Posted on 07/31/2015 7:13:24 AM PDT by Salvation
In yesterday’s readings at Mass we read about how Moses laid out the “tent of meeting” exactly according to the pattern God gave him up on the mountain. A millennium later John described a similar scene of the sanctuary in Heaven.
Few Catholics today realize that God actually did indicate a good deal about how He expects our churches to be designed. And while some degree of variation is allowed and has existed, most modern churches have significantly departed from the instructions God gave. We do well to ponder church architecture not merely as an aesthetic question, but also as a question of fidelity to what God expects.
For the Church, the Scriptures are more than just ink spots on a page. The Scriptures are manifest in proclaiming how we live, how we are organized hierarchically, our sacraments, our liturgy, and even the design of our buildings.
Long before most people could read, the Church was preaching the Gospel. And to do so, she used the very structure of her buildings to preach. Many of our older buildings are sermons in stone and stained glass.
The Scriptures come alive in our art, statues, paintings, and in the majestic stained glass windows that soar along the walls of our churches like jewels of light. Even the height and shape of our older churches preach the Word. The height draws our eyes up to Heaven as if to say, Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand (Col 3:1). And the shape of most of our older churches is that of a cross, as if to say, May I never glory in anything save the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14).
My own parish church is a sermon in stone, wood, and glass. It is designed around the Book of Revelation (Chapters 4 and 5), in which John is caught up into Heaven and describes it in detail. The fundamental design of the sanctuary drawn from Revelation 4 and 5 includes the throne-like altar (Rev 4:2), seven tall candles around the throne (Rev 4:5), and the four living creatures in the clerestory windows above the altar (Rev 4:6-8). At the center of the altar is the tabernacle, wherein dwells the once-slain Lamb who lives forever, Jesus (Rev 5:6). Around the throne (altar) are seated the 24 elders (Rev. 4:4), symbolized by the 12 wooden pillars on the back sanctuary wall and the 12 stained glass windows of the Apostles in the transept. The multitude of angels surrounding the throne (Rev 5:11) are symbolized by the blue and gold diamonds on the apse wall.
I have assembled pictures of these details along with the texts from Revelation in the following PDF document: Holy Comforter Church in Washington D.C. and the Book of Revelation
In effect, the builders of my church (built in 1939) were saying, when you walk into this church, you have entered Heaven. Indeed, it is a replica of the heavenly vision of John. And when we celebrate the Liturgy it is more than just a replica, for we are taken up to Heaven in every Mass, where we join countless angels and saints around the heavenly altar. There, we worship God with them. We don’t have to wait for some rapture; we go there in every Mass.
But there is more! For what John saw in Heaven is none other than what God prescribed to Moses. God told Moses quite explicitly how to construct the ancient sanctuary, the tent of meeting in the desert. The layout, materials, and elements were all carefully described.
And, having given these details, God said, Now have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you (Exodus 25:8-9). And God later said, See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain (Ex 25:40). And God repeated, Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain (Ex 26:40).
The Book of Hebrews explained why God insisted that the pattern be followed so exactly: They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven (Heb 8:5). In other words, the Ancient Temple was meant to be a replica, or pattern of the heavenly sanctuary.
Most older Catholic churches maintain the basic pattern of what Moses was shown. This diagram compares the layout of the sanctuary in my parish church, Holy Comforter St. Cyprian (HCSC), with the layout of the temple:
In the photo just below, you can see the remarkable similarity more visually. The pattern is even etched on the floor of my church, echoing a detail about the layout of the temple that Ezekiel described:
So there were four tables on one side of the gateway [of the sanctuary] and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered (Ez 40:41).
On the left below is a depiction of the setup of the tent of meeting as it was when the people were still in the desert. Next to it is a photo of my parish church sanctuary. You can see the remarkable similarity.
Note the way the scrollwork on the floor of my parish matches the four tables on either side in the sanctuary where the animals were slaughtered. The fiery square and horned altar in the diagram of the temple are represented by the horned square on the floor of my church. In the diagram of the ancient sanctuary, the holy place, the holy of holies towers in the back, as do the high altar and tabernacle in my parish church.
