I want to write a reflection about what an altar in a church means to me. I'm determined, however, not to stay up late tonight blogging! So I will write this in two parts, saving my reflection and some scripture references for the second part, and for context and background, copy here four paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church about altars.
1181 A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful-this house ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and active in this place.
1182 The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited. In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).
1383 The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?" asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar." The liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God,
that by the hands of your holy Angel
this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven
in the sight of your divine majesty,
so that as we receive in communion at this altar
the most holy Body and Blood of your Son,
we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace.
2570 When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord told him"; Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled. Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
***
Just to reassure you of the scriptural basis, here are the references for the statement that Abraham built altars.
Genesis 12:7-9
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram build an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He build an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name. Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
Genesis 13:18
Abram moved his tents and went on to settle near the terebinth of Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
Here is an interesting aside. Abraham made a peace pact with Abimelech, king of Gerar (these were Philistines). You can read the reasons why they came to respect Abraham's God and to make peace in Genesis 20-21. The place where they made their peace pact was Beer-sheba. Read what Abraham did to mark that place.
Genesis 21:33-4
Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and there he invoked by name the Lord, God the Eternal. Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many years.
A tamarisk is a tree.
This is an example where careful readers can discern information about what is appropriate in the worship of God, and what is not, not only by what is stated, but also observing the role modeling of the Patriarchs and the Prophets. Abraham demonstrated faith to God by building altars and invoking God's name as Abraham traveled and relocated. Abraham also showed that one can commemorate a profound occasion (such as the pact with the Philistines) through a mundane object (such as planting a tree) and the invocation of God's name to bless the event. This is much as we do today, when we build a building, plant a garden, erect a plaque or some other commemorative device, and then bless it with the name of God.
Another comment and then I will wait until writing part two for my commentary about altars. Just to further mutual Christian and Muslim understanding, this is for Christians. The Muslims understand that Abraham created altars and other commemorative locations throughout the region, and one of the early endeavors by the Muslim people was to determine which of those locations still existed in their place and could be identified as such. This is the origin of some of the locations that Muslims consider very holy.
Showing posts with label Sacrifice of the Mass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sacrifice of the Mass. Show all posts
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Understanding faith in God via Catholic topics (1)
The Catholic Church is structured the way it is because it believes that when God intervenes in human life, such as when he reveals his presence; he not only leaves behind the words that are exchanged but also tangible gifts. In other words, God never comes “empty handed,” and he does not expect the faithful in return to live only upon the words of his prophets, or of Jesus Christ.
The tangible generosity of God is abundantly clear throughout the Bible. From the moment of creation to the ministry of Jesus Christ, God provides tangible and real gifts of goodness along with the words of those who proclaim Him. God provided creation itself and material abundance to Adam and Eve. God provided specific direction of how to approach, worship and house his earthly presence to the patriarchs and the priests of the Israelites. God’s prophets performed tangible miracles of healing on God’s behalf. God made gifts of the prophets themselves, living breathing people who carried out his will, rather than only giving continuing words of exhortation to the people. God gave people both religious practices and rituals and secular teaching for following the right paths, such as how to make a verbal contract through witnessing. God provided a place, the Mercy Seat of the Ark, and the Meeting Tent, where people could come to his prophets, notably Moses, with both their religious and their secular problems and receive counsel. These are just the highlights of the clear record that God has of bringing not only his words of instruction, comfort and exhortation, but also tangible structures, both physical and ritual, as gifts that magnify and continue the grace that God has bestowed.
In my recent 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit post about Wisdom, I cite as one example that God appears to King Solomon in a dream, and offers him anything that he asks for. King Solomon asked for wisdom in the form of an “understanding heart,” and God granted him that request. God did not simply instruct King Solomon, leaving only God’s words of advice to recall, but God actually infused King Solomon with the tangible gift of Wisdom, that did not exist previously and that could henceforth be seen most clearly by all who observed King Solomon.
Judaism continues to understand that God has given them tangible gifts in addition to his words. For example, the Sabbath is a continuing gift by God to Jews as the day of their rest, when neither work nor worries should concern them. Compare the difference in a gift where if God had said, “You ought to take time off from work on a regular basis,” and then leave it up to humans and oppressive bosses to obey that or not, versus the gift of a mandated day of rest once a week. The Sabbath is an example of a continuing tangible gift that is real, physical, and measurable and not just the citing of scripture about what one should or should not do.
Likewise Islam contains gifts from God that are beyond the gems of God’s actual words, but are also tangible and measurable. One example is the prohibition of usury. Again, God could have given “good advice” that one should not charge usury, and then leave it up to humans and oppressive money managers to obey that or not. But God gives the Muslims the gift that they will not be oppressed by usury, period.
The early Christian Church which is by definition the Catholic Church likewise looked for and identified the continuing gifts of God that have been given to them. Recognizing that Jesus Christ, Savior, is the gift of God to all of humanity, the Apostles and disciples who were all drawn from their Jewish faith foundations understood very well that it was not only the words of Jesus Christ, or his washing of the stain of original sin, that God gives to them. Exactly as Moses created at God’s behest ritual and physical structures so that God’s gifts can be shared with the faithful, the Apostles and disciples, and after them the early Church fathers, identified what tangible gifts Jesus Christ brought with him to “furnish” the faith.
Consider the Last Supper. Jesus had the Apostles hire a room, one with a table, couches, and all the service needed for dinner. They did not have the Last Supper by standing up in the air, with no physical furnishings, with no shared custom, and instead only the words of Jesus to linger in oral and then book form. Jesus role modeled not only the love of God and God’s teachings, but also how to “furnish” the faithful with the physical and ritual structures that are also the true gifts of God. Thus Jesus did not eliminate the sacrificial altar; he fulfilled it and gave to the disciples the form and the ritual of the furnishings of how future worship of God should take place: the altar in the Catholic Church that at each Mass commemorates the Last Supper.
How often have good Christians today said, “I wish I could have been there when Jesus was alive, and have seen him and spoken with him?” Well, the gift of God is that at every Mass one is there with Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. God always thinks ahead, just like in the gift of the Sabbath, so that future generations are not deprived of his gifts. It’s not like God allowed only Adam and Eve to celebrate the Sabbath and then no one else, or the first generation of Israelites got a day off each week, but next generations do not. God intends that ALL the faithful Christians be able to attend the Lord’s Supper, to be in the physical presence of Jesus Christ, generation after generation. I am astounded by how many Christians, both Catholics and not, fail to understand this gift. When one celebrates the Sacrifice of the Mass, one is invited to be present at the Lord’s Last Supper, in his physical presence, and in the presence of the faithful Apostles and saints. Every time someone misses Mass they are not attending an opportunity to be in the physical presence of Jesus Christ as he celebrates the Last Supper!
Somehow many Christians, as a result of the Reformation, and also the corrupting influences of self congratulatory modernism, view Jesus Christ in only two dimensions: 1) what he taught, and thus what words and role modeling he provided to be “like Jesus” or “following Jesus” and 2) that he provided the pathway for salvation. But there is a third dimension of Jesus Christ, which is that he was a real person who brought real gifts from God by which to furnish the faithful and the Church in their lives throughout the generations.
Thus the sacraments and the structures of the Church, both physical and ritual, are the Church’s discernment of what actions of Christ are demonstrations of continuing, real gifts that God has given to be carried forward. Because Jesus instructed to continue to perform the Last Supper in memory of him, this is exactly what the Church has done. This is why each Catholic Church has a consecrated altar, which is the Last Supper table. That is why each Catholic Church has a tabernacle, which houses the hosts (sacred bread) that is the actual presence of Jesus Christ at each Last Supper. No one “misses out” on having been the good Apostle at the Last Supper because the Last Supper is real and alive, with Jesus Christ present, at every Catholic Mass, regardless how humble the surroundings and regardless how many generations have passed since the first Last Supper.
So sure, Christians who are not Catholics and who “only believe in the scripture” are accepting God’s gift of salvation. But goodness gracious, I do not understand the bitterness regarding the Holy Eucharist by many toward the Catholic Church. Such bitterness and rejection is a profound blindness and missed opportunity. It is like the child who sees only the one gift provided by their father under the Christmas tree, and ignores the other gift by the same father. The child says to the father, “I only need this one gift!” Well, sure, but the father gave the child two gifts; why would the child not want to even open the second gift from the father? That is how it is when those who have an extreme view of Jesus Christ having brought “only” his words and his salvatory power totally miss out on the additional gifts provided by God through Jesus Christ. In a way it is like Jews who do not celebrate the Sabbath. They still believe in God and they still merit the graces of their faith, but it’s like they are saying, “Hey God, I don’t want the day off each week!” This is what it is like when Christians who demean the Holy Eucharist consider the sacrament to be “not essential to their salvation, and actually an ‘addition’ to ‘the faith.’” Huh? I continue to be astonished that people cannot discern the difference between following Jesus and accepting his salvation message and accepting a gift that Jesus himself left for them, wrapped, “under the tree,” and not even unwrapping it to look inside. Jesus left the gift of being with him at the Last Supper, with his physical and living presence, for every generation after him and there is that gift, every day at one’s local Catholic Church.
