Tag Archives: Temple

Violence, Altars, and Modest Priests?

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Aaron, brother of Moses, offers sacrifice as High Priest.
This stained glass window can be found in
Cathedral of Our Lady and St Philip Howard, Arundel


And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offering, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it. (Exodus 20:22-26)

Moses has just received the Ten Commandments and then God repeats what seems to be what he considers to be the most important commandment: “Do not worship any idols.” This is the summary of the Ten because authentic worship of the living God—not the futile worship of an idol, which stands for what does not exist or is untrue—covers and includes all the other commandments, just as Jesus summarizes the Law: “Love God …. Love your neighbor.”

Idol worship is not devil worship; an idol is not a devil, according to St. Paul. An idol is “no thing,” something that doesn’t exist. But we can insert ourselves into that empty space. Nature abhors a vacuum and we are made to worship. We will worship ourselves if we are not worshipping the true God.

Then God tells Moses, “Don’t use tools of violence to make an altar.” An altar is a place of peacemaking: making peace between God and humanity, God and specific persons, God and the whole created order. The place of such peacemaking should not be fashioned with iron tools (weapons). The sacrifice itself is violent enough.

Sacrifices were bloody affairs. Priests would cut the throat of the offered animal and blood would gush everywhere. He would catch the blood in a bowl. He would sprinkle the blood on the altar and the people. He would butcher the animal, cutting out the organs and cut the body into pieces; these organs and body parts—cuts of meat—would be roasted on the altar.

This was all very bloody, messy business. Priests wore very little as they did this, unlike the stained glass window of Aaron above. The vestments most priests wore during the actual sacrifice were loin clothes. (High priests would wear special vestments in certain occasions but these were constantly in need of being replaced because it was so hard to get the bloodstains out of the vestments.)

Because the vestments were so skimpy, it would be easy to see underneath the priestly loin cloth if the priest went up a few steps to the altar. So the altar was not meant to be more than a single step higher than the people on whose behalf the priest was making the sacrifice so that no one could see his nakedness.

Just like people are always wondering what a man is wearing under a kilt, people would peak to see what the priest had on under his loincloth vestment.

Rich By His Poverty

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One of the greatest existent examples of Norman architecture, the cathedral in Monreale, Sicily was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was complete. The stunning mosaics were added one hundred years later.


For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that you might become rich by his poverty …. For if that desire is present, the gift will be acceptable according to what one may have, not according to what one does not. (2 Cor. 8:9, 12)

St. Paul is raising money to aid the parish in Jerusalem because there is a famine there, adding to the political troubles facing the area which would soon boil over into open revolt against Rome and cause the Romans to tear down the Temple. He’s saying that the Corinthians will get “credit” from God based on what they want to give, even if their actual financial situation does not allow them to be as generous as they would like to be.

It’s always tricky to talk about God giving “credit” to humans. But we understand that impulse because we honor the intention if the person is unable to follow through, through no fault of their own. It’s a different situation if the person promises what they know they cannot deliver, raising hopes that can never be achieved.

God acknowledges–gives “credit”–our faith, our hopes and trust in him, and in our brothers and sisters. So this passage of 2 Corinthians is about more than fundraising. St. Paul is also talking about how we become rich through Christ’s poverty even if we don’t always follow through on being poor in spirit, forgiving as we have been forgiven, sharing our resources with those who have less–less time, less cash, less emotional bandwidth to bear whatever their current situation is. If we WANT to be as forgiving and as poor in spirit, etc. that’s at least a start. It’s something. Even if we don’t always live up to our intentions. But as the famous Easter sermon says,

… the Master is gracious and receives the last, even as the first; he gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one he gives, and to the other he is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention.

Paschal Homily, attributed to St. John Chrysostom

Christ takes off all his clothes in order to wear a towel and wash our feet. He hangs naked on the Cross. Holy Week makes us rich. The point of wealth is to share it. How can we share some of what we are given during Holy Week? Even if we can’t do everything we want to make those riches accessible to ourselves or others, we can at least do something. We can do a little bit more than we did last year. We can be present. We can at least begin to want to intend to receive those riches and then share them with someone else.

What human being could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed under the poverty of his humanity? … When he assumed our mortality and overcame death, he manifested himself in poverty but he promised riches–though they might be deferred; he did not lose them as if they were taken away from him. How great is the multitude of his sweetness which he hides from those who fear him but which he reveals to those who hope in him!

St. Augustine of Hippo, On the Nativity 194.3

Glorify God in Your Body

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Orthodox believers stand in line to kiss the relic, the right hand of St. John the Baptist, which was brought to Russia from Montenegro, in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow.

Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have received from God, dwelling within you, and that you are not your own? You have been bought and paid for. Therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

“Don’t you know?” St. Paul asks the Christians in Corinth. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” he tells them. He is picking up on what he has just told them about taking each other to court. “What you are doing is inappropriate for anyone who has been washed-illuminated-sanctified in the Name of Christ and by the Spirit of God.”

“Illumination” or “enlightenment” was an early name for baptism. Plunging into the baptismal water, the new Christian is enlightened by the light of Christ, the light that filled the darkness of Hell and destroyed the realms of darkness and death. The new Christian is also sanctified, anointed by the Holy Spirit. Literally anointed. Not just metaphorically. The newly baptized was liberally anointed with chrism, the perfumed and sanctified oil that conferred the gift of the Holy Spirit. This sanctifying oil glistened in the candlelight by which those present at the baptism could see.

The body of the new Christian belongs to God as much as the new Christian’s soul does. Baptism is not just a spiritual experience. It is a physical experience that changes a person’s physical situation as much as it changes a person’s spiritual situation. Because a person’s body is washed and anointed, that body becomes a holy thing to be treated with respect, i.e. venerated and honored. Because a body is a holy thing, to be treated with respect and honor, it is inappropriate to treat the body in any disrespectful way. Some of those inappropriate, disrespectful ways involve sex but there are other inappropriate, disrespectful behaviors that do not involve sex.

Material things–including the bodies of the baptized but any material thing–can communicate the presence and power of God. Material things can communicate the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. One of the respectful, honorable ways we treat these sanctified material things is to kiss them.

Even after the baptized person dies, the body is still a holy thing and the remains–i.e. the relics–of the person are venerated and honored. The relics of the baptized dead are kissed and honored with incense, whether the person was a heroic saint or not. The baptized dead are saints by virtue of their baptism and their relics are treated accordingly.

Treating a person in a respectful manner during a sexual encounter goes hand-in-hand with venerating the relics of the saints. Bodies are important. They are holy. They are washed-illuminated-sanctified. Far from being irrelevant to ultimate salvation, the body is the means whereby God is glorified.