Why Worship Is Not Optional but a Matter of Moral Duty
Modern society often treats religion as a matter of personal preference or private sentiment. Many people speak as though worship were merely a helpful spiritual practice that one may choose or ignore according to taste. Yet Catholic theology teaches something far more profound: Religion is not merely an emotion or cultural identity – it is a virtue. More specifically, it is a part of the cardinal virtue of justice.
The virtue of religion concerns man’s duty to render to God the worship, honor, and reverence that are due to Him as Creator and Lord.
Religion as Part of Justice
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that justice is the virtue by which we give to each what is due. Since God is the source of all being, life, grace, and salvation, man owes Him worship and obedience above all else. For this reason, St. Thomas teaches: “Religion is a virtue whereby a man offers something to the service and worship of God.” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 81, a. 1)
The virtue of religion is therefore not optional. It belongs to the natural law itself. Man is created to know, love, and serve God, and religion is the virtue that orders him toward fulfilling that obligation. This is why the First Commandment stands at the head of the Decalogue: “I am the Lord thy God… Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)
Interior and Exterior Worship
The virtue of religion includes both interior and exterior acts.
Interior acts include:
- Adoration
- Interior prayer
- Devotion
- Sacrifice of the heart
Exterior acts include:
- Vocal prayer
- Genuflection
- Participation at Holy Mass
- Sacrifices and offerings
- Public worship
Note: Most of the items listed here, such as public worship and sacrifice, regularly involve both exterior and interior acts, both of which should be consistent with one another.
Modern errors often attempt to separate these, claiming that external worship is unnecessary so long as one “believes internally.” Catholic theology rejects this false division. Man is composed of both body and soul. Therefore, the worship he renders to God must involve both. As St. Thomas explains, exterior acts of religion are ordered toward interior devotion and help strengthen it.
This is why Catholic worship has always involved sacred ceremonies, kneeling, fasting, processions, incense, sacred music, and ritual gestures. These outward acts are not empty formalities but expressions of the virtue of religion.
Sacrifice: The Highest Act of Religion
The highest act of the virtue of religion is sacrifice.
Under the Old Covenant, sacrifice was offered through animals, grain, wine, and incense. These sacrifices pointed forward to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. In the New Covenant, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the supreme act of religion because it makes present sacramentally the sacrifice of Calvary.
This is why attendance at Mass is not merely devotional advice but a serious obligation. To worship God publicly through the sacrifice instituted by Christ is a duty of justice. As Pope Pius XII taught in Mediator Dei: “The chief element of divine worship must be interior. But the external profession of religion is also necessary.”
Religion and Reverence
The virtue of religion also governs reverence toward sacred persons, places, and things. This includes:
- Reverence in church
- Respect for the Blessed Sacrament
- Honor shown to sacred images and relics
- Care for liturgical rites
- Respectful speech concerning holy things
Irreverence is therefore not merely bad manners – it can become sinful because it violates justice toward God. This explains why sacrilege is treated so seriously in Catholic theology. To profane what belongs especially to God is a direct offense against the virtue of religion.
Moreover, Pius XII taught that a primary way by which we love God and love the Church is by cherishing those external acts of religion which Christ has provided for us through His Mystical Body. In Mystici Corporis (1943) he wrote:
“But lest we be deceived by the angel of darkness who transforms himself into an angel of light, let this be the supreme law of our love: to love the Spouse of Christ as Christ willed her to be, and as He purchased her with His blood. Hence, not only should we cherish exceedingly the Sacraments with which holy Mother Church sustains our life, the solemn ceremonies which she celebrates for our solace and our joy, the sacred chant and the liturgical rites by which she lifts our minds up to Heaven, but also the sacramentals and all those exercises of piety by which she consoles the hearts of the faithful and sweetly imbues them with the Spirit of Christ.” (#92)
The Pope’s counsel has not been heeded. Even Catholic leaders did not cherish the solemn ceremonies and rites of the Church, which is the only way to explain why they were abandoned and changed after the Second Vatican Council. Today many Catholics hold what Pius XII spoke of (the external rites, sacramentals, and exercises of piety) in disdain. Yet as Pius XII indicates, those who fall into this error have been deceived by the angel of darkness masquerading as an agent of good.