Preaching, prayer, communal worship and Bible study are joys of the word of God. I will write more about them in future topics. They do not “compete” with the other gifts that God has given through Jesus Christ, which is to be invited to be at his table, in his physical presence, through all generations, available every day and every place on earth where a Church and a priest celebrating the Mass can be found. That is why I never attend non-Catholic worship services, not because they are wrong, but I miss too much not being at the Lord’s Table. Even if I have to listen to the most listless and ineloquent sermon, ha, I would not trade being at even the most prayerful and heartfelt Christian service with the chance to be that day once again in the physical presence of Jesus Christ as we are once again at the Last Supper in the communion of the faithful, as good Apostles taking our place in front of the table.
I hope that you have found this enlightening and helpful. I could write much more on this topic, but I want to keep these topics high level in making their general point. Here my point is to understand that God always gives tangible gifts that can be the joy and benefit of each generation of believers; God does not expect people to live only with the verbal and behavior implications of his words, and ignore the other gifts that he likewise leaves wrapped under the tree. Think about it. For example, every country that has a Catholic Church has, by definition, in their midst, the table set for the Last Supper with the physical presence of Jesus Christ. Even if that country is not Christian they have the benefit of being gracious hosts of the physical presence of Jesus Christ, seated at the Last Supper, in their midst! Those who attend the Sacrifice of the Mass are accepting the continual invitation of God to participate, even two thousand years later, at the actual Last Supper in the physical presence of Jesus Christ. And, unlike Elvis, Jesus never “leaves the building.” Thus the faithful Christians and who are not Catholic, but attend their own places of worship, can rather than criticize, be heart warmed that not only is Jesus present wherever the two or more gather in his name, but he also has the table set nearby.
The tangible generosity of God is abundantly clear throughout the Bible. From the moment of creation to the ministry of Jesus Christ, God provides tangible and real gifts of goodness along with the words of those who proclaim Him. God provided creation itself and material abundance to Adam and Eve. God provided specific direction of how to approach, worship and house his earthly presence to the patriarchs and the priests of the Israelites. God’s prophets performed tangible miracles of healing on God’s behalf. God made gifts of the prophets themselves, living breathing people who carried out his will, rather than only giving continuing words of exhortation to the people. God gave people both religious practices and rituals and secular teaching for following the right paths, such as how to make a verbal contract through witnessing. God provided a place, the Mercy Seat of the Ark, and the Meeting Tent, where people could come to his prophets, notably Moses, with both their religious and their secular problems and receive counsel. These are just the highlights of the clear record that God has of bringing not only his words of instruction, comfort and exhortation, but also tangible structures, both physical and ritual, as gifts that magnify and continue the grace that God has bestowed.
In my recent 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit post about Wisdom, I cite as one example that God appears to King Solomon in a dream, and offers him anything that he asks for. King Solomon asked for wisdom in the form of an “understanding heart,” and God granted him that request. God did not simply instruct King Solomon, leaving only God’s words of advice to recall, but God actually infused King Solomon with the tangible gift of Wisdom, that did not exist previously and that could henceforth be seen most clearly by all who observed King Solomon.
Judaism continues to understand that God has given them tangible gifts in addition to his words. For example, the Sabbath is a continuing gift by God to Jews as the day of their rest, when neither work nor worries should concern them. Compare the difference in a gift where if God had said, “You ought to take time off from work on a regular basis,” and then leave it up to humans and oppressive bosses to obey that or not, versus the gift of a mandated day of rest once a week. The Sabbath is an example of a continuing tangible gift that is real, physical, and measurable and not just the citing of scripture about what one should or should not do.
Likewise Islam contains gifts from God that are beyond the gems of God’s actual words, but are also tangible and measurable. One example is the prohibition of usury. Again, God could have given “good advice” that one should not charge usury, and then leave it up to humans and oppressive money managers to obey that or not. But God gives the Muslims the gift that they will not be oppressed by usury, period.
The early Christian Church which is by definition the Catholic Church likewise looked for and identified the continuing gifts of God that have been given to them. Recognizing that Jesus Christ, Savior, is the gift of God to all of humanity, the Apostles and disciples who were all drawn from their Jewish faith foundations understood very well that it was not only the words of Jesus Christ, or his washing of the stain of original sin, that God gives to them. Exactly as Moses created at God’s behest ritual and physical structures so that God’s gifts can be shared with the faithful, the Apostles and disciples, and after them the early Church fathers, identified what tangible gifts Jesus Christ brought with him to “furnish” the faith.
Consider the Last Supper. Jesus had the Apostles hire a room, one with a table, couches, and all the service needed for dinner. They did not have the Last Supper by standing up in the air, with no physical furnishings, with no shared custom, and instead only the words of Jesus to linger in oral and then book form. Jesus role modeled not only the love of God and God’s teachings, but also how to “furnish” the faithful with the physical and ritual structures that are also the true gifts of God. Thus Jesus did not eliminate the sacrificial altar; he fulfilled it and gave to the disciples the form and the ritual of the furnishings of how future worship of God should take place: the altar in the Catholic Church that at each Mass commemorates the Last Supper.
How often have good Christians today said, “I wish I could have been there when Jesus was alive, and have seen him and spoken with him?” Well, the gift of God is that at every Mass one is there with Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. God always thinks ahead, just like in the gift of the Sabbath, so that future generations are not deprived of his gifts. It’s not like God allowed only Adam and Eve to celebrate the Sabbath and then no one else, or the first generation of Israelites got a day off each week, but next generations do not. God intends that ALL the faithful Christians be able to attend the Lord’s Supper, to be in the physical presence of Jesus Christ, generation after generation. I am astounded by how many Christians, both Catholics and not, fail to understand this gift. When one celebrates the Sacrifice of the Mass, one is invited to be present at the Lord’s Last Supper, in his physical presence, and in the presence of the faithful Apostles and saints. Every time someone misses Mass they are not attending an opportunity to be in the physical presence of Jesus Christ as he celebrates the Last Supper!
Somehow many Christians, as a result of the Reformation, and also the corrupting influences of self congratulatory modernism, view Jesus Christ in only two dimensions: 1) what he taught, and thus what words and role modeling he provided to be “like Jesus” or “following Jesus” and 2) that he provided the pathway for salvation. But there is a third dimension of Jesus Christ, which is that he was a real person who brought real gifts from God by which to furnish the faithful and the Church in their lives throughout the generations.
Thus the sacraments and the structures of the Church, both physical and ritual, are the Church’s discernment of what actions of Christ are demonstrations of continuing, real gifts that God has given to be carried forward. Because Jesus instructed to continue to perform the Last Supper in memory of him, this is exactly what the Church has done. This is why each Catholic Church has a consecrated altar, which is the Last Supper table. That is why each Catholic Church has a tabernacle, which houses the hosts (sacred bread) that is the actual presence of Jesus Christ at each Last Supper. No one “misses out” on having been the good Apostle at the Last Supper because the Last Supper is real and alive, with Jesus Christ present, at every Catholic Mass, regardless how humble the surroundings and regardless how many generations have passed since the first Last Supper.
So sure, Christians who are not Catholics and who “only believe in the scripture” are accepting God’s gift of salvation. But goodness gracious, I do not understand the bitterness regarding the Holy Eucharist by many toward the Catholic Church. Such bitterness and rejection is a profound blindness and missed opportunity. It is like the child who sees only the one gift provided by their father under the Christmas tree, and ignores the other gift by the same father. The child says to the father, “I only need this one gift!” Well, sure, but the father gave the child two gifts; why would the child not want to even open the second gift from the father? That is how it is when those who have an extreme view of Jesus Christ having brought “only” his words and his salvatory power totally miss out on the additional gifts provided by God through Jesus Christ. In a way it is like Jews who do not celebrate the Sabbath. They still believe in God and they still merit the graces of their faith, but it’s like they are saying, “Hey God, I don’t want the day off each week!” This is what it is like when Christians who demean the Holy Eucharist consider the sacrament to be “not essential to their salvation, and actually an ‘addition’ to ‘the faith.’” Huh? I continue to be astonished that people cannot discern the difference between following Jesus and accepting his salvation message and accepting a gift that Jesus himself left for them, wrapped, “under the tree,” and not even unwrapping it to look inside. Jesus left the gift of being with him at the Last Supper, with his physical and living presence, for every generation after him and there is that gift, every day at one’s local Catholic Church.
Preaching, prayer, communal worship and Bible study are joys of the word of God. I will write more about them in future topics. They do not “compete” with the other gifts that God has given through Jesus Christ, which is to be invited to be at his table, in his physical presence, through all generations, available every day and every place on earth where a Church and a priest celebrating the Mass can be found. That is why I never attend non-Catholic worship services, not because they are wrong, but I miss too much not being at the Lord’s Table. Even if I have to listen to the most listless and ineloquent sermon, ha, I would not trade being at even the most prayerful and heartfelt Christian service with the chance to be that day once again in the physical presence of Jesus Christ as we are once again at the Last Supper in the communion of the faithful, as good Apostles taking our place in front of the table.
I hope that you have found this enlightening and helpful. I could write much more on this topic, but I want to keep these topics high level in making their general point. Here my point is to understand that God always gives tangible gifts that can be the joy and benefit of each generation of believers; God does not expect people to live only with the verbal and behavior implications of his words, and ignore the other gifts that he likewise leaves wrapped under the tree. Think about it. For example, every country that has a Catholic Church has, by definition, in their midst, the table set for the Last Supper with the physical presence of Jesus Christ. Even if that country is not Christian they have the benefit of being gracious hosts of the physical presence of Jesus Christ, seated at the Last Supper, in their midst! Those who attend the Sacrifice of the Mass are accepting the continual invitation of God to participate, even two thousand years later, at the actual Last Supper in the physical presence of Jesus Christ. And, unlike Elvis, Jesus never “leaves the building.” Thus the faithful Christians and who are not Catholic, but attend their own places of worship, can rather than criticize, be heart warmed that not only is Jesus present wherever the two or more gather in his name, but he also has the table set nearby.
