Just for Caturday: Excerpt from Tale of a Mission Cat (Sula) - The Altar

 

(photo by Lisa Lavignano)

THE ALTAR

The altar is the most important part of the church. The altar is where the priest celebrates the Mass, offering the Sacrifice (body and blood of Christ). Without an altar, there cannot be a Mass. 

What happens at the altar is mysterious and highly spiritual. The priest consecrates the host (bread) and the wine, blessing it by prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to descend upon it to change it into the body and body of Christ. This change is called transubstantion. 

Altars have been used in worshipping God for a very long time. At first, they had to be made of stone, but that is not the case today. If you read the Old Testament, you will read that God’s chosen people, the Jews, in the old days, San Juan Bautista Mission long before the time of Jesus, used altars to offer to God sacrifices like lambs, or, yikes!, (almost) Isaac, Abraham’s son. That’s a story of incredible trust, the kind of trust that helped Abraham to be the progenitor (that means the first person, like the father) of our faith (of three faiths, really: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). That is the kind of faith that our priest talks a lot about in his homilies. 

Today, thankfully, we do not have to make sacrifices because Jesus served as the ultimate sacrifice—like a very special lamb. That is why he is sometimes called “Lamb of God.” That is something everyone should be grateful for. Transubstantiation reminds us of that sacrifice. 

I spend a lot of time at the altar when the church is empty and when it is full. When the church is empty, it serves as a warm, dry, comforting place where I can spend time with my Boss. 

Behind the altar is the tabernacle with the body of Christ. (You can tell that the body is there without looking because a red light is always lit when the body is in the tabernacle.) Being in that Presence brings me great and calm peace. I am sure it must do that for everyone who spends time in that holy presence. 

Before Mass, sometimes a priest, or deacon, or a seminarian, or a cantor, or a lector will greet me like the seminarian did in the picture at the beginning of this chapter. Once the church fills with parishioners, though, the altar area takes on a different function. It provides me an excellent vantage point for seeking out the parishioner(s) to whom the Boss is sending me.