Three Tabernacles

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

December 24, 2023

4th Sunday of Advent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122423.cfm

2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16     Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29

Rom 16:25-27    Lk 1:26-38

Today, I want to talk about three tabernacles. The word tabernacle means ‘place of dwelling.’  Tabernacle #1 is from 2 Samuel; King David wants to make God a home:

When King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"

Before the Temple was built by King Solomon, the Tabernacle was the moveable tent that housed the Ark of the Covenant while the Israelites were nomads in the desert. The Tabernacle Tent was 45 feet long, and The Ark of the Covenant was placed in a fifteen-foot cube towards the back part of the Tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies.  

The Ark was the link between God and Earth, and it was in the Holy of Holies where the high priest could enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, is the highest holy day of the Jewish calendar. The High Priest would make an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people.  This act of paying the penalty for sin brought reconciliation between God and His people. After the blood sacrifice was offered to the Lord, a goat was released into the wilderness to symbolically carry away the sins of the people. This "scapegoat" was never to return.

In a rarely-read passage in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant is hidden by Jeremiah. We hear of this in the Second Book of Maccabees 2:4-7

The same document also tells how the prophet, …, ordered that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and how he went to the very mountain that Moses climbed to behold God’s inheritance. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he sealed the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.”

No, Indiana Jones did not find the Ark of the Covenant, and no, it’s not stored deep in some government archival building. Remember the Prophet’s words:

The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.

This brings us to Tabernacle #2, the Ark of the New Covenant, which is Mary, the Mother of God.  Through Jesus, God is about to gather all of His people, whether Jew or Gentile, when the word becomes flesh in Jesus through Mary as the angel Gabriel speaks these words to her in today’s Gospel.

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end."

We know that through Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, sin entered the world. Through Mary’s yes, her Fiat, and the birth of Jesus, a man and a woman, that first sin can finally truly be reversed. Now is the time for God to gather His people together again and show them mercy. Mary is not only today’s second Tabernacle; Mary is also a new Ark of a New covenant.  Through her yes, salvation entered, the Word was made Flesh, and Jesus Christ was born.

So what could be the Tabernacle #3? Our church today has a lot of similarities to the Old Testament Tabernacle tent. When you enter a church, you will see golden lampstands. Back then, there was, to the right, a table for the Bread of the Presence. Today, to the right of our altar is the Credence Table that holds the unconsecrated bread that will soon become the True Presence of Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Just before the giant curtain, there would also be an altar of incense. We have our altar here, and we also incense it at the beginning of most of our Masses. Finally, against the back wall, but no longer hidden, is the tabernacle that holds the remaining consecrated hosts after Mass. Jesus, the Son of God, is present in our tabernacle right now.  But that is not the third and final tabernacle I’d like to discuss. Tabernacle #3 is us. Once we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become a tabernacle; we hold within us our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is so important to remember that! After we receive Communion, we should return to our pews, kneel, and pray. Offering prayers of thanksgiving for finding us worthy to receive Him.  

A few weeks ago, a parishioner asked me why we have rules of not eating an hour before Holy Communion but no rules for after receiving. I didn’t know, so I looked it up, and here’s what I found from Catholic.com:

There is no present requirement for fasting after  Communion, but many books have recommended, as an act of reverence, not eating or drinking for 15 minutes after receiving –about as long as the sacred Species remains intact. If one remains at Mass until the closing blessing, one likely observes this recommendation even without realizing it.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori tells us:

“There is no prayer more agreeable to God, or more profitable to the soul than that which is made during the thanksgiving after Communion.”