Monday, October 6, 2008
EXCELLENT explanation of Sacrifice of the Mass
The article is by Father Dwight Longenecker, chaplain to St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, S.C. (DwightLongenecker.com) and his blog is found at http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/search?q= where I read his post and followed his link to his article.
http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16063/
snip
They wish to discard the religious concept of sacrifice because it seems primitive, superstitious and barbaric. Instead, they promote the idea that the Mass is essentially a fellowship meal. They bring forward the biblical concept of the solemn meal that sealed a covenant between two contracting parties, and they see the Mass as a newer form of the regular, ritual meals that the Jews celebrated.
The covenant ritual meal, they believe, makes for a better and fuller understanding of the Mass.
Along with this de-emphasis of sacrifice, they also see the Mass more as a reenactment of the Last Supper than a window into the crucifixion of Christ. By focusing on the Mass as a ritual, fellowship meal, they have inadvertently shifted the focus away from the cross of Christ.
***
I added the emphasis and italics on what I feel is the sentence that explains it all and is the crux of the matter at hand. Do read this entire article, it is excellent, especially if you are baffled by the authentic Catholic's emphasis on sacrifice.
http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16063/
snip
They wish to discard the religious concept of sacrifice because it seems primitive, superstitious and barbaric. Instead, they promote the idea that the Mass is essentially a fellowship meal. They bring forward the biblical concept of the solemn meal that sealed a covenant between two contracting parties, and they see the Mass as a newer form of the regular, ritual meals that the Jews celebrated.
The covenant ritual meal, they believe, makes for a better and fuller understanding of the Mass.
Along with this de-emphasis of sacrifice, they also see the Mass more as a reenactment of the Last Supper than a window into the crucifixion of Christ. By focusing on the Mass as a ritual, fellowship meal, they have inadvertently shifted the focus away from the cross of Christ.
***
I added the emphasis and italics on what I feel is the sentence that explains it all and is the crux of the matter at hand. Do read this entire article, it is excellent, especially if you are baffled by the authentic Catholic's emphasis on sacrifice.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Commentary on the 9th of Av
This weekend is a fast day of Judaism, commemorating with mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples, which took place on this same day, though hundreds of years apart. You can read a good explanation here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B%27Av
Notice that there is a definite tone that many Jews kind of wonder what this has to do with them anymore. I've noticed in the years that I've been alive that even in my time there has been a rapid diminishment, even among the wise, of what the relevance of the destruction of the Temples means to the modern Jew. This diluting of understanding is part of the overall problem that all faiths have with flourishing within a society that has increased its separation from God. People no longer understand what they had and what they lost on even its most fundamental basis. So here is a reminder.
The Temples were the place where one "gave back to God" in the form of sacrifice. It used to be that people's entire lives were permeated with the understanding that one went into the Temple to thank God for what they received, and to "give back to God" a portion of what they had, rich or poor. They did it in the form of sacrifice (of animal, grain or oil) and monetary donations to the Temple. Jesus points out to the Apostles "the widow's mite," how even the poor widow gave what she had to God. Prayers were also conducted in the Temple but again, against the constant backdrop of sacrifice to God (for example, the priests who conducted daily incensing with the burning of incense being viewed as sacrifice to God, as indeed it was as precious materials were burned in order to create incense pleasing to God).
So Jews wonder today why they should mourn the destruction of the Temples. They should do so because it is recalling that for two thousand years now there is not the permeation among the pious of the "giving back to God" God's portion of what he has given to them. In many ways this is how Jews and Protestants (and other Christian non denominationals) are very different from Catholics and Muslims. Catholics and Muslims retain sacrifice to God, the Muslims doing so in the Haj and Catholics doing so in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist in the daily Mass). Jews and non-Catholic Christians have, in my eyes, a much more "Bible study" and Torah study focus in their relationship with God. They view "giving back to God" as being fulfilled in liberal social agendas. And while that is charitable and truthful reflection of God's love, that is not the same as sacrifice to God. I've explained before that Jesus did not eliminate the need for sacrifice to God; he offered himself once for all, but also as the form of bread and wine, a bloodless sacrifice that one does not need the money changers in the Temple. Sacrifice in the Catholic Mass is reverence to God, giving him "his due" and it is free.
So if I were to counsel Jews, especially those who are more liberal and secularized, why this day should invoke a pathos and a mourning, even in these modern times, it would be to explain that when the Temples were destroyed, Jews lost their places where they could "give back to God a portion of all that he has given to them." That is different from the golden rule and liberal social good works. This is taking a part of what you have and giving it to God in the way he has instructed he wishes to receive it, no more and certainly no less than that. Catholics understood that Jesus transformed sacrifice to God from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, but he did not declare the elimination of sacrifice. This is what we celebrate in the Mass. Likewise, Muslims have a full understanding that the Haj sacrifice to God is separate from the good deeds of the giving of alms to the poor and the needy.
Now, I am not making a commentary that orthodox Judaism is flawed; far from it. I am explaining that orthodox Jews do have a fuller understanding of what was taken from them when the Temples were destroyed, and thus it is correct to be serious, sober and mournful in commemorating this fast day, if you are Jewish. In a way the recognizing that Jews lost the means by which they "gave back to God" is a sacrifice, a prayerful and respectful sacrifice, when one contemplates this. When the Temples were destroyed, a means that the pious had to please God was taken away from the people. God understands, of course, but it is helpful to remember that this is a sad loss for the people, more than obviously God, who does not in the strictest sense "need" anything from humans. However, people are healthier if they retain a continuing activity of sacrifice to God because it brings them closer to God in understanding his ongoing gifts to you.
Imagine if when the Temples were destroyed if God went, "Hmm, well, they can no longer sacrifice meat and grain to me so why bother letting them have meat or successful grain harvest at all? I mean, if they no longer sacrifice to me, why should I give them anything?" Of course that does not happen because God understands the travails of his people, and all that has happened. God continues to shower prosperity and goodness on humanity, even when they do not sacrifice to him in return what is due to him. That is all the more reason to love and honor God and yes, to fear him, because fear means that you understand what it would be like to lose your precious relationship with him.
So these are the kinds of things I would recommend that you prayerfully contemplate on the 9th of Av.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B%27Av
Notice that there is a definite tone that many Jews kind of wonder what this has to do with them anymore. I've noticed in the years that I've been alive that even in my time there has been a rapid diminishment, even among the wise, of what the relevance of the destruction of the Temples means to the modern Jew. This diluting of understanding is part of the overall problem that all faiths have with flourishing within a society that has increased its separation from God. People no longer understand what they had and what they lost on even its most fundamental basis. So here is a reminder.
The Temples were the place where one "gave back to God" in the form of sacrifice. It used to be that people's entire lives were permeated with the understanding that one went into the Temple to thank God for what they received, and to "give back to God" a portion of what they had, rich or poor. They did it in the form of sacrifice (of animal, grain or oil) and monetary donations to the Temple. Jesus points out to the Apostles "the widow's mite," how even the poor widow gave what she had to God. Prayers were also conducted in the Temple but again, against the constant backdrop of sacrifice to God (for example, the priests who conducted daily incensing with the burning of incense being viewed as sacrifice to God, as indeed it was as precious materials were burned in order to create incense pleasing to God).
So Jews wonder today why they should mourn the destruction of the Temples. They should do so because it is recalling that for two thousand years now there is not the permeation among the pious of the "giving back to God" God's portion of what he has given to them. In many ways this is how Jews and Protestants (and other Christian non denominationals) are very different from Catholics and Muslims. Catholics and Muslims retain sacrifice to God, the Muslims doing so in the Haj and Catholics doing so in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist in the daily Mass). Jews and non-Catholic Christians have, in my eyes, a much more "Bible study" and Torah study focus in their relationship with God. They view "giving back to God" as being fulfilled in liberal social agendas. And while that is charitable and truthful reflection of God's love, that is not the same as sacrifice to God. I've explained before that Jesus did not eliminate the need for sacrifice to God; he offered himself once for all, but also as the form of bread and wine, a bloodless sacrifice that one does not need the money changers in the Temple. Sacrifice in the Catholic Mass is reverence to God, giving him "his due" and it is free.
So if I were to counsel Jews, especially those who are more liberal and secularized, why this day should invoke a pathos and a mourning, even in these modern times, it would be to explain that when the Temples were destroyed, Jews lost their places where they could "give back to God a portion of all that he has given to them." That is different from the golden rule and liberal social good works. This is taking a part of what you have and giving it to God in the way he has instructed he wishes to receive it, no more and certainly no less than that. Catholics understood that Jesus transformed sacrifice to God from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, but he did not declare the elimination of sacrifice. This is what we celebrate in the Mass. Likewise, Muslims have a full understanding that the Haj sacrifice to God is separate from the good deeds of the giving of alms to the poor and the needy.
