Altar Enthronement (Part one)

Greetings! Our first Class Apps post will begin aptly with Altar Enthronement.

One way to start a catechism class is the “enthronement of the altar”. In church, the altar occupies the most prominent part of the sanctuary. Similarly, the altar (table) serves as the centre of our focus in our classroom. We begin class by remembering in a solemn way the different signs that make up our Catholic heritage especially focusing on the Word of God, Jesus who is the One that calls us together as a community.

A little about each item for enthronement:

1. Altar Cloth
In the fourth century, every Christian knew that during the celebration of the Mysteries the altar is covered with a cloth. It became a law in the seventh century. The custom of using three altar-cloths began in the ninth century, but at present it is of strict obligation for licit celebration of mass. The reason of this prescription of the Church is that if the Precious Blood should by accident be split it might be absorbed by the altar-cloths before it reached the altar-stone.

The altar-cloths symbolically have been given rich descriptions over the centuries. They signify:
• the members of Christ, that is, God’s faithful, by whom the Lord is encompassed;
• the linens in which the body of Christ was wrapped, when it was laid in the sepulcher;
• the purity and the devotion of the faithful: For the fine linen are justifications of saints (Revelation 19:8)

2. Crucifix
The crucifix is the principal ornament of the altar. It is placed on the altar to recall to the mind of the celebrant, and the people, that the Victim offered on the altar is the same as was offered on the Cross. For this reason the crucifix must be placed on the altar as often as Mass is celebrated. The rubrics of the Roman Missal prescribe that it be placed at the middle of the altar between the candlesticks, and that it be large enough to be conveniently seen by both the celebrant and the people.

3. Icon of Mother Mary
Early Christians adorned their catacombs, which are cradles of all Christian art with paintings of Christ, of the saints, of scenes from the Bible and allegorical groups. They accepted the art of their time and used it to express their religious ideas.

St Gregory the Great explained that Holy images are “books of the ignorant” for in a picture even the unlearned may see what example they should follow. Also expressed in the “Catechism of Christian Doctrine”, we should give to relics, crucifixes and holy pictures a relative honour, as they are memorials to Christ and the saints.

The earliest picture of Mother Mary is that found in the cemetery of Priscilla, it represents the Virgin as if about to nurse the Infant Jesus. In these pictures she is often portrayed with her arms half extended interceding for us. On the graves of the early Christians, the saints are figured as intercessors for their souls, and among these saints Mother Mary always held the place of honour.

4. Word of God
The Word contains the saving message of Jesus Christ who has come to save us from our sins. The Old and the New Testament periods correspond with two successive and unequal periods of time in the history of mankind. They form the two parts of one story whose centre is the person and mission of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament recalls the story of creation and the fall and how God through the prophets tried to establish a covenant with man repeatedly. However it would only be in the New Testament that an everlasting covenant would be established between God and man through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which we make present everyday in the celebration of the Eucharist.

In referring to this inspired Word as a book it is known as the Bible. The name is derived from the Greek expression biblia (the books), which came into use in the early centuries of Christianity to designate the whole sacred volume. The bible has had the widest and deepest influence upon the minds and hearts of men due to the fact that it is indeed "inspired of God" and, as such, especially "profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice" (2 Timothy 3:16)

5. Candle
The use of a multitude of candles and lamps was undoubtedly a prominent feature of the celebration of the Easter vigil dating, from Apostolic times. St Jerome declared that the use of lighted candles during the Gospel reading, was not to put darkness to flight, but as a sign of joy. The lighted candles were also closely associated with the baptismal ceremony which took place on Easter Eve and which no doubt occasioned the description of that sacrament as `illumination’. This biblical notion of light is further celebrated in the Easter proclamation, the Exultet, on Holy Saturday night - Christ is the light that overcomes the darkness of our sin. In Church tradition the wax is a symbol of the flesh of Jesus Christ born of a virgin mother. From this has sprung the further conception that the wick symbolizes more particularly the soul of Jesus Christ and the flame the Divinity which absorbs and dominates both. Thus the great paschal candle represents Christ, "the true light", and the smaller candles are typical of each individual Christian who strives to reproduce Christ in his life.

(We continue with part two - the "how to" next week. Stay tuned...)