Pope Benedict XVI: “it is a way of learning to accept the other in his otherness”

 

“The true liturgical action is the deed of God, and for that very reason the liturgy of faith always reaches beyond the cultic act into everyday life, which must itself become “liturgical”, a service for the transformation of the world. Much more is required of the body than carrying objects around and other such activities. A demand is made on the body in all its involvement in the circumstances of everyday life. The body is required to become “capable of resurrection”, to orient itself toward the resurrection, toward the Kingdomof God, in a word: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Where God’s will is done, there is heaven, there earth becomes heaven. Surrendering ourselves to the action of God, so that we in our turn may cooperate with him — that is what begins in the liturgy and is meant to unfold further beyond it. Incarnation must always lead through Cross (the transforming of our will in a communion of will with God) to Resurrection — to that rule of love which is the Kingdomof God. The body must be trained, so to speak, for the resurrection. Let us remember incidentally that the unfashionable word askesis can be simply translated into English as “training”. Nowadays we train with enthusiam, perseverance, and great renunciation for many different purposes — why do we not train ourselves for God and his Kingdom? “I train my body”, saysSt Paul, “and subdue it” (1 Cor 9:27). He also uses the discipline of athletes as an image for training in one’s own life. This training is an essential part of everyday life, but it has to find its inner support in the liturgy, in the liturgy’s “orientation” toward the risen Christ. Let me say once again: it is a way of learning to accept the other in his otherness, a training for love, a training to help us accept the Wholly Other, God, to be shaped and used by him.”

-  Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in The Spirit of the Liturgy, 1999