Now, I am not making a commentary that orthodox Judaism is flawed; far from it. I am explaining that orthodox Jews do have a fuller understanding of what was taken from them when the Temples were destroyed, and thus it is correct to be serious, sober and mournful in commemorating this fast day, if you are Jewish. In a way the recognizing that Jews lost the means by which they "gave back to God" is a sacrifice, a prayerful and respectful sacrifice, when one contemplates this. When the Temples were destroyed, a means that the pious had to please God was taken away from the people. God understands, of course, but it is helpful to remember that this is a sad loss for the people, more than obviously God, who does not in the strictest sense "need" anything from humans. However, people are healthier if they retain a continuing activity of sacrifice to God because it brings them closer to God in understanding his ongoing gifts to you.
Imagine if when the Temples were destroyed if God went, "Hmm, well, they can no longer sacrifice meat and grain to me so why bother letting them have meat or successful grain harvest at all? I mean, if they no longer sacrifice to me, why should I give them anything?" Of course that does not happen because God understands the travails of his people, and all that has happened. God continues to shower prosperity and goodness on humanity, even when they do not sacrifice to him in return what is due to him. That is all the more reason to love and honor God and yes, to fear him, because fear means that you understand what it would be like to lose your precious relationship with him.
So these are the kinds of things I would recommend that you prayerfully contemplate on the 9th of Av.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Very important Bible reading and lesson
A question came up during one of the Papal Mass coverage channels today about the use of incense in the Mass. The person who responded gave a bit of a flub to the answer, though I am saying this with affection. He’s not alone; as I’ve been saying all along, even the priests are not fully educated in their theological heritage.
He answered that the incense represents and “symbolizes” prayers rising to God. Yes, that is true, but an answer like that makes it sound like some sort of pagan thing, or symbolic gesture. The accurate and full answer would have been to explain it is a symbolic substitute for the real smoke that would have risen toward heaven as burnt offerings were made by the Israelites on the Temple altar as instructed by God. As I wrote in my blog just a day or two ago, the Catholic Church is the only Church who still carry out God’s instructions to sacrifice to him on his altar. (I mention that Muslims also do this, but yearly on the Haj and not as an altar offering). Jesus Christ taught the Apostles and disciples that bread and wine, which become his Real Presence, replace the burning of slain animals or bowls of grain and oil as sacrifice to God. This is why the Sunday service for Catholics is called “The Sacrifice of the Mass.” Catholics are still obeying God’s instructions to keep his day holy and to offer to him the perfect sacrifice.
Anyway, in the Bible God himself refers to the smoke and aroma of the burnt offerings as they ascend to him in heaven. Since sacrifices are no longer burned, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches replace that smoke with incense as they “offer up” Jesus Christ as the Pascal Lamb AND they retain the requirement placed on the High Priest by God to offer up incense on a separate altar or via censer.
Exodus 30: 1, 7-8
For burning incense you shall make an altar of acacia wood…
On it Aaron shall burn fragrant incense. Morning after morning, when he prepares the lamps, and again in the evening twilight, when he lights the lamps, he shall burn incense. Throughout your generations this shall be the established incense offering before the Lord. On this altar you shall not offer up any profane incense, or any holocaust or cereal offering; nor shall you pour out a libation upon it.
See, the burning of fragrant wood and resin that comprise incense was an actual burnt offering that the Lord stated is a requirement. God uses the word “offering” because there is nothing symbolic about it; God is requiring them to obtain wood and resin and sacrifice it through burning to him. God specifies that wood and resin shall be burned as offering to him on a special altar that is separate from the altar used for burning sacrificed animals, grain or libations, such as oil or wine.
In times of dire emergency to atone to God, incense was placed in censers, and taken by the High Priest himself among the people to save them from God’s wrath.
Numbers 17: 11-15
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and bring it quickly to the community to make atonement for them; for wrath has come forth from the Lord and his blow is falling.” Obeying the orders of Moses, Aaron took his censer and ran among the community, where the blow was already falling on the people. Then, as he offered the incense and made atonement for the people standing there between the living and the dead, the scourge was checked. Yet fourteen thousand seven hundred died from the scourge, in addition to those who died because of Core. When the scourge had been checked, Aaron returned to Moses and the entrance of the Meeting Tent.
Again you can see there is nothing symbolic about incense on God’s altar. It is the actual offering, the sacrifice, the burning of the wood and resin that is required by God. Also, the offering of incense is to be performed only by a descendant of Aaron (this means, the legitimate High Priest rather than either laymen or false claimants to the priesthood).
Numbers 17: 5 This cover was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no layman, no one who was not a descendant of Aaron, should approach the altar to offer incense before the Lord, lest he meet the fate of Core and his band.
It is obvious that offering incense is not symbolic, and is of itself a burnt offering made to the Lord, one that God so highly values that it has a separate altar for it, and severe punishment for those who claim rights to the priesthood that they do not have, and attempt to wield the censers as part of their rebellion, as Core rebelled against Moses. (The entire rebellion of Core is related in Numbers 16, 17.
Now, when you understand the very highest right of the priest to offer incense to the Lord on his altar, you can appreciate in this brief mention all the more the blessedness of Zachary, the father of St. John the Baptist.
Luke 1: 1-13
In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were just before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. But they had no son, for Elizabeth was barren; and they were both advanced in years.
Now it came to pass, while he was officiating in the order of his course as priest before God, according to the custom of the priest’s office, that he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord to burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right of the altar of incense. And Zachary, seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zachary, for thy petition has been heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John.”
Casting lot, by the way, was the way the priests set their schedules for certain daily tasks. It was not done this way because they were gamblers or superstitious. Casting lots ensured that certain priests did not always claim the highly prized tasks, making it available through statistical chance ensured fairness.
So… now you can see the incredible significance of what Luke details; detail that the modern eye does not understand and would skip over. Few people read THE ENTIRE Bible and absorb its implications throughout, certainly fewer than used to do so. The offering of incense by the Catholic Church is the direct carry over of form of sacrifice commanded by God that even the most orthodox of Jewish worship has lost along with the stopping of sacrifice in the Temple in general. When the Israelites lost their structure of King, High Priests and Temple they stopped performing most of the ritual commanded by God. Yet the first Christians, who were Jewish, were sensitive to God’s commandment for sacrifice and this is why the Mass exists in the form that it does today, two thousand years later.
Luke took the time to record the careful detail that it was during the offering of the incense that Zachary, who would be the father of St. John the Baptist, received the visitation from Gabriel. God could have sent Gabriel to Zachary at any time, naturally, being God he chooses the time that is right for him. God has repeatedly shown the importance of the offering of incense and here he repeats it by sending Gabriel to announce the pending birth of St. John the Baptist exactly as Zachary has his turn to perform the incense offering. Incense offering is no joke and no casual matter to God. This is because God promised to Moses the “mercy seat” on the Ark, and the incense offering altar is part of the giving of God’s mercy, but also his judgment. So God sends Gabriel to announce the great mercy of the birth of a son to Zachary and Elizabeth (who had been reproached for being barren, since at those times being barren was viewed as a sign of divine disapproval). Because Zachary doubts his own eyes and ears, and the message of the angel Gabriel, as a sign he is struck dumb until the birth of his son.
Luke 1:21-22
And the people were waiting for Zachary, and they wondered at his tarrying so long in the temple. But when he did come out he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them, but he remained dumb.
Here is a reminder that the offering of the incense was a time for collective worship at the temple. The priest would go inside the temple, while the people remained outside in prayer. So the offering of incense is a specific time and form for the community to gather and worship. Catholic and Orthodox Churches retain this, with the Orthodox doing so even more frequently during each service than the Catholic. So the Catholics and the Orthodox do not incense because the aroma and the smoke symbolizes prayer to God. Incense offering IS sacrifice to God and is part of the timetable for worship service, retained from the Jewish tradition by the Apostles and disciples. This is why Luke so carefully documents that God sent Gabriel to Zachary to announce the pregnancy of Elizabeth with John the Baptist, and the Apostles and disciples would never dream of eliminating what is so obviously an important requirement by God for sacrifice. Remember that the incense altar was separate from the animals, grain and libations altar, so while Jesus became, at his instruction, the bread and the wine Real Presence sacrifice, the Apostles would have understood that the sacrifice of incense, a separate altar and a call to prayer, is to be retained.
Lest there be any doubt of that, there is a dark warning in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 8:3-5
And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he might offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And with the prayers of the saints there went up before God from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense. And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it down upon the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
St. John the Evangelist, the last living of the twelve Apostles, then describes the seven angels with trumpets and the punishing disasters that befall earth during the End of Time.
So you must understand now, how important the message is here and how “not symbolic” it is to God. Here an angel of God is taking the heavenly golden censer, filling it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar before God’s throne, and hurling it with wrath to the earth. This is opposite of what had been the right order, of humans offering prayerful incense offering up to God. This indicates that rather than correct offering and piety on earth, the reverse is happening. Therefore God’s angel hurls the censer to the earth, filled with the prayers of saints who had been unjustly treated. The incense offering that was instructed to Moses as part of the Mercy Seat on the Ark is now used to initiate the destructive forces that befall earth at the End of Time.
This is why it is essential to not be all “New Age” and “symbolic” when you read the Bible. God is spelling out for everyone in terms that no one can misunderstand what is important to him and what is not. The meaning of the sacrifice of incense as a physical and real offering of prayer for mercy in judgment cannot be mistaken to those who read and comprehend the passages I have indicated here. Only an idiot would try to figure out “what kind of natural disaster and who might cause it” that the censer “symbolizes.” The censer is an obvious ritual requirement that is a timetable for prayer for the deliver of God’s mercy. That is clearly explained in the Old Testament, and testified to in the New Testament in those two locations, Luke 1 and Revelation 8.
