If Christ and His Apostles were Visible to us in the Divine Service…

What would we do if Christ were visible, standing before us at the altar? Would we dare walk by Him without acknowledging His presence? How would we treat His Apostles, His chosen servants, if we saw them standing there at His visible and incarnate side? How would we dress to enter His presence? How would we speak to Him?

But He isn’t visible there, and we neglect to ask ourselves these questions.

But just because He isn’t visible doesn’t mean He isn’t there. Christ is present at the altar, and His ministers and people serve at His incarnate side. It is fitting, then, to make the sign of the Holy Cross in remembrance of our baptism when we enter, and again when we are absolved. It is fitting to bow when we come before the altar, the place where He gives us His own Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament. It is fitting to kneel when we recall the fact that He took on our flesh so that we might have life in Him. We do not do this to call attention to ourselves, we do this because we know that we are in the presence of our incarnate Lord.

This is an excerpt from a marvelous bit of writing by Rev. Deacon David Muehlenbruch, the totality of which can be found here. He really does bring up an excellent point about ceremony. We say we believe that Christ is present with us and among us, but do we act like it? We conduct the liturgy as if everyone were present except Him. Ah, the limitations of our eyes and how wonderful it will be to behold what the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven see with their own eyes.