Where we celebrate
We’ve probably all heard that the building in which the church celebrates is given the name of the church itself.
Within the building the people are arranged according to their role, the bishop or priest presiding from a place prepared for that.
The principal celebration is the Mass, proclaiming the Lord’s death, confessing his resurrection.
Two monuments dominate our churches and are arranged for Mass, proclaiming and professing: the altar and the ambo.
The altar, in the form of a table, is not just a functional surface for placing bread and wine upon, but a symbol of Christ himself.
As a divine offering, a purely human priest and material altar are inadequate. Christ was also the one who offered (the priest) and the altar upon which the offering was offered. The altar, then, is a sign of Christ the altar, sacrifice and intermediary (i.e. priest). It is a sign of the prayer made to God the Father, through Christ.
The second monument is for the proclamation of readings from the Bible.
A strong tradition has interpreted the ambo used for this ritual proclamation as the empty tomb, sign of the Lord’s resurrection. Form and ornamentation of ambones through the centuries have included a raise place for the minister, an empty space beneath this space, peacocks (whose flesh was considered to be incorrupt), lions (associated with cemeteries), Jonah and the whale (the three days in the belly of the whale reminiscent of the Lord’s body in the tomb over three days), the paschal candle.
The two monuments are reminders of the two aspects of the paschal mystery: the Lord’s death and his resurrection.