Knowing this, you can make an educated guess what it is that specifically angers God so much that his angel hurls the golden censer to earth, filled with the prayers of saints. These are saints that have been slain unjustly. They are mentioned in Revelation 6: 9-11.
And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the witness that they bore. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord (holy and true), dost thou refrain from judging and from avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-servants and their brethren who are to be slain, even as they had been, should be complete.
Everyone likes to be the virtuous hero of the fairy tale, and so some who claim to be “experts” in being “raptured” and so forth view themselves as the heroes of this saga. But that is not a correct Biblical reading. They make up fairy stories that all the “good Christians” have “raptured up into heaven” and that the bad people left behind divide into the converted and the satanic, and it is the death of the converted that this refers to. Wrong! Not only is that a crazy interpretation of passages in Daniel and elsewhere in the Bible, but the evidence is as clear as the black print on the white paper. When is the censer mentioned in the New Testament? As we have shown, it is when Gabriel announces to Zachary the pregnancy of Elizabeth that will lead to the birth of St. John the Baptist, five months before he announces that Mary will be with child, the Savior. Pregnancy was announced by Gabriel … the mercy of the bearing of a child to Zachary and Elizabeth, a child who would proclaim the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The offering of incense using the censor is the time when God announces his mercy in the form of the man St. John the Baptist, who makes straight the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. The censer is a rounded object containing sweet offering, just as the pregnant Elizabeth and Mary.
So who would be the many saints who died for the sake of God, whose souls under the altar cry out for the Lord’s judgment and vengeance? They are the millions of pre-born and infants.
Here is another set of facts to help understand why the Catholic faith takes the stances that it does regarding both the liturgy and its focus on the community of saints. When the Church first formed, during the time of the Apostles and their immediate successors, wherever they were persecuted they often met in catacombs and tombs to conduct worship service in secret. They could not have public churches or even private home gatherings in time of danger. So they conducted the Church Masses directly on the graves of saints. This is where the tradition of having relics of the saints placed under the Catholic Church altars came from. Now, this did happen while John was still alive but for the most part this tradition developed during the next one to two hundred years of persecution. So John is noting that in heaven, there are the souls of martyred saints crying out directly under God’s very altar. This is another reason that the Church views the veneration of saints and their relics, and their placement under the altar, as not only Biblically accurate and justified, but something they darn well better do because that is what God himself does in heaven. Again, people who accuse the Catholic Church of not being Biblically sound need their eyes and brains checked. John saw extremely clearly how God perceives the communion of saints, and John saw the practice of the relics of saints below the altar in heaven, well before the practice became a universal need (during the times of persecution) on earth. This is why the Popes and the early Church Fathers, reading the book of Revelation, and recalling where Zachary received word from Gabriel, made the connection regarding the ongoing communion of saints in heaven, and the need for justice toward them on earth. Saints are anyone who dies for the faith. The first saints were the Holy Innocents who were slain by Herod as he sought to kill the baby Jesus. Saints are not just adults who are persecuted for preaching Jesus Christ. Saints are anyone who dies for the sake of God. The Holy Innocents, and the day they are commemorated by the Church (December 28), testify that babies slain to suppress or defy the word of God are saints too.
I have been in great fear for humanity ever since the 1970’s, when the golden altar of heaven is filling with the souls of aborted babies and abused children. It is not the adult saints who go to martyrdom who cry out for justice in heaven, for they are casting their crowns before the Lord and praising his name. No, it is the babies who are unjustly slaughtered who cry out to God. I shudder for humanity, as does the Pope.
It is not too late, but it has been pushed as far toward too late as anyone can imagine, and beyond. Humans need to radically convert and repent and remember that they must make offerings that are pleasing to the Lord, the Mass, rather than throwing in his face offerings of aborted babies and abused infants. It is that which causes God’s angel to hurl the golden censer right back from God’s altar to humans, who forget how to merit, ask for, and obtain God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. Non-Catholic Christians, far from deserving your enmity and scorn, you should be thanking the Catholic Church most humbly for preserving the word of God, as spelled out most clearly in the Bible, far better than you have. The Catholic Church in unity is still carrying out the instructions of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Loving Jesus Christ, and praising and worshipping his name are not enough, as he himself repeatedly says. He told Peter that if he loves him then he must “Feed my sheep.” The Apostles and St. Paul, with their deep knowledge of Jewish tradition and requirements, passed along through the apostolic succession a clear understanding of all that they must preserve to satisfy God’s requirements for humanity. I hope that this spiritual direction and Bible reading lesson about the meaning and requirement for incense offering during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass helps you to better understand that God will be taking accounting of how his Church has been treated and how his instructions have been followed.
He answered that the incense represents and “symbolizes” prayers rising to God. Yes, that is true, but an answer like that makes it sound like some sort of pagan thing, or symbolic gesture. The accurate and full answer would have been to explain it is a symbolic substitute for the real smoke that would have risen toward heaven as burnt offerings were made by the Israelites on the Temple altar as instructed by God. As I wrote in my blog just a day or two ago, the Catholic Church is the only Church who still carry out God’s instructions to sacrifice to him on his altar. (I mention that Muslims also do this, but yearly on the Haj and not as an altar offering). Jesus Christ taught the Apostles and disciples that bread and wine, which become his Real Presence, replace the burning of slain animals or bowls of grain and oil as sacrifice to God. This is why the Sunday service for Catholics is called “The Sacrifice of the Mass.” Catholics are still obeying God’s instructions to keep his day holy and to offer to him the perfect sacrifice.
Anyway, in the Bible God himself refers to the smoke and aroma of the burnt offerings as they ascend to him in heaven. Since sacrifices are no longer burned, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches replace that smoke with incense as they “offer up” Jesus Christ as the Pascal Lamb AND they retain the requirement placed on the High Priest by God to offer up incense on a separate altar or via censer.
Exodus 30: 1, 7-8
For burning incense you shall make an altar of acacia wood…
On it Aaron shall burn fragrant incense. Morning after morning, when he prepares the lamps, and again in the evening twilight, when he lights the lamps, he shall burn incense. Throughout your generations this shall be the established incense offering before the Lord. On this altar you shall not offer up any profane incense, or any holocaust or cereal offering; nor shall you pour out a libation upon it.
See, the burning of fragrant wood and resin that comprise incense was an actual burnt offering that the Lord stated is a requirement. God uses the word “offering” because there is nothing symbolic about it; God is requiring them to obtain wood and resin and sacrifice it through burning to him. God specifies that wood and resin shall be burned as offering to him on a special altar that is separate from the altar used for burning sacrificed animals, grain or libations, such as oil or wine.
In times of dire emergency to atone to God, incense was placed in censers, and taken by the High Priest himself among the people to save them from God’s wrath.
Numbers 17: 11-15
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and bring it quickly to the community to make atonement for them; for wrath has come forth from the Lord and his blow is falling.” Obeying the orders of Moses, Aaron took his censer and ran among the community, where the blow was already falling on the people. Then, as he offered the incense and made atonement for the people standing there between the living and the dead, the scourge was checked. Yet fourteen thousand seven hundred died from the scourge, in addition to those who died because of Core. When the scourge had been checked, Aaron returned to Moses and the entrance of the Meeting Tent.
Again you can see there is nothing symbolic about incense on God’s altar. It is the actual offering, the sacrifice, the burning of the wood and resin that is required by God. Also, the offering of incense is to be performed only by a descendant of Aaron (this means, the legitimate High Priest rather than either laymen or false claimants to the priesthood).
Numbers 17: 5 This cover was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no layman, no one who was not a descendant of Aaron, should approach the altar to offer incense before the Lord, lest he meet the fate of Core and his band.
It is obvious that offering incense is not symbolic, and is of itself a burnt offering made to the Lord, one that God so highly values that it has a separate altar for it, and severe punishment for those who claim rights to the priesthood that they do not have, and attempt to wield the censers as part of their rebellion, as Core rebelled against Moses. (The entire rebellion of Core is related in Numbers 16, 17.
Now, when you understand the very highest right of the priest to offer incense to the Lord on his altar, you can appreciate in this brief mention all the more the blessedness of Zachary, the father of St. John the Baptist.
Luke 1: 1-13
In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were just before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. But they had no son, for Elizabeth was barren; and they were both advanced in years.
Now it came to pass, while he was officiating in the order of his course as priest before God, according to the custom of the priest’s office, that he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord to burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right of the altar of incense. And Zachary, seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zachary, for thy petition has been heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John.”
Casting lot, by the way, was the way the priests set their schedules for certain daily tasks. It was not done this way because they were gamblers or superstitious. Casting lots ensured that certain priests did not always claim the highly prized tasks, making it available through statistical chance ensured fairness.
So… now you can see the incredible significance of what Luke details; detail that the modern eye does not understand and would skip over. Few people read THE ENTIRE Bible and absorb its implications throughout, certainly fewer than used to do so. The offering of incense by the Catholic Church is the direct carry over of form of sacrifice commanded by God that even the most orthodox of Jewish worship has lost along with the stopping of sacrifice in the Temple in general. When the Israelites lost their structure of King, High Priests and Temple they stopped performing most of the ritual commanded by God. Yet the first Christians, who were Jewish, were sensitive to God’s commandment for sacrifice and this is why the Mass exists in the form that it does today, two thousand years later.
