Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-20

| people and received their homage. Ihls
was the first tabernacle, the first dwell
ing of God with men. David set aside
for the holy ark of the covenant par
ticular spot on the hill Of Zion, to which
he had the ark solemnly carried. On
the same plan as that OF Moses, but in
immense proportions, five hundred years
later, Solomon raised temple to the
Lord. The eye of man had never before
seen anything so grand or imposing as
this temple. The dedication was cele-
brated with incompatible pomp. For
eight days the odor Of sweet incense
permeated the atmosphere; the sound of
sacerdotal harps mingled harmoniously
with the majestic voices OF the people and
expressed common joy, the blood of
% 900 victims purified the earth. AS in
the tabernacle God signalized His pres
ence in that temple by a mysterious
cloud. In the new covenant, the first
church of christianity was the Cenan-
culum or the Upper Chamber. Jesus
Christ, who was 80 humble that He de-
creed He should be born in a stable,
and so poor that all through His mortal
life He had not place whereon to rest
His head, demands in order to institute
the Holy Eucharist, magnificent place.
Our Lord wished to teach us by His ex-
ample, that if we are to be simple and
modest in the use of the goods of this life
we cannot be too generous nor can we be
too magnificent in our donations to the
Lord when there is question of
constructing a temple or elevating an
altar to His name and glory. 1t is well
known that the men and women who
find fault with the richness, beauty and
splendor of Gods house are those who
give least for any noble work and who
squander much on the follies and frivoli-
ties of life.
During the first three centuries, during
secutions, when eleven millions of Cath
olics were butchered by the pagan Ce-
sars, our heroic mother, the church, was
forced to offer the Immaculate Victim in
some hidden yet consecrated spot. But
when the empire became Catholic, when
the Caesars were baptized, when Chris
tianity came forth from its hiding place
and moved in the light of the day then
were built everywhere magnificent tenn
pies, superb basilicas. When the genius
of architecture was breathed upon the
spirit Of faith then arose those Gothic
churches whose boldness astonishes us,
and whose labor frighten us; then came
into existence those vast cathedrals which
by their solidity and grandeur at once
impress us with the immensity and
MAJESTY OF GOD.
The dedication is for church what an
inauguration is for monument. BY the
Inauguration, the monument is clothed
.alr l., n<,t <.t<1 L.
to enter into the whole significance of
the object it represents, or of The end for
which it is destined. By the
ceremony of the dedication the
church receives double sanction,
the sanction of separation and oblation.
By the ceremony of the dedication the
bishop does to the temple what the
spirit of the Lord did to Saul and Barna-
bas, (Acts XIII.2); he separates and
blesses it and presents it to the Lord as
his own. 1t is no longer house, habi-
tation or paradise of man: it is now the
temple of the living God. Everywhere
in the Holy Scriptures is the temple
called the House of God.
Our churches are then the temples of
God. God who is an eternal, infinite,
immense and omnipotent spirit properly
speaking, can dwell only in Himself He
is His own place, palace, habitation,
world or temple. Yet, in order to ac-
commodate Himself to our weakness, He
has wished that on this earth there
should be temples erected to His name.
He is pleased to receive there the hon.
ages of his faithful children, and to dis.
tribute to them his choicest favors. Thus,
although it is true that God is substan-
TALLY and by his immensity everywhere,
it is not less true that he dwells in par
ticular manner in our churches. Firstly,
because Jesus Christ, the Goldman,
remains upon our altars by His
real and corporeal presence, and Sec
ondly, because it is in them that He
operates the wonders of His power and
mercy in our behalf. 1t is in them that
the children of Adam become by baptism
the children of God; that sinners who
have had the misfortune to lose their
baptismal innocence recover it by the
sacrament of penance. 1t is here that
the bishop seals tha forehead Of each one
with the sign of redemption and changes
the ordinary Christian into a bold and
defiant soldier of Jesus Christ. But
amongst the sacraments there is one
that forms the glory and wealth of our
temples it is the Eucharist. AS sacrifit g
it renders to God the honor and adora-
ton which are his due. 1t serves every
day to expiate our sins and it obtains for
US continual favors. AS Sacrament,
the Eucharist is the supersubstantial, 4,
angelic bread that makes us strong and
the wine that makes us pure. 1t is the
buckler that protects us, the viaticum
that fortifes us and the balm that heals
us. But it is in our churches that the
Eucharist both as sacrifice and sacra-
! ment is effected. 1t is in the temple too
that God instructs and teaches us; it is
here that we hear His oracles. The
sound, the forms of the word are
indeed those of the priest but the sub
stance, the doctrine expressed by the
form OF the priests speech is the word
of God. 1t is, finally, in our temples
that God most readily hears our prayers,
receives our petitions and imparts to us
His choicest favors. Grand and impos-
ing as was the temple Of Solomon, it was
infinitely beneath, in dignity, grandeur
and meaning, the simplest and humblest
of our Catholic Temples. 1t was only a
figure of our churches, and all that it
contained were only figures and repre-
sentations of the divine, dread reality to
be found in our sacred edi6ces. On
those ancient affairs of bronze flowed
only impotent blood; the tabernacle OF