The Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 12 – February 14, 2010
The tabernacle is the “house” found beneath the crucifix in the chapel. The left over Communion is kept there for our worship – Christ uniquely present on this property.
The word tabernacle itself comes from the Latin word for a small tent or hut. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the tabernacle was the portable sanctuary the Israelites used during their time in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The Book of Exodus tells how the tabernacle was to be built.
This was no small tent. Made of poles and curtains, it stretched some 145 feet long and 72 wide and stood 7 feet high. Inside it was another enclosure, also made of poles and curtains. This was divided in two by a curtain. Behind the veil was the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant – the sacred chest containing the stone tablets of the Commandments. In front of it stood an altar of incense, a table for bread offered to Yahweh, and a seven-branched lamp stand (called a menorah.)
Outside the smaller enclosure was an altar for burnt offerings and a large tub the priest used for washing before making an offering to the Lord.
According to Exodus, as the Israelites traveled in the wilderness, the whole structure of the tabernacle was dismantled and reassembled wherever they camped. But Scripture Scholars now point out, it would have been extremely difficult for a people wandering to make and move something so large and grand. Also they note, the physical description of the tabernacle closely matches what later was Solomon’s Temple. Thus these scholars suspect the biblical reference is more of a retrojection of the Temple back to the time in the desert.
That’s not to say the account in Exodus is just a fiction. Rather, scholars suggest, the tabernacle was somewhat simpler – a tent most likely, which could be set up by one person and used as a shrine. It served as a “tent of meeting” where God in a divine cloud would speak with Moses.
In the early days of Christianity, there were no tabernacles – no receptacles – like Catholic churches have today. Down through the centuries, in fact, how and where the Hosts were kept has varied. Sometimes it was in the church, sometimes in the sacristy. Some places kept the Blessed Sacrament in an ambry – a niche near the altar – or “sacrament house.” Others used a moveable repository such as a pyx or metal dove placed near the altar or suspended above it.
The pyx – from the Latin and Greek for “box” – was first kept in peoples’ homes. Later the custom was to keep it in the sacristy and later still to have it on the altar.
In the 1500’s, a trend emerged for placing tabernacles on altars. That custom first became a local law and then a general law of the Roman Church in 1613. After the Second Vatican Council, though the norm changed once again, and the tabernacle was moved from the main altar. The first choice now is for a separate chapel to hold the Blessed Sacrament. When that’s not possible, the tabernacle is to be kept at a side altar.
The sanctuary lamp (echoing the seven branched menorah) burns continuously nearby to indicate the Sacred Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist within the tabernacle. A Catholic should not pass the tabernacle without genuflecting – bending his/her right knee to the floor as a sign of deep reverence for Christ who is uniquely present there.
*********
This Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) the Church begins its forty-day observance of Lent. It is a time to prepare for the celebration of the ultimate Christian holy day of Easter. The theme that will be emphasized day after day is this serious season is repentance. In the bible, repentance flows from the notion of sin (a very unpopular – almost forbidden word today). Sin is an act or attitude that can be corrected by some change in the person. The change that the Bible calls for, however, is radical change, a complete turning around. If a person is headed north; turn around and head south. The radical change is not theoretical. It is aimed not only at how we think but also, most critically, at how we live. It is made concrete through acts of repentance such as giving alms, fasting, and praying. The gospel makes it very clear that none of our acts of repentance is done for show or for recognition. To do so turns the penitent into a hypocrite (an actor or fraud.) Repentance is not about public image (difficult to grasp when today seemingly everything is done for public image.) Authentic repentance is about a substantial change of behavior that is rooted in a radical change of heart. Only God needs to know about this. The only public image the church will employ (make use of) during these days of Lent will take place on Wednesday, when a small cross is made on the believer’s forehead with ashes. This recalls our origin from the dust and our final goal to return there. With this symbol we will be called to repentance.
*************
“Take from me the spirit of sloth…” From the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian.
“It (the spirit of sloth) is the basic disease. It is that strange laziness and passivity of our entire being which always pushes us down rather than up – which constantly convinces us that no change is possible and therefore desirable. It is in fact a deeply rooted cynicism which to every spiritual challenge responds, “what for?” and makes our life one tremendous spiritual waste. It is the root of all sin because it poisons the spiritual energy at its very source.”
