Worship as eschatological event

Divine worship is an eschatological event. Its whole procedure is a sort of echo of the incarnation and a prefiguration of worship in heaven. It is an echo of the incarnation in that it includes, like the ministry of Jesus, what one could call a "Galilean" moment--centered on the sermon--and a "Jerusalemite" moment--centered on the eucharist. These two elements, indispensable in the ordinary worship of the Church, are conditioned by one another. The preaching of the Kingdom could not have been properly understood if Jesus had not sealed it with His blood; but neither could the crucifixion have been understood if Jesus had not prepared it by His prophetic ministry. The same is true of the relation between sermon and communion.

Jean-Jacques von Allmen