MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #121

Jesus saith to her: "Woman, believe me that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know. For salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him." (John 4:21-23)

THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH: In what does this consist? We must first of all understand that both the question of the woman and our Lord's answer refer to the public and common worship of God by sacrifices and ceremonial. Jews and Samaritans alike knew very well that God can be worshiped everywhere, but as regarded His public worship, laid down in the Law, the Jews affirmed that this could only be offered at Jerusalem, while the Samaritans affirmed the same of Mount Garizim. Jesus told the woman that the dispute between the Jews and Samaritans would soon have no meaning, for the time had come when a new worship was to replace the old one. And this new worship was to differ from the old both as to place and kind, for 1. it would be universal, and 2. it would be a worship in spirit and truth. The ancient worship of the Jews was not a worship "in truth" but only "in shadows," i. e. in types and figures of the truth. The truth is to be found only in that Sacrifice ordained by Jesus Christ, even the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the fulfillment of the typical sacrifices. The offering up of the spotless Victim of the New Testament is the highest act of worship possible, and is, indeed, the worship of God in truth. Again, the worship of the Jews was not a worship "in spirit," but "in matter," the sacrifices consisting only in things material which could not cleanse the conscience of the worshiper. In the new worship Jesus says that God will be adored in spirit, i. e. by a truly spiritual sacrifice and victim, the Lamb of God, and that the hearts of men will be cleansed and spiritually united to Him, by faith, hope, charity and contrition, and thus will a worship be offered worthy of Him who receives it. At the same time this new worship will not be limited to one place, but will be spread over the whole face of the earth, and in it will be fulfilled the words which God spoke through Malachias the prophet: "I have no pleasure in you and I will not receive a gift of your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down . . . there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation". All our Lord's discourse on this worship of God in spirit and truth points to the spotless and unbloody Sacrifice of the New Law, in which the typical sacrifices of the Old Law have found their fulfillment. It also contains an exhortation to us to lift up our hearts to God, when we pray, and not to honor God with our lips only (Isa. 29:13).

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)