+BOWING TOWARD THE ALTAR Chapter Talk 12 Nov. ‘23
This morning I thought to offer a few reflections on something we do all the time but don’t think much about it. What moves me to do this is the recent retreat for the Lay Cistercians and something one of them said after Fr Elias had offered a few reflections on the Lay Cistercian Charism. One of them wondered why it was that monks always bow to the altar when passing through the church rather than toward the tabernacle. While the altar is a symbol of Christ this person said, Christ is actually present in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. There is, however, more to this symbol of Christ than we usually think.
There is a very close relationship between what takes place at the altar each day and what is happening all day long in our lives. This is expressed in the catechism in the section called “the Paschal Banquet.” There we read:
The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us. “For what is the atar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?” asks St Ambrose.
The altar symbolizes Christ’s laying down his life for us out of love and his sharing with us his own Body and Blood as food to strengthen us on our journeys through life. As Jesus reminded us in chapter six of John’s gospel: “Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” What happens as we receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, is not that he is absorbed by our bodies but that we are absorbed into Christ’s Body, made more and more one with Him in our everyday lives.
As Fr Charles Pope, the pastor of a Church in Washington DC has pointed out:
During the Mass the focus is on the Altar of Sacrifice. The most important thing going on during the Mass is the Holy Sacrifice… The Altar is a symbol of Christ: traditionally, altars are anointed in five places to represent the five wounds, it is clothed with white garments.. This is why we reverence the altar with a kiss at the beginning of Mass.
In various things that have been said about the relation of the Altar and the Tabernacle, where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, there is often mention of how one bows to the Altar but genuflects before the Blessed Sacrament. Distinguishing between the altar as representing Christ and his sacramental presence in the Eucharist has some validity. But let me suggest that there is a presence that the Altar represents that is central to our life as monks. This has to do with the whole way we live in our desire to surrender continually to what God is asking of us.
The whole of our day is built around what takes place at the Altar and the Divine Office where we come together all through the day. In following the Rule of St Benedict we are offering ourselves with Christ on the Altar of sacrifice. The Altar before which we bow throughout the day symbolizes the continual gift of our lives out of love for God and each other. To embrace St Benedict’s Rule is to hear him say: “This message is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapon of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.”
The Altar symbolizes what takes place as often as we are intent on following Benedict’s advice to “first of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” It takes place as often as we prefer nothing whatever to the Work of God throughout the day. It takes place whenever we keep “the fear of God always before our eyes and never forget it.” It takes place whenever in obedience to divine grace, under difficult, unfavorable or even unjust conditions, our hearts “quietly embrace suffering and endure it without weakening or seeking escape.” It takes place whenever a monk follows the seventh step of humility and “not only admits with his tongue but is also convinced in his heart that he is inferior to all and of less value, humbling himself.”
To do these things is to allow the Love of Christ, symbolized by the Altar to take over our hearts and to pervade all that we think, do and say. Christ is knocking at the door of every one of our hearts all day long and if we open them to Him, he is ever ready to fill us with his own Holy Spirit. The symbol of this loving presence is ever there right in the middle of our sanctuary and to bow before it is to say, this is what we desire to take hold of the whole of our lives.