Since we are going to explore in the coming weeks the meaning of the Mass, it seems a unique opportunity to put together at least in a cursory way a truly Catholic commentary on the Mass, an approach to the Church's Eucharistic Liturgy that takes into account insights from all the various liturgical Traditions that make up the Catholic Church.
I would like to begin today with what I believe is the necessary introduction to such a commentary, the consideration of the church building, the temple, in which the Liturgy is celebrated. What is the significance of the Christian temple and its furnishings? Saint Maximus the Confessor helps us answer this question. He gives us the following propositions that, when properly understood, explain how the church building is the fitting setting for the worship of the True God: First of all, the cosmos is a temple; then, the temple is a cosmos. Second, the human being is a cosmos, and the cosmos is a human being. Third, the human being is a temple, and the temple is a human being. These three sets of propositions begin to reveal the importance of what we are doing in the Liturgy.
In the first place let's consider the first set: the cosmos is a temple and the temple is a cosmos. These truths are very clearly revealed to us in Scriptures. There, we find that the Lord's sanctuary was intended to be a representational model of the visible and invisible creation. The Book of Psalms says of God, "He built His shrine like the heavens and like the earth that stands firm forever. In the whole of the cosmos, everything that exists has one single orientation towards its end, that is God. Everything is moving towards its fulfillment in God. In the same way, the temple has the same orientation. Out in our various occupations and enterprises in this world, we move in every direction, often with competing interests and desires. In the church building, on the other hand, everyone is oriented towards and finds his or her purpose in God. The world may be full of confusion, but the temple draws us into unity.
Further, the cosmos is divided into the physical and the spiritual world. In the same way, the church building is divided into a nave and sanctuary. Usually the sanctuary, the area immediately around the altar, is raised at least one step above the nave, showing that the spiritual world is prior to and greather than the physical world. Nevertheless, there is a connection between these two worlds. That connection is the human being. Because the human being is composite, a physical and a spiritual being at the same time, there is continuous communication between these two worlds. The human being is designed as the priest: to enter the spiritual world, offering the physical world to God, and then return to the physical world, bearing the graces and blessings that come from God.
Second, we must keep in mind that the human being is a cosmos; he is the microcosm: composed of physical and spiritual realities. At the same time, in a metaphorical sense, the cosmos is also a human being. It is made of the aforementioned physical and spiritual realities elements. In this arrangement, the spiritual has a headship over the physical. The entire cosmos is head and body, just as the human being is head and body.
The third set of propositions is especially important to our understanding: the temple is a man and man is a temple. Just as the temple consists of a sanctuary and a nave, so to does the human being consist of a head and a body, a soul and a body. It is not the desires of the body that are to direct the whole man, but the whole human being is under the headship of the soul. The sanctuary represents this soul. In the center of the sanctuary is the altar. The altar represents the mind. It is covered by various clean and radiant cloths and surmounted by the cross of Christ. In the same way, our mind must be protected (clothed) by the various virtues. It must be occupied with the suffering and death of Christ. Nothing unclean must be allowed to touch the altar, but the incense of prayer must be offered there.
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