Sins Against the Virtue of Religion
Many sins oppose the virtue of religion. Among them are:[1]
- Idolatry
- Superstition
- Sacrilege
- Simony
- Blasphemy
- Neglect of divine worship
- Religious indifferentism
Ultimately, atheism especially opposes the virtue of religion because it denies God the worship due to Him and refuses to acknowledge that He even exists! So many today believe in evolution, thinking that God did not create man or the universe but rather men evolved from apes and the cosmos from the “big bang.” Holding such errors is a grave violation of the virtue of religion. Likewise, religious indifferentism – the idea that all religions are equally pleasing to God – undermines the duty to worship Him according to the truth He has revealed.
Many of the “errors of Russia” are in direct opposition to the virtue of religion. And indeed, as Our Lady prophesied, they have been spread over the entire face of the earth. (For more on these errors of Russia, we invite you to read The Fatima Crusader, Issue 133, Fall 2024)
Click here to read Crusader Issue #133
The Modern Loss of the Sense of Worship
One of the great tragedies of modern society is the loss of the sense of worship.
Many approach religion primarily in terms of personal fulfillment rather than divine obligation. Churches are often treated casually, sacred liturgy becomes entertainment, and reverence diminishes. Yet the saints consistently understood religion as fundamentally directed toward God’s glory rather than human comfort.
Dom Prosper Guéranger wrote that the liturgy is first and foremost “the public worship which our Redeemer, the Head of the Church, renders to the Father.” This orientation is essential. Religion is not centered on man – it is centered on God.
The Virtue of Religion in Daily Life
The virtue of religion extends beyond Sunday Mass. It should permeate all of life. Catholics practice this virtue through:
- Daily prayer
- Grace before and after meals
- Observing Sundays and Holy Days
- Fasting and abstinence
- Use of sacramentals
- Acts of thanksgiving
- Fidelity to one’s state in life
And in these particular times:
- Acknowledging that the Message of Fatima is not just a “private revelation”, but a public, prophetic revelation.
Even ordinary work can become an act of religion when offered to God. The saints frequently emphasized making one’s entire life an offering to the Lord. Such a disposition is central to living the Message of Fatima. In fact, Our Lord told Sister Lucia that the penance He now expects from all of us is the keeping of God’s laws and the fulfillment of our daily duty.
Religion and the Social Order
Traditional Catholic teaching also recognizes that religion has a social dimension.
Since societies are composed of men who owe worship to God, civil society itself has duties toward the true religion. Historically, Catholic civilization acknowledged this through public Feast Days, church patronage, processions, and laws respecting divine worship.
The modern attempt to exclude religion entirely from public life reflects not neutrality, but a rejection of the virtue of religion itself. (If interested in learning about the state’s obligation towards God and the virtue of religion, we encourage you to read Pope Leo XIII’s Immortale Dei (1885) or watch a presentation on this crucial encyclical by Mr. David Rodríguez.)
Conclusion: Rendering to God His Due
The virtue of religion reminds us that worship is not optional sentimentality but an act of justice.
God created us. Christ redeemed us. The Holy Ghost sanctifies us. Therefore, we owe God adoration, obedience, thanksgiving, and sacrifice. In Heaven, the saints and angels ceaselessly worship God before His throne. The more the virtue of religion grows within us now, the more our lives begin to resemble that eternal worship.
For religion is not merely one virtue among many – it is the proper ordering of man toward his Creator. And in rendering to God what is His due, man finally begins to become what he was created to be.
[1] For more information, see The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World, published by Our Lady of Victory Press (https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-roman-catechism-explained-for.html).