In this year of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of this Cathedral Church, there may not be a liturgy more special than that to take place on Saturday at the 4:00 PM Vigil Mass, the Consecration of the Altar.  Archbishop Mansell has brought to the Cathedral a new solid, permanent and beautiful altar to replace the long standing “temporary” altar. Saturday, he will anoint the altar with Chrism, the sacred oil blessed during Holy Week.

In our modern times the altar, devoid of altar rails and gates, isn’t always treated with the spiritual reverence required. It is quite common to see people casually enter the sanctuary without thought of the sacredness of the space they have entered. But the act of the priest kissing the altar at the beginning and end of each Mass reminds us, this truly is a holy sanctuary, the symbol of Christ himself.

Table of the Lord

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1383):

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 altar of Christ if not the image of the Body of Christ?” asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, “The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of Christ is on the altar.” The liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:We entreat you, almighty God, that by the hands of your holy Angel this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven in the sight of your divine majesty, so that as we receive in communion at this altar the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace.

“Take this and eat it, all of you”: communion.