Luke took the time to record the careful detail that it was during the offering of the incense that Zachary, who would be the father of St. John the Baptist, received the visitation from Gabriel. God could have sent Gabriel to Zachary at any time, naturally, being God he chooses the time that is right for him. God has repeatedly shown the importance of the offering of incense and here he repeats it by sending Gabriel to announce the pending birth of St. John the Baptist exactly as Zachary has his turn to perform the incense offering. Incense offering is no joke and no casual matter to God. This is because God promised to Moses the “mercy seat” on the Ark, and the incense offering altar is part of the giving of God’s mercy, but also his judgment. So God sends Gabriel to announce the great mercy of the birth of a son to Zachary and Elizabeth (who had been reproached for being barren, since at those times being barren was viewed as a sign of divine disapproval). Because Zachary doubts his own eyes and ears, and the message of the angel Gabriel, as a sign he is struck dumb until the birth of his son.
Luke 1:21-22
And the people were waiting for Zachary, and they wondered at his tarrying so long in the temple. But when he did come out he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them, but he remained dumb.
Here is a reminder that the offering of the incense was a time for collective worship at the temple. The priest would go inside the temple, while the people remained outside in prayer. So the offering of incense is a specific time and form for the community to gather and worship. Catholic and Orthodox Churches retain this, with the Orthodox doing so even more frequently during each service than the Catholic. So the Catholics and the Orthodox do not incense because the aroma and the smoke symbolizes prayer to God. Incense offering IS sacrifice to God and is part of the timetable for worship service, retained from the Jewish tradition by the Apostles and disciples. This is why Luke so carefully documents that God sent Gabriel to Zachary to announce the pregnancy of Elizabeth with John the Baptist, and the Apostles and disciples would never dream of eliminating what is so obviously an important requirement by God for sacrifice. Remember that the incense altar was separate from the animals, grain and libations altar, so while Jesus became, at his instruction, the bread and the wine Real Presence sacrifice, the Apostles would have understood that the sacrifice of incense, a separate altar and a call to prayer, is to be retained.
Lest there be any doubt of that, there is a dark warning in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 8:3-5
And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he might offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And with the prayers of the saints there went up before God from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense. And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it down upon the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
St. John the Evangelist, the last living of the twelve Apostles, then describes the seven angels with trumpets and the punishing disasters that befall earth during the End of Time.
So you must understand now, how important the message is here and how “not symbolic” it is to God. Here an angel of God is taking the heavenly golden censer, filling it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar before God’s throne, and hurling it with wrath to the earth. This is opposite of what had been the right order, of humans offering prayerful incense offering up to God. This indicates that rather than correct offering and piety on earth, the reverse is happening. Therefore God’s angel hurls the censer to the earth, filled with the prayers of saints who had been unjustly treated. The incense offering that was instructed to Moses as part of the Mercy Seat on the Ark is now used to initiate the destructive forces that befall earth at the End of Time.
This is why it is essential to not be all “New Age” and “symbolic” when you read the Bible. God is spelling out for everyone in terms that no one can misunderstand what is important to him and what is not. The meaning of the sacrifice of incense as a physical and real offering of prayer for mercy in judgment cannot be mistaken to those who read and comprehend the passages I have indicated here. Only an idiot would try to figure out “what kind of natural disaster and who might cause it” that the censer “symbolizes.” The censer is an obvious ritual requirement that is a timetable for prayer for the deliver of God’s mercy. That is clearly explained in the Old Testament, and testified to in the New Testament in those two locations, Luke 1 and Revelation 8.
Knowing this, you can make an educated guess what it is that specifically angers God so much that his angel hurls the golden censer to earth, filled with the prayers of saints. These are saints that have been slain unjustly. They are mentioned in Revelation 6: 9-11.
And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the witness that they bore. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord (holy and true), dost thou refrain from judging and from avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-servants and their brethren who are to be slain, even as they had been, should be complete.
Everyone likes to be the virtuous hero of the fairy tale, and so some who claim to be “experts” in being “raptured” and so forth view themselves as the heroes of this saga. But that is not a correct Biblical reading. They make up fairy stories that all the “good Christians” have “raptured up into heaven” and that the bad people left behind divide into the converted and the satanic, and it is the death of the converted that this refers to. Wrong! Not only is that a crazy interpretation of passages in Daniel and elsewhere in the Bible, but the evidence is as clear as the black print on the white paper. When is the censer mentioned in the New Testament? As we have shown, it is when Gabriel announces to Zachary the pregnancy of Elizabeth that will lead to the birth of St. John the Baptist, five months before he announces that Mary will be with child, the Savior. Pregnancy was announced by Gabriel … the mercy of the bearing of a child to Zachary and Elizabeth, a child who would proclaim the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The offering of incense using the censor is the time when God announces his mercy in the form of the man St. John the Baptist, who makes straight the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. The censer is a rounded object containing sweet offering, just as the pregnant Elizabeth and Mary.
So who would be the many saints who died for the sake of God, whose souls under the altar cry out for the Lord’s judgment and vengeance? They are the millions of pre-born and infants.
Here is another set of facts to help understand why the Catholic faith takes the stances that it does regarding both the liturgy and its focus on the community of saints. When the Church first formed, during the time of the Apostles and their immediate successors, wherever they were persecuted they often met in catacombs and tombs to conduct worship service in secret. They could not have public churches or even private home gatherings in time of danger. So they conducted the Church Masses directly on the graves of saints. This is where the tradition of having relics of the saints placed under the Catholic Church altars came from. Now, this did happen while John was still alive but for the most part this tradition developed during the next one to two hundred years of persecution. So John is noting that in heaven, there are the souls of martyred saints crying out directly under God’s very altar. This is another reason that the Church views the veneration of saints and their relics, and their placement under the altar, as not only Biblically accurate and justified, but something they darn well better do because that is what God himself does in heaven. Again, people who accuse the Catholic Church of not being Biblically sound need their eyes and brains checked. John saw extremely clearly how God perceives the communion of saints, and John saw the practice of the relics of saints below the altar in heaven, well before the practice became a universal need (during the times of persecution) on earth. This is why the Popes and the early Church Fathers, reading the book of Revelation, and recalling where Zachary received word from Gabriel, made the connection regarding the ongoing communion of saints in heaven, and the need for justice toward them on earth. Saints are anyone who dies for the faith. The first saints were the Holy Innocents who were slain by Herod as he sought to kill the baby Jesus. Saints are not just adults who are persecuted for preaching Jesus Christ. Saints are anyone who dies for the sake of God. The Holy Innocents, and the day they are commemorated by the Church (December 28), testify that babies slain to suppress or defy the word of God are saints too.
I have been in great fear for humanity ever since the 1970’s, when the golden altar of heaven is filling with the souls of aborted babies and abused children. It is not the adult saints who go to martyrdom who cry out for justice in heaven, for they are casting their crowns before the Lord and praising his name. No, it is the babies who are unjustly slaughtered who cry out to God. I shudder for humanity, as does the Pope.
It is not too late, but it has been pushed as far toward too late as anyone can imagine, and beyond. Humans need to radically convert and repent and remember that they must make offerings that are pleasing to the Lord, the Mass, rather than throwing in his face offerings of aborted babies and abused infants. It is that which causes God’s angel to hurl the golden censer right back from God’s altar to humans, who forget how to merit, ask for, and obtain God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. Non-Catholic Christians, far from deserving your enmity and scorn, you should be thanking the Catholic Church most humbly for preserving the word of God, as spelled out most clearly in the Bible, far better than you have. The Catholic Church in unity is still carrying out the instructions of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Loving Jesus Christ, and praising and worshipping his name are not enough, as he himself repeatedly says. He told Peter that if he loves him then he must “Feed my sheep.” The Apostles and St. Paul, with their deep knowledge of Jewish tradition and requirements, passed along through the apostolic succession a clear understanding of all that they must preserve to satisfy God’s requirements for humanity. I hope that this spiritual direction and Bible reading lesson about the meaning and requirement for incense offering during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass helps you to better understand that God will be taking accounting of how his Church has been treated and how his instructions have been followed.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
More insight regarding sacrifice of the Mass
I've blogged about this frequently, and find the two Papal Masses conducted in Washington National Park Stadium and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York another opportunity to explain one of the most important insights to understanding the Catholic faith and liturgy.
During these two Masses people had an opportunity to see the section of the Mass called the presentation of the gifts. This is when people bring to the Holy Father items that will be used in the Holy Eucharist part of the Mass. So even though it is called "gifts" it is not the bringing of presents. It is called gifts because they are gifts for God.
This part of the Mass is the Christian interpretation of the uninterrupted worship of God through the performance of sacrifice on his altar, just as taught by God to the Israelites and documented in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament.
God, starting with Adam and Eve, and brought to detail with Abraham and Moses, taught humans how to perform sacrifice to him. The Old Testament details the rules for sacrifice and the forms it may take (animal, grain, oil or monetary sacrifice) and on what occasions it is required. In the Gospel we read how Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the Temple in order to sacrifice two doves as required. The first murder, that of Abel by Cain, occurred because Cain offered incorrect sacrifice to God and was jealous of the perfection of Abel's sacrifice. So the Israelites conducted sacrifice to God with precision and piety for thousands of years. They stopped doing so when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, in the years after Jesus had died and risen again. So the Jewish "liturgy" does not contain the sacrificial rites that they had for thousands of years.
