, well, ‘nishkaam karm’. It is pure humanitarian service.

Now, applying worship and service to Christian teaching, Jesus never exhorted his disciples to worship him or God. He was against the hypocritical, wasteful and fruitless system of worship of the religious leaders of the time. He never spared them for their self-centred, money-minded and power-mongering religious paraphernalia of the criminal order.

Yes, Jesus never asked his disciples to worship him. Instead, he told his disciples “follow me”, nothing more, nothing less. That would mean, ‘following his style of life, doing good to everyone, imbibing his personal qualities, living his ethical values and living the human, spiritual and divine values he lived for’, all in one shot.

Most of the values of Jesus transcended all human boundaries. As per the genuinely Christian perspective, living these values is worship of the utmost character. Again, Jesus never asked his disciples to worship God either. He presented to his disciples God as a ‘loving Father’. Father included motherly qualities, as well. Children are supposed to love their father and mother, and not worship.  

He said further, “My Father in heaven does not discriminate between the good and the bad or the righteous and the unrighteous, but sends sunshine and rains to everyone”. Therefore, he said, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Accordingly, not discriminating between persons, recognizing equal dignity in all persons and extending brotherly-sisterly relations to one and all would define what perfection is all about. This is worship of the greatest kind. The Father is happy when the children care for each other, and not otherwise.

Further, Jesus gave his disciples a golden rule to live by, “do to the other what you would have him or her do to you”. Treat the other as you like to be treated. He went on, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Yet again, “If your Master and Lord has washed your feet, you should also wash the feet of one another”.

Furthermore, he gave the golden rule a divine altitude, “Whatever you have done to the other, even the least, you have done to me”. Well, what is done to human beings is what is done to God, as well. The way towards God for the humans is through their fellow human beings, and not otherwise.

What’s more, Jesus told his disciples to forgive the failings of others. In this respect, his own model of forgiveness on the cross was so towering and telling, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing”. Finally, he surrendered his life saying, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”.

Living these sublime models and commandments of Jesus are the perfect blend of ‘worship and service’ for his disciples. I am sure, this blended model of worship and service makes sense to all human beings, in some way or other, realistically so.

Taking the discussion to a larger plane, God is widely understood and accepted in diverse traditions as ‘life, love, light, truth, spirit, way’, and the like. These humanely qualitative and eternal adjectives, definitely, are not to be worshipped, but to be lived in the details of the day-to-day lives. They are energizing constituents of life. They are the rungs of the ladder of human-divine ‘saadhna’ of life.   

Living these qualities of life, for oneself and for others, is ‘worship and service’, in a combined form, worthy of the utmost merit, of course, for one and all. I believe, gods and goddesses or prophets and founders as well as great men and women of all religious traditions are not to be worshipped, not at all. They have to be ‘lived’, in terms of their values, positively so.

Re-living the human and spiritual values lived and taught by them is worship of the supreme order. Translating these values into one’s life, by way of benefiting others, in all possible ways, is service of the top quality, too. Therefore, ‘worship of God’ has to be realistic and beneficial to oneself and to others, by way of service.

God does not require or want the Himalayan heap of human praises and acclamations. The humans require dignity, love, care, help, forgiveness, service and the like, to have their being on earth meaningfully. Serving one and all, or ‘service of the humans’, is ‘worship of the divine’, in one shot. Drawing ‘inspiration and strength’ from the divine power for caring for the humans and the entire creation, especially the least, in other words, living God in full, is the perfect blend of ‘worship and service’.

Having faith in the creative power helps the humans remain humble and within the limits. It is the source of motivation for the humans to reach out to human beings and the entire creation in their needs, in the spirit of fraternal service. This is the family culture of life the humans are called upon to live on earth. Whatever is done to the human brothers and sisters is what is done to the divine Father, as well.  

Human life has two directions, vertical and horizontal. The vertical direction is the divine orientation, whereas the horizontal is the human extension. Both directions pursue the divine, in the height and breadth dimensions. The humans and the creation bear the image of the Creator. The spirit of God is present in all directions, too. Therefore, altitudes and magnitudes, in a combined form, are ways of accomplishing the divine. Without doubt, worship and service are not poles apart. They form one reality, well, as two sides of the same coin. Worship has to be translated into service, for a human life that is being worth lived.

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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Published in ‘The Secular Citizen’ (Weekly Magazine), Mumbai, Vol. 31, Issue No.04, p.06-07 – on 24-30 January 2022