There are two levels of worship, first is the ordinary which pertains to the worldly activities wherein people believe in god in a shallow manner. They will just consider on the earthly demonstrations of life or the worse they will believe in many gods hoping that they can get more blessings than those who only believe in one god. This practice might lead them to becoming a polytheist. The second level of worship is hierophany, meaning those we thought that belongs to the earth, is not really in the earth. Because of this paradox, people will be captivated and mystified by the real identity of the Other. Then this will be the reason why they will stick on the belief of having one God.
According to Mercia Eliade, hierophanies are symbolic manifestation of the sacred reality. This can be a place, space, object or person which was sanctified by the religious men. People tend to believe in a god because they have this feeling that they’re not the only ones living in this world, that there is this Other who’s watching over them in their everyday living. There is this something made the primitive people believed in hierophanies back then. The mysterious image of the Other made them believe on this hierophanies. One the other hand, people cannot easily articulate who is that they call Sacred because if they do that philosophizing will come into it end. That is why in subjects like Philosophy of Religion, giving a specific identity of the sacred should not be done because what’s the point of continuing when we already know who is the Other.
As what was said above hierophanies were sanctified meaning it became into something superior to the ordinary. The thing that belongs to the profane world remains as it is but by the time that it will be considered as a hierophany meaning it was sanctified; it will now turn into something else. This will now become a manifestation of the sacred. This process is called transubstantiation. People worship the thing because it is a hierophany not just an ordinary profane object. The object belongs to the world but it is not in the world.
The best example would be the statue of the saints in the Catholic faith wherein there were many devoted believers. On its properties, elements and physical aspect, it’s just an ordinary piece of wood just like any other wood, carved and turned into a life-sized statue. But then by the time that it will be sanctified there will be a change on how the way people will feel about that piece of wood. This is because the sacred is now present in the said statue.
Galvanized Faith 