Muslims have retained sacrifice, once a year during the Haj. They have the direction and permission by God to designate their offerings and the delivery of these sacrificed animals as food for the poor.
Christians retained the instructions to sacrifice on the altar to God! This is something many do not realize, since modern religious instruction and formation has been so inadequate and ill informed. Christians never "dropped doing the sacrifice" because they followed the instructions of Jesus Christ about how to continue performing the sacrifice, but under the New Covenant.
Poor Israelites sacrificed a bowl of grain, since they could not afford a sheep or a bullock. It is mindful of this that Jesus Christ taught that he is now the bloodless sacrifice, in the form of wheat grain baked in bread, in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Humans cannot afford the price of their own salvation; it is far too high and out of reach. Only Jesus Christ could be the perfect sacrifice for the "poor," who is all of humanity. He therefore instructed very clearly in the Gospels that the sacrifice of bread to God is to continue to be done, with him being the Real Presence in the bread.
He lost some disciples when he first explained this, since they thought of it as cannibalism! Ironically, these Jewish disciples would continue to splash the blood of slain animals (bought through the money changers in the Temple), yet could not accept the sacrifice of the Real Presence in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. This is part of how Jesus showed that the elite of the Jewish faith had lost connection with the poor. Disciples who could afford blood sacrifice were shocked at the idea that Jesus would put himself into poor grains of bread as offering to God on behalf of humankind for their salvation.
So the Christians who stayed with Jesus understood what he said and did at the Last Supper, especially after his resurrection. Therefore you need to understand that the Catholic Church is actually the only faith of Abraham that continues to conduct sacrifice to God, as instructed by God, and reformed in the New Covenant by Jesus Christ.
You can now appreciate the incredible solemnity and continuity, therefore, of the procession of gift bearers in the Papal Masses, who are bringing the instruments of the sacrifice to the altar for the Holy Father to use in the sacrifice of the Mass. They are following the footsteps of Joseph and Mary when they brought Jesus to the Temple with two doves to sacrifice to God in gratitude for the birth of their son.
I hope this helps. I am astonished that people do not understand this great miracle and marvel of the Catholic Church.
During these two Masses people had an opportunity to see the section of the Mass called the presentation of the gifts. This is when people bring to the Holy Father items that will be used in the Holy Eucharist part of the Mass. So even though it is called "gifts" it is not the bringing of presents. It is called gifts because they are gifts for God.
This part of the Mass is the Christian interpretation of the uninterrupted worship of God through the performance of sacrifice on his altar, just as taught by God to the Israelites and documented in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament.
God, starting with Adam and Eve, and brought to detail with Abraham and Moses, taught humans how to perform sacrifice to him. The Old Testament details the rules for sacrifice and the forms it may take (animal, grain, oil or monetary sacrifice) and on what occasions it is required. In the Gospel we read how Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the Temple in order to sacrifice two doves as required. The first murder, that of Abel by Cain, occurred because Cain offered incorrect sacrifice to God and was jealous of the perfection of Abel's sacrifice. So the Israelites conducted sacrifice to God with precision and piety for thousands of years. They stopped doing so when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, in the years after Jesus had died and risen again. So the Jewish "liturgy" does not contain the sacrificial rites that they had for thousands of years.
Muslims have retained sacrifice, once a year during the Haj. They have the direction and permission by God to designate their offerings and the delivery of these sacrificed animals as food for the poor.
Christians retained the instructions to sacrifice on the altar to God! This is something many do not realize, since modern religious instruction and formation has been so inadequate and ill informed. Christians never "dropped doing the sacrifice" because they followed the instructions of Jesus Christ about how to continue performing the sacrifice, but under the New Covenant.
Poor Israelites sacrificed a bowl of grain, since they could not afford a sheep or a bullock. It is mindful of this that Jesus Christ taught that he is now the bloodless sacrifice, in the form of wheat grain baked in bread, in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Humans cannot afford the price of their own salvation; it is far too high and out of reach. Only Jesus Christ could be the perfect sacrifice for the "poor," who is all of humanity. He therefore instructed very clearly in the Gospels that the sacrifice of bread to God is to continue to be done, with him being the Real Presence in the bread.
He lost some disciples when he first explained this, since they thought of it as cannibalism! Ironically, these Jewish disciples would continue to splash the blood of slain animals (bought through the money changers in the Temple), yet could not accept the sacrifice of the Real Presence in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. This is part of how Jesus showed that the elite of the Jewish faith had lost connection with the poor. Disciples who could afford blood sacrifice were shocked at the idea that Jesus would put himself into poor grains of bread as offering to God on behalf of humankind for their salvation.
So the Christians who stayed with Jesus understood what he said and did at the Last Supper, especially after his resurrection. Therefore you need to understand that the Catholic Church is actually the only faith of Abraham that continues to conduct sacrifice to God, as instructed by God, and reformed in the New Covenant by Jesus Christ.
You can now appreciate the incredible solemnity and continuity, therefore, of the procession of gift bearers in the Papal Masses, who are bringing the instruments of the sacrifice to the altar for the Holy Father to use in the sacrifice of the Mass. They are following the footsteps of Joseph and Mary when they brought Jesus to the Temple with two doves to sacrifice to God in gratitude for the birth of their son.
I hope this helps. I am astonished that people do not understand this great miracle and marvel of the Catholic Church.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Congratulations Houston Co-Cathedral
So I watched the coverage of the consecration of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, thanks to the generosity of ABC13.com who had a live feed. Their coverage throughout the building of the cathedral has been wonderful and they are really to be commended. I'm grateful that they had this live feed so even a non-TV owner like myself could watch and participate from afar. I think the newscasters and their guest Cardinal Foley did an excellent job of balancing reverential time to view the ceremony with informative discussion at timely moments and even informational clips. So I join the praise they rightly deserve.
The Cathedral itself is wonderful and I admire the vision combined with cost effectiveness of the project. I can tell that everything was made using the best materials, a reverent vision and timeless craftsmanship. Everyone involved with the creating of this place of God should be commended and ought to be very proud of themselves. I especially like the idea of the illuminated 40 foot stained glass window of the resurrected Christ. Many people have grown up without knowledge of the warm glow of their small town church, providing a spiritual and a literal comfort both day and night. When I grew up our church was always unlocked, and always a warm haven for those who wanted to pray in God's house. But times of course have changed and churches must be locked. Here in the south I was told in our local cathedral that the sacred plate ware was stolen even as service ended, say nothing of leaving the church itself unattended, and so it too is locked and I got a peek only when people were changing a light bulb. I can't explain to those who did not grow up with it what they are missing by living in a time and place where the local Catholic church must be kept under lock at all times. But here in Houston you can see the window, with the sign of faith and proof of the fulfillment of scriptures with the beautiful illuminated window of the resurrected Christ. It's not the same as the roadside crosses that we often see (and I'm always glad someone cares enough to show their faith in that way). A Catholic Church is a microcosm of the entry to heaven, and so this grand window is like God having his Son, the Lord, keep the light on for one and all. So this was a magnificent concept and compensates in some small way for the sadness of having to lock the actual house of God itself. After school we kids loved to pop into our local church and pray, light candles for loved ones, and pick up holy cards, rosaries, holy medals that people would leave. The church was always open. And now the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will always be illuminated in promise for those who believe.
I'm impressed that Houston received the last fragment of the True Cross as one of their relics. That is quite a statement of faith and I look forward to the Catholics flourishing throughout Texas, and the South.
There are many challenges in being a modern architect and artist. Most who do so are reverential, but are informed by an aesthetic of spareness and modernity plus they do not fully appreciate the primary purpose of the Catholic sanctuary, which is the performance of sacrifice to God. The Mass is literally a sacrifice, just as it was for the ancient Israelites who hoisted the bullock or the smaller animals, or grains and oils from the poor, to offer up to God, killing and burning the sacrifices. This is why incense is such an important part of in particular the Eastern rite, because they recall that God himself alluded to the smoke and fragrance of the sacrifice rising to heaven. (The news hosts asked about the incense and Cardinal Foley did not have time to fill them in on this origin of incense. Incense is the carry over of the times when sacrifice was literally burned on the altar in offering to God, with the smoke and fragrance carrying the sign of that sacrifice aloft). This is what the Church body gathers to do at Mass, to conduct sacrifice as God himself taught them to do, although now the sacrifice is the Paschal Lamb of Jesus Christ. It is similar to how Muslims no longer require each believer to perform an animal sacrifice during the Haj, but they are able to purchase the conducting of a sacrifice on their behalf and the meat being given to the poor. Jesus freed the Jews who became Christians, and the Gentiles who followed, from having to literally take from their household treasure and sacrifice an animal, a pair of doves, or a bowl of grain to God. But he did not free them from the obligation to sacrifice to God in worship service. Jesus made himself, in the bread and wine, the Real Presence so that he is the lamb that is offered to God, rather than one that is raised without blemish in the pasture for that purpose. It is the perfection of Jesus that allows his suitability to offer himself to God as the real sacrifice of the New Covenant. This is why I am furious when people who ought to know better (I don't mind the ones who genuinely are not informed) "wreck ovate" Catholic Churches to be performance theaters rather than solemn places of sacrifice and collective offering to God. (Hence my rant below about the Milwaukee Cathedral. Just because Vatican II wanted to make reforms to allow better participation and comprehension does not mean that erroneous participation is now a good idea.) The Catholic Mass is not the place for gazing at each other's darling faces while feeling all warm and fuzzy about the "community." It's a place where people gather together to face the altar of God and make the Sacrifice of the Mass.
