“Prepare your way… Make ready the way of the Lord†– That was the message before Christ the Messiah was born. Now the message is for us a little bit different. We have to prepare ourselves not only for Christmas when we commemorate Christ birth but we have to prepare ourselves for Jesus’ second coming. There is many ways to prepare ourselves for those events.
One way to prepare our lives, our hearts, our souls for the Second coming of Jesus is to celebrate with Him His presence on this Altar. The altar is the fulfillment of different offerings and sacrifices of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. We can see that people from our Judeo-Christian heritage always gathered around an altar to worship, to celebrate, and to prepare. In the same way the first Christians gathered around an altar to worship, to prepare for the second coming of Jesus.
At first they gathered in small groups. And the altar was very small square table where you could put only a chalice and bread. And that small altar was in their midst. Later when the persecution started they started to celebrate the Eucharist in Catacombs. There wasn’t too much space, so the altar was attached to a grave. When the persecutions were over, Mass was celebrated in churches, and the Christians brought the tradition of heaving relics in the Altar.
My brothers and sisters
You can see the priest at the very beginning of our celebration kissing the Altar. It is reverencing the altar. The altar is for us the most important symbol of Christ in the Church. It is more important than the crucifix.
Why? Because God himself, Jesus himself comes upon this Altar, and because of that we must treat the altar with the greatest reverence. It is not ordinary table, it is extraordinary table. It is not a table to put some objects like flowers, or even candles, not to mention any other things. Only bred, wine and the the Missal, the book of prayers for the Holy Mass belong on the Altar.
When we finish the liturgy of the Word we will start to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We will prepare the altar, which is already covered with white cloth, symbolizing purity of our hearts. Since the altar of the New Covenant is sacred, symbolizing Jesus Christ, than how sacred should be our souls, how pure to receive Jesus.
Let us go forward to celebrate the Eucharist with our clean and pure hearts and souls, so this way we can prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus.