You’re [Probably] Living Liturgically

Humans fall naturally into ritual. Morning coffee. Weekly happy hour. “Self-care days.” Christmas. New Year’s. We are created in and bound by time. Societies all have ways of measuring time. We have significant days and seasons — birthdays, holidays — and we track our years by various calendars. The academic plots his life in semesters and terms. The farmer lives by the planting and harvesting cycles.

Our rituals express our priorities

How we mark time reflects our priorities. In a broad way, the patterns of our days form a liturgy that expresses how we live our values. Western civilization has measured the years by “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (Year of our Lord), in conviction that Christ’s Incarnation is the most important historical event. When the French revolutionaries began measuring years from the year of the Revolution, they were implying that the political shift was a new beginning and something should guide time. Our lives are an expression of what we prioritize, whether we articulate our values or not.

Christ’s Lordship over time

The events we remember and celebrate and the rituals that move us through daily life are our “liturgy” and it’s worth considering what values our time is oriented around. This is why a Christian liturgy and a Church calendar are important. For Christians, liturgy expresses that Christ is the Lord and redeemer of time. It all comes back to the Incarnation. Christ came to renew our bodies as well as our souls — He cares about what takes up material space in the world. And Christ also redeems the time that our bodies move through. This transforms time from the Ecclesiastes-esque droning of the impersonal clock and from the cyclical wreckage of Ragnarok.

If we identify as Christians, but only the only planned time we devote to our faith is an hour or two on Sunday, what really defines our lives? By adapting ourselves to a distinctly Christian way of measuring time, we remind the world of its redemption. As T.S Eliot wrote, “Only through time can time be conquered.” Humans are created in time, but with “eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Do our rituals point us towards eternity? Or towards something else?

Liturgy guides our lives

Christians who criticize liturgy as too restrictive, rote, or insincere probably don’t live without ritual and habit. Formal liturgical worship is an intentional structuring of how Christians move through time. If you’re married, spending time with your spouse isn’t completely spontaneous. Habits have to be formed and habits keep communication on track even if you don’t “feel” like spending time together. Plans don’t kill a relationship — they keep it alive when you don’t have the energy or feeling to be spontaneous.

Of course, a relationship (with another person, or with God) that’s merely habitual is shallow — but so is a relationship of only spontaneous feelings. Habit gives us a structure in which to be creative and a discipline to keep us focused on what’s important. The sun sets every evening, but each sunset is different. Birthdays and anniversaries are reminders to set aside time to celebrate people. Holy days and feast days are reminders to take a break from the humdrum and celebrate God’s providence in history.

Liturgy creates culture and community

A Church calendar with days of obligation and feasts affirms that spiritually significant events aren’t just individual — they’re communal. Shared celebration is a part of shared culture. National holidays like Independence Day are an expression of a national culture and its values. If the Church believes that Christ redeemed time, and if Christians seek to influence culture, then we should structure our time in a way that points to God’s redemptive work in history and in our lives.

My point isn’t to delve deep into a particular style of worship, but to raise the challenge that how we view and live in relation to time is a crucial expression of our values. Do we approach time individualistically or in community? Do we live by a secular calendar or a Christian one?