You will recognize this, GipperGal, from the historical Maronite church architecture. The "curtain" or veil was traditional for the Syrian Aramaic Church. The first Maronite Churches were constructed on top of Jewish synagogues and to this day, retain some of their original elements.
The Ark of the Tabernacle was a wooden casket used as a repository for the holy things (Tablets of the Law). It was considered the throne or dwelling place for the Lord. The Ark in the Holy of Holies was protected and concealed by a veil to emphasize the "shekinah" or glory of God under His tent.
It is significant to note the development in the Christian understanding of the temple which was identified with the Body of Christ. The Church was not merely the symbolic but the real presence of God. This new temple was made up of the apostles and prophets who were the foundations of the temple. Christ was its cornerstone and principle of cohesion (unity) and each Christian was a living stone set on the foundation by the Holy Spirit. Together with Christ, the community of believers made up His dwelling place. (1Cor. 3,9; 2 Cor. 6, 16; Ephs. 2, 19-22). This earthly temple was a forshadowing of the heavenly temple (Apoc. 3, 12; 7, 15).
It is this understanding handed on by the early Church, which formed the attitudes for Christian worship and formulated the guidelines for Church architecture in the Syro-Antiochene Church, the oldest tradition in the Catholic Church.
That tradition is retained in the Maronite Divine Liturgy, with the Prayer of the Veil.
O Lord,
may your peace, true love,
and eternal and divine grace
be with us and among us all the days of our lives,
and we will give you glory and thanksgiving,
now and forever.
Some of the Maronite Churches are now restoring the curtain .... veil. Vatican Council II Fathers challenged the Church to interiorize its faith and renew its public worship. This need to return to the sources is due to the fact that over the years, the Maronite Church, wishing to manifest its unwavering fidelity to the Church of rome, readily accepted Roman adaptations and latinizations. As a result, the Maronite Church has fallen away from its original traditions. The deep thirst to rediscover the original Maronite traditions has been taken up by each diocese and by the Church Synod.
And those latinizations shouldn't be in the Maronite church. Or the Byzantine. Or the Coptic..etc.
Yes, I believe there was a big debate about this in Michigan when the Maronites build St. Sharbel's in Sterling Heights. BTW, I just heard from my nephew that St. Sharbel's Maronite community in Sterling Heights(which was brand-spankin' new when I left Michigan to move to the land of the Taj Mahoney) has grown so much in the last ten years that they are now talking about building another Maronite parish in the area! You'll find this part fun, NYer: Apparently, the reason why the community is growing so big so fast is not because the Lebanese are suddenly having an immigration or baby boom, but because so many Latin Rite Catholics have joined the Maronites! I thought of you when I heard that. LOL! (Can you imagine if they included all these American Maronite parishes in the a new Lebanese census? We'd out number the Druze and the Muslims for sure this time! No more of this 60 vs 40 percent stuff. Hmm... Actually, this ain't such a bad idea. Does anyone have Patriarch Sfeir's phone number?)
Yes--but Ratzinger specifically alludes to the "ripping of the (Temple) veil" at the death of Xt in an essay, concluding that this ripping moved worship to a "cosmic" status, rather than confined to the Temple.
IOW, the ripping symbolized the inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Covenant.