Posted on 10/20/2005 5:32:43 AM PDT by NYer
A Primer for Clueless Catholics
Part II
A Sacred Darkness
So far, we have learned this: that the Mass is primarily a Sacrifice.
Unless we begin to grasp this, we can go no further. We are, as it were, standing at the door looking in, aware that we are in the vestibule of something deeply sacred. Beyond the doors we will encounter something that we have never experienced in our lives: the Sacrifice --- not of bread or wine; not even a merely "commemorative", still less a "symbolic", Sacrifice. No. We will witness the Sacrifice of a Human Being.
We will witness death.
As in most things of great importance, our eyes will betray us. You know well of what I speak. The world of "appearances" that surrounds us so often as a lie. It is among the greatest of paradoxes that we are blinded by our sight, and given sight by our blindness. Things are so seldom what they appear to be: the fluted columns of "marble" that are plaster no less than the tongue that greets you in kindness and which will calumniate you as soon as you pass. Our eyes tell us that this man is sinful and that woman pious, seeing nothing of the humility in the one and the pride in the other. How much love, and how much malice, is concealed from our eyes. Why, the very sky itself is not blue, but only appears so.
At the door of the Church, you enter, or ought to enter, a sacred darkness. The world lies without. God lies within. Appearances must fall away the moment you anoint yourself with the Holy Water and sign yourself with the Cross. The world has passed. You have entered another dimension in which time itself is anointed with eternity. Your eyes will avail you nothing here. Here they will distract you, vex you, call you to your neighbor and away from God. Your ears will not be deafened by a sacred silence, but will contend with a thousand words that have no place in Church, and before the Living God.
The only one who will not compete for your attention is God. The humility of God is stunning.
To Whom have you come this day? To God. Where is He?
No, He is not upon the Altar. Not yet. Nor is He in the statues, if any remain. He is not even in the Crucifix ... at least not yet.
But He is there. No, no ... not in the mindless aphorism that "God is everywhere." He is truly here. He has deigned to come to a place, a specific place, and to dwell there in utter humility. A place before which you can actually kneel, lift up your face, close your eyes, and look upon Him. ... as He looks upon you. He confines Himself for you, because He knows your littleness.
"But where?", you ask with incredulity. "Where is the Living God, that I may be before Him?" How this can be you will soon understand, but right now it is only important that you realize that he is there --- right before you. Not symbolically, not metaphorically --- but Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, He is there! As really and truly as I would be, could I stand before you. You could ... in fact, you will ... even touch Him!
The difference between His being there before you, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity --- and His being absent from you --- is the blink of an eye ... an eye that sees not upon opening, but closing. It is the difference that Mary, the Mother of God, experienced as she stood at the foot of the Cross and closed her eyes in her unfathomable grief ...
Was Jesus still on the Cross before her as she closed her eyes?
He is no less present to you when you have knelt before Him and closed your eyes ...
Where?
In the Tabernacle ... in that little gold House of the Living God within which He dwells really and truly ... in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar ... under what only appears to be a humble Host, what, to the eyes, is only bread. Bread? Yes, Bread! "The Bread of Angels that has come down from Heaven" and which to eat is life everlasting (Saint John 6:48-52). He is there!
You will find the Tabernacle behind the Altar --- sadly, often shunted off to the side, but if you look carefully, you will find it, and when you find it you will find Him! Most often it has a little door (for Him Who is "the Gate") upon which two engraved angels face each other in adoration of Him within. But they are made merely of gold. You are made in the very image of God! Do no less ... and adore Him Who awaits you there.
This is Part 2 of an 8 part series ... and it is simply awesome!
| Adoro Te Devote Note: The text of this hymn was composed by St. Thomas Aquinas
|
Here is what our Holy Father says about it in his book "The Spirit of the Liturgy:"
“And so little by little the tabernacle takes shape, and more and more, always in a spontaneous way, it takes the place previously occupied by the now disappeared ‘Ark of the Covenant.’ In fact, the tabernacle is the complete fulfillment of what the Ark of the Covenant represented. It is the place of the ‘Holy of Holies.’ It is the tent of God, his throne. His presence (Shekinah) really does now dwell among us - in the humblest parish church no less than in the grandest cathedral.”
The Ark of the Covenant angels, with the monstrance between them, on top of the rood screen in the church on EWTN show this reality in a really beautiful way.
NYer,
There doesn't seem to be a live link here.
(Thank you for posting these!)
It's up at the beginning of the text .... So far, we have learned this .... but thank you for posting the link below.
The bronze tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was designed and fabricated by sculptor Max DeMoss. The tabernacle reserves the blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist, which is taken to the sick and elderly by Eucharistic Ministers during the week.
At ten feet tall, the tabernacle consists of three towers and weighs a total of 1400 pounds. Along with the arc, many of the elements of the tabernacle were designed to conspire with the architecture to bring the viewer a sense of ascension, of being closer to God. The tabernacle's vertical composition draws the eye to the heavens. The patina, or color coating, has the same effect, by gradually making the transition from dark to light as it travels up the tabernacle with the eye.
VS
Which of these inspires heavenly thoughts!!!
I wonder if Max is Catholic.
I wonder if Mahony is!!
Have you ever seen anything so hideous. And to think that our Lord is locked up inside that thing (assuming those hosts are validly consecrated).
Where the Blessed Sacrament should be.
Where the Blessed Sacrament should be.
I think the verdict is in. Let us pray for his conversion.
Oh Lord, it looks like he chopped off some old organ pipes.
There are angels with bended knee in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at my church. They all should have that.
'not in the mindless aphorism that "God is everywhere."'
If this were so, then God would be operating against our free will to reject or accept Him into our hearts.
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