The Sacred Liturgy and the Ecstatic Orientation of Man

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, a climactic verse of chapter 13 exhorts us: “By Him [our Lord Jesus Christ], therefore, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips confessing to His Name” (Heb 13:15). This exhortation rings out all the more loudly, summoning us to a certain way of life: one in which we offer unto God, continually, the “sacrifice of praise.” Why does the author sum up the Christian religion as a “sacrificium laudis”? What might we learn from the emphasis on praise? Of all forms of prayer, praise is the one most “for its own sake.” It looks to the greatness, glory, beauty, and worthiness of the one praised and seeks to render to him a selfless homage. This is the fundamental reason why we face eastwards when offering the Holy Sacrifice: it is offered to the Father, our origin, above and beyond ourselves; also to Christ, for whom we long, who is our East, our Sun, our Light.