Liturgy and Philanthropy Today

Abstract

The Liturgy is the holy and the sanctifying divine service in which the most merciful love of God for men or the divine Philanthropy is celebrated in the most intense way. The true Liturgy takes place in heaven and in this sense there is only one Liturgy, that of the perfect love of the Holy Trinity in which all creatures are called to participate. Human beings connected through the body to this world can do so through the cultic ritual, which is in essence, a diastole, an exit of God’s love to the world, in order to attract through the systole of his love all creatures to the life of communion. The Eucharistic Liturgy is this universal dynamism that draws the whole cosmos to union with God. It unites man with God and men among themselves, thus discovering the eschatological meaning of human existence. The participation of the human beings to this love of the Holy Trinity through the Holy Liturgy and all the mysteries of the Church bears fruit in philanthropy, in good deeds, in social involvement and in general in what tradition defines as “life in Christ”. The philanthropy of the Church today must be guided by the principles affirmed by the Holy Scripture and by the patristic Tradition, seeking through information, through communication, through adaptation solutions to the new problems of contemporary society.