Simply put, the builders of my parish church remarkably depicted the ancient temple as well as the vision of Heaven from the Book of Revelation. This is what church buildings should do: exemplify the heavenly sanctuary, the plan for which God Himself gave. Sadly, modern architecture has departed from that plan significantly. But in recent years, there has been something of a return to that plan, a trend for which we can only be grateful.
The Catholic Church is surely a biblical Church. My very building shouts the Word! We Catholics preach the Word not only with ink and in speech, but also in stone, wood, glass, liturgy, and the arts—all to the glory of God.
Here is a video of some of the details of my parish.
SHEKINAH
SHEKINAR
MISHKAN
refers the dwelling place of God
His SHEKINAH Glory, refers to the pillar of fire, which preceded the Hebrew nation as they traveled through the desert by night or pillar of smoke by day and when they settled, they erected the Tabernacle tent (Latin for tent), it is referenced as the MISHKAN or Dwelling Place, same root as SHEKINAH, to dwell.
The Halo depicted about a saints head in paintings has its root in the SHEKINAH Glory present today. It might be manifest by the indwelling of God in the believer in our human spirit.
There are no holy buildings today in the Church Age, because God chooses by His Volition, known as His Sovereignty, where He is going to dwell. In His Plan, He now dwells in the human spirit of the believer.
While an auditorium meeting place of believers is a good place for architectural symbology, to educate the believers in His Word, their design indeed may take on many of the same aspects of the Tabernacle.
Well said and interesting. My first response wasn’t against the freedom to use “symbology”, but Charles poorly quoting Hebrews to make HIS point (when the text was making another, all told). Even that was probably pointless but I HAD to go there (slow learner).
The bible tells us why he spoke in parables...
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
but in His infinite wisdom, He chose to speak in ways that we have to interpret.
Not so much...Jesus explained many of the parables...The solution is not interpretation but belief...We must believe the scriptures and then compare them with other scriptures to get the full picture...
People who throw out part of the Old Testament most certainly have blasphemed the Holy Spirit by insisting that the Holy Spirit is imperfect and therefore not part of the Trinity. That logically follows from their insisting that the Holy Spirit could not and did not protect His Holy Word from including error for nearly seventeen hundred years.
You might take note that I stated, ". . . about church design or anything else."
Hope that clears up your little reading comprehension problem.
You might also want to try reading and studying a complete Bible rather than the anti-Christ, anti-Christian, Pharisee Rabbi Approved Luther Subset of Scripture
have a lovely day
Iscool, I’m pretty conversant with the Bible and have spent a lot of time learning and pondering.
The verses that you quote do not answer “why”, other than that it is not for us to know, for now. Still some big “whys” there. Maybe you have figured out the mysteries of the universe, and, if so, good for you and we can quit discussing religion at all.
(Be careful how you answer - I could start quoting Job).
Isn’t that amazing? Devout young men enter the priesthood due to grace... not corny billboards, slick magazine ads or commercials on MTV?!? Who would have guessed?! Could this mean that in 50 or so years we might get our Church back?
Church design is the subject of the piece, wherefore I mentioned it and not “other things”. Did I fail to comprehend what this post was about?
gotcha
Thanks for making the point that some people don't consider guidance from the Holy Spirit important when discussing church related issues.
Blasphemy against the Spirit, specifically, is seeing Jesus work miracles and saying it was Beelzebub. Inventing another definition is ill-advised.
Someone needs to look up the definition of terms as they've been used for several thousand years rather than what some self-appointed authority says or spinning their own definition based on their own personal interpretation of whatever portion of the Luther Subset of Scripture they like today and may well ignore tomorrow.
Alas, the Self and Self Alone lie euphemistically known as "Scripture Alone" rules the minds of those who buy into that diabolical deception so I seriously doubt what the true meaning of any particular word is important to such folks just like the portion of Scripture they threw into the garbage can isn't important to them.
have a nice day
So, another attempt to change the subject by changing definitions of words to suit whatever current Self and Self Alone interpretation some particular fallacy requires fails outright because throwing Scripture in the garbage can denies the deity of the Holy Spirit alone or the deity of the entire Trinity.
Have a lovely Self and Self Alone illusion sort of day.
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