In the last issue of this article, I tried to suggest that we come to envision our own lives represented by the bread on the paten and the wine in the chalice since they are food and are symbols of life. This means joining ourselves with Jesus in the ultimate act of worship of God, namely offering our lives back to God in Thanksgiving for the gift of life. This is what Jesus precisely did. He told His disciples that the bread and wine (food) represented His life and that His ultimate act of worship was to offer these food elements (life symbols) back to God in Thanksgiving for the gift of human life. Thus Jesus inaugurated an entirely new form of worship. Instead of taking things that belong to us (e.g., lambs, first fruits) and destroying them so that they belong only to God, thus worshiping Him, by His actions Jesus revealed to us that the real form of worship of God is to offer our lives back to Him in thanksgiving for what He has given to us.

But it is important that we remember that it is not Jesus alone Who is to worship God in this manner. All humans are called to worship God in this manner. We accomplish this by joining ourselves to our repetition of the acts of Jesus. Together with Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we offer the food which represents life, back to God. This is the way that we personalize our worship. We do not worship Jesus! We do not just   repeat Jesus’ act of offering His life to the Father! Rather, we JOIN WITH JESUS in offering our lives to God in Thanksgiving! This attitude, I truly believe, changes our entire worship. We worship God together with and like Jesus did. We know that when we have this intention, Jesus IS with us in this offering.

When we adopt this attitude, the prayers that we offer during the Liturgy take on a whole new significance and meaning. They become our words to God in Thanksgiving. Think of these words:

We offer to You, Yours of Your own, in behalf of all and for all.

I believe that we truly make the Divine Liturgy our personal worship of God when we understand that we, together with Jesus, offer our lives to God. This makes about coming to church and    praying as a community something that is radically different. We quickly understand that we cannot do this in the private of our homes but, must be in community. Jesus could have offered His life back to the Father by Himself. He chose to do it together with His disciples so that He might reveal to humankind true worship of the Father in the Spirit. It also increases our awareness that we are together in worship with others.