So detail and overall comprehension of this purpose is very important in the designing of a cathedral, or any church. Modernists "get" the reverence but they don't "get" the dialogue with God that entails coming together to perform the sacrifice. Also, Modernists don't get the nook and cranny part of the Catholic faith, which is the side chapels, shrines and places of intimate worship where one can pray and reflect with the encouragement of the communion of saints. This is why there is what Modernists consider "gaudy" and lots of little "decorations," because the saints are like the family album of the Catholics where you can be in their company and receive their encouragement even though they have died and received their reward in heaven. So as much as I love the reverence of the gigantic beautiful sculptures in the new Co-Cathedral, it's not the same as an alcove where candles and icons and statuary are crammed together to create an intimate "family" space of prayer. So I understand the challenge and this lack of perspective among even those who specialize in religious architecture and decorations of the church, and I accept the marvelous beauty of the floating statues and the lifelike sculptures of the saints. But that teeters more toward museum and art statement than I like, or would recommend. The gap between God and humans is wide, and modernity only increases it from the perspective of the human who seeks to reach across the gap in worship and prayer. Look at how the victims of the earthquake in Peru caressed the statuary that survived the collapse of their Churches, bringing the statue of Christ into the public square to be there face to face with them as they cried over their loss. Catholics have an incredible gift from God in the intimacy of the communion of saints. I am sad when I see it made gigantic and out of their reach. Also, the "realism" of Modernity provides another challenge of how to select the features of face and body depicted. It's distracting from the faith to see statues with the faces of people who live upstairs from me. There was a reason for the generic and primitive idealized art of the saints. The faith is for everyone, that is why it is called "Catholic," but the saints aren't supposed to have the faces of the guy down the street who drinks beer, or the skinny broad upstairs who wears tight pants. They are not supposed to look like literally someone you know. It annoys me to recognize the mug of some celebrity on the statue of a saint. It annoys me when robes are made to drape like they are pants instead of a robe. It annoys me when Jesus is made to look "gay." Now I'm not only speaking of the Co-Cathedral now; I'm talking about other cathedrals and other places too. That does not make it "better" or make them "more accessible." It makes their features a distraction from the message and the mission. Um, remember what the Church is about? The House of GOD. You know, God, the one who thankfully the artists do not depict (and Islam forbids, wisely). When you are thinking about the mugs of the saints and how marvelous the artwork is, and looking for the subliminal messages (and boy they are there), you are not thinking about GOD. GOD. GOD. Get it? Now I'm not criticizing those who have put heart and soul into these beautiful works of art and devotion, because most of them work purely. But you know that along the way "Modernists" like to bake their personal art conceits and "messages" into their art, and so designs get tweeked. I hope that the statue of the BVM does not have "Nina" hidden in seven places in her robe.
The Cathedral itself is wonderful and I admire the vision combined with cost effectiveness of the project. I can tell that everything was made using the best materials, a reverent vision and timeless craftsmanship. Everyone involved with the creating of this place of God should be commended and ought to be very proud of themselves. I especially like the idea of the illuminated 40 foot stained glass window of the resurrected Christ. Many people have grown up without knowledge of the warm glow of their small town church, providing a spiritual and a literal comfort both day and night. When I grew up our church was always unlocked, and always a warm haven for those who wanted to pray in God's house. But times of course have changed and churches must be locked. Here in the south I was told in our local cathedral that the sacred plate ware was stolen even as service ended, say nothing of leaving the church itself unattended, and so it too is locked and I got a peek only when people were changing a light bulb. I can't explain to those who did not grow up with it what they are missing by living in a time and place where the local Catholic church must be kept under lock at all times. But here in Houston you can see the window, with the sign of faith and proof of the fulfillment of scriptures with the beautiful illuminated window of the resurrected Christ. It's not the same as the roadside crosses that we often see (and I'm always glad someone cares enough to show their faith in that way). A Catholic Church is a microcosm of the entry to heaven, and so this grand window is like God having his Son, the Lord, keep the light on for one and all. So this was a magnificent concept and compensates in some small way for the sadness of having to lock the actual house of God itself. After school we kids loved to pop into our local church and pray, light candles for loved ones, and pick up holy cards, rosaries, holy medals that people would leave. The church was always open. And now the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will always be illuminated in promise for those who believe.
I'm impressed that Houston received the last fragment of the True Cross as one of their relics. That is quite a statement of faith and I look forward to the Catholics flourishing throughout Texas, and the South.
There are many challenges in being a modern architect and artist. Most who do so are reverential, but are informed by an aesthetic of spareness and modernity plus they do not fully appreciate the primary purpose of the Catholic sanctuary, which is the performance of sacrifice to God. The Mass is literally a sacrifice, just as it was for the ancient Israelites who hoisted the bullock or the smaller animals, or grains and oils from the poor, to offer up to God, killing and burning the sacrifices. This is why incense is such an important part of in particular the Eastern rite, because they recall that God himself alluded to the smoke and fragrance of the sacrifice rising to heaven. (The news hosts asked about the incense and Cardinal Foley did not have time to fill them in on this origin of incense. Incense is the carry over of the times when sacrifice was literally burned on the altar in offering to God, with the smoke and fragrance carrying the sign of that sacrifice aloft). This is what the Church body gathers to do at Mass, to conduct sacrifice as God himself taught them to do, although now the sacrifice is the Paschal Lamb of Jesus Christ. It is similar to how Muslims no longer require each believer to perform an animal sacrifice during the Haj, but they are able to purchase the conducting of a sacrifice on their behalf and the meat being given to the poor. Jesus freed the Jews who became Christians, and the Gentiles who followed, from having to literally take from their household treasure and sacrifice an animal, a pair of doves, or a bowl of grain to God. But he did not free them from the obligation to sacrifice to God in worship service. Jesus made himself, in the bread and wine, the Real Presence so that he is the lamb that is offered to God, rather than one that is raised without blemish in the pasture for that purpose. It is the perfection of Jesus that allows his suitability to offer himself to God as the real sacrifice of the New Covenant. This is why I am furious when people who ought to know better (I don't mind the ones who genuinely are not informed) "wreck ovate" Catholic Churches to be performance theaters rather than solemn places of sacrifice and collective offering to God. (Hence my rant below about the Milwaukee Cathedral. Just because Vatican II wanted to make reforms to allow better participation and comprehension does not mean that erroneous participation is now a good idea.) The Catholic Mass is not the place for gazing at each other's darling faces while feeling all warm and fuzzy about the "community." It's a place where people gather together to face the altar of God and make the Sacrifice of the Mass.
So detail and overall comprehension of this purpose is very important in the designing of a cathedral, or any church. Modernists "get" the reverence but they don't "get" the dialogue with God that entails coming together to perform the sacrifice. Also, Modernists don't get the nook and cranny part of the Catholic faith, which is the side chapels, shrines and places of intimate worship where one can pray and reflect with the encouragement of the communion of saints. This is why there is what Modernists consider "gaudy" and lots of little "decorations," because the saints are like the family album of the Catholics where you can be in their company and receive their encouragement even though they have died and received their reward in heaven. So as much as I love the reverence of the gigantic beautiful sculptures in the new Co-Cathedral, it's not the same as an alcove where candles and icons and statuary are crammed together to create an intimate "family" space of prayer. So I understand the challenge and this lack of perspective among even those who specialize in religious architecture and decorations of the church, and I accept the marvelous beauty of the floating statues and the lifelike sculptures of the saints. But that teeters more toward museum and art statement than I like, or would recommend. The gap between God and humans is wide, and modernity only increases it from the perspective of the human who seeks to reach across the gap in worship and prayer. Look at how the victims of the earthquake in Peru caressed the statuary that survived the collapse of their Churches, bringing the statue of Christ into the public square to be there face to face with them as they cried over their loss. Catholics have an incredible gift from God in the intimacy of the communion of saints. I am sad when I see it made gigantic and out of their reach. Also, the "realism" of Modernity provides another challenge of how to select the features of face and body depicted. It's distracting from the faith to see statues with the faces of people who live upstairs from me. There was a reason for the generic and primitive idealized art of the saints. The faith is for everyone, that is why it is called "Catholic," but the saints aren't supposed to have the faces of the guy down the street who drinks beer, or the skinny broad upstairs who wears tight pants. They are not supposed to look like literally someone you know. It annoys me to recognize the mug of some celebrity on the statue of a saint. It annoys me when robes are made to drape like they are pants instead of a robe. It annoys me when Jesus is made to look "gay." Now I'm not only speaking of the Co-Cathedral now; I'm talking about other cathedrals and other places too. That does not make it "better" or make them "more accessible." It makes their features a distraction from the message and the mission. Um, remember what the Church is about? The House of GOD. You know, God, the one who thankfully the artists do not depict (and Islam forbids, wisely). When you are thinking about the mugs of the saints and how marvelous the artwork is, and looking for the subliminal messages (and boy they are there), you are not thinking about GOD. GOD. GOD. Get it? Now I'm not criticizing those who have put heart and soul into these beautiful works of art and devotion, because most of them work purely. But you know that along the way "Modernists" like to bake their personal art conceits and "messages" into their art, and so designs get tweeked. I hope that the statue of the BVM does not have "Nina" hidden in seven places in her robe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
