HOW LOVELY IS THY DWELLING PLACE, O LORD GOD OF HOSTS

 A REFLECTION FOR THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

We love the beauty of God’s house because it is the place where his glory dwelleth.  It has always been the great joy of Catholics to enter a church and be in the presence of God, to see that red lamp burning in the sanctuary signaling to us that the Word still dwells amongst us, comforting us with the knowledge that we are never alone.  

And this, alas, is why so many churches seem so empty and abandoned today, as altars and tabernacles have been removed, and the silent sense of the sacred has been replaced by nothing at all.  Without God’s physical presence in our midst we have reverted, it seems, to the darkness of the Old Testament when we stood devoid of the Light of the World.  Our empty churches are more than just dark, they stand in an empty darkness reminiscent of the world that existed before the Word of God uttered the first command, “Let there be light.”  However, if you have the good fortune to find a church where the Holy Eucharist still has pride of place, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is conducted with the same solemn reverence passed down to us from the Apostles, a church where Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is still the glory of his people and a light to lighten the nations, if you can find such a church, then rejoice and be exceeding glad.  For thine eyes have seen thy salvation.

This is the glory of the Catholic Church, a glory that has unfortunately been lost in so many churches today.  As Catholics endowed with the firm belief in the Real Presence of Christ, we should never allow the profanities of Vatican II to find their way into our own churches.  In the Holy Apostolic Mass the priest faces away from man and towards God, emphasizing the worship of Christ our King, rather than the Protestant notion of a man-made community gathering.  If we remove the tabernacle so that Christ the King no longer stands before us as the center of our worship, we are left alone with only man for company.

We must pray for the day when our once-Catholic churches are restored to us for the practice of the true Sacrifice.  We must pray for the return of the tabernacle to the front and center of our worship, the living and real presence of God with man.  Without it we are desolate.