By Bob Sullivan
Before churches had steeples, they had altars. Altars actually existed before churches as we see in Genesis 8:20 as well as the altars built by patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
In Christianity, altars have even more significance. If you go to Jerusalem today, you can actually touch the altar of all altars. You find it in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where you can climb the steps to the top of Calvary. Once there, you can kneel on the very spot where we believe Jesus was crucified. Under a Greek Orthodox altar you can reach down and touch the rock of Calvary. When you do this, you are touching an altar because for Jesus, Calvary was the altar.
In the first centuries of Christianity, Christians prayed the Mass on the burial shelves of the martyrs in the catacombs. Once Christianity was decriminalized and Christians were allowed to build churches and hold public Masses, they moved the martyrs’ remains “upstairs” and placed them in the churches’ altar. As the faith spread and martyrdom decreased, new churches were given relics of the martyrs and other saints to place in their altars. If the altar itself was not made of stone, a slab of stone was used to cover the relics. Therefore, Mass is still said “on the bones of the martyrs” and other saints, and this part of the altar has traditionally been stone. Unless your parish is the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, the altar in your parish has relics too. Ask your pastor about them.
The author of Hebrews explains how the altar of Calvary took on more significance than the altars of Abraham, Moses, Isaac, and Jacob; this is in Hebrews 9:13-10:18. He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. (Hebrews 10:9).
The first was the Jewish sacrifice in the temple. The “second” is the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The sacrifices and altars of the Old Testament were prefigures and types of the “once and for all” sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary. Because Christ’s sacrifice was once and for all, Christians do not sacrifice bulls, rams, etc. Instead we return again and again to the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
One might ask, “If the Mass is a sacrifice, are we sacrificing Jesus all over again at each Mass?”
The answer to this is “no.” The Mass is not the re-crucifixion of Jesus. At the Last Supper, Jesus announced a “New Covenant” in His blood and instructed us to “do this in memory of Me.” The Mass is a re-presentation, not another crucifixion. Jesus makes Himself present to us again. We know this because Jesus, who on the night he was betrayed, said that he longed to eat the Last Supper with His apostles. Therefore, when He said, “do this in memory of me,” He wasn’t referring to his crucifixion, He was referring to the Eucharist. (Luke 22:15)
The reality is that the Eucharist is not Christ-on-the-cross or Christ-in-agony during His passion; it is the triumphant and glorified Christ who is seated at the right hand of God right now. We see this in Revelation 5:6, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church helps explain this, specifically in paragraphs 1362, 1363, and 1373.
One of most significant disagreements during the Protestant revolt was over the Eucharist. Luther, Calvin, and others denied that the bread and wine are fully changed into the body and blood of Christ when consecrated (there were multiple theories among Protestants and still are). They also denied that the Mass was a sacrifice. They argued that because it was not a sacrifice, there should be no altar because having an altar confused everyone, including the priests.
As the English tentacle of the Protestant revolution was gaining strength, Thomas Cranmer became a favorite of King Henry VIII and was made the Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer’s dream was to eliminate Catholicism from England’s soil through threats, manipulation, and the imprisonment and execution of priests. Cranmer was a Protestant’s Protestant. By 1548, he had removed the references to sacrifice in the Anglican liturgy, and in 1550 he ordered the demolition of the high altars and other distinctively Catholic features of Britain’s churches.
Cranmer’s henchmen destroyed statues, entire churches, monasteries, human lives, and many other things as well, but it was the demolition of the high altars which carried the most significance. This was because without an altar, the sacrifice was less familiar or recognizable to the faithful. After the destruction was complete, the Protestants installed wooden tables. This was to try and emphasize that a religious service was merely a reenactment of the Last Supper or a communal meal with symbolism, but no real presence. It was all a direct assault on the Eucharist and Holy Mass. Instead of making the Eucharist the pinnacle of the Mass, Protestants emphasized preaching.
Whereas high altars had been against the back wall of the sanctuary, similar to the shelves in the catacombs, the new altars were moved to the front of the sanctuary, giving the impression that the priest was presiding at a dinner table as the head of a household may sit at the head of a dinner table.
We should all want the restoration of high altars, side altars, and traditional architecture in churches which once had them. I pray that this happens and that all Catholic Churches are restored and furnished in a way which is not only consistent with the original architecture of the building, but in a way which helps turn our hearts and minds to God and away from traditions of men such as Thomas Cranmer.
Not everyone needs visual beauty, but some do, and no faith on earth provides visual beauty to the extent the Catholic Church has and still can today.
