Word of the Week

Holy Family Sunday

Tabernacle: Tabernaclus (GK.): meaning "dwelt among us” or “pitched his tent.”
The Tabernacle is a reliquary (or receptacle) in the Church that is the place of reservation for the consecrated Eucharist. This consecrated Eucharist was initially reserved for Communion for the sick, dying, and those absent, outside of Mass. As the faith of the people deepened over time, the Church became aware of the need for the people of God to contemplate the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (CCC 1379). It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be constructed with beauty owed to a King and located with the highest dignity and honor (CCC 1183, 1379). Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament ought to encourage that simple gaze upon the face of Jesus. In the words of St, John Vianney: “I look at him and he looks at me” (CCC 2715).

Tabernacle is found 114 times in Sacred Scripture, most of which are in the Old Testament. The OT tabernacle was a sanctuary built by Moses under the command of God. With purpose and design, this Tent was constructed for the people of God to have a place to seek commune with God. It was an ark where God would dwell in their midst (Ex.25.8-9). In addition, The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was established to observe the fall harvest in a festival of thanksgiving. In the New Testament, John asserts a great mystery of our faith in the Incarnation, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn.1.14). Here, the Greek word for ‘dwelt among us’ is Tabernaclus. The word ‘flesh’ signifies that the second person of the Trinity assumed human nature to dwell in our midst. John is making a link between the Incarnation of Jesus and the erection of the aforementioned wilderness Tabernacle. The OT Tabernaclewas a prophetic image of Jesus’ dwelling in the midst as man. Accordingly, just as the Wisdom of God ‘tabernacled’ in Israel in the Torah of Moses (Sir.24.9), so does Jesus ‘pitch his tent in the heart of man when we receive him in the flesh (Hahn and Minch, 14).

During this Christmas season, we must continue to offer our heart as a willing receptacle for Jesus to reside, a simple resting place like that of a manger. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that Christ comes to us so that we might have an interior knowledge of the truth of the new covenant and that this truth is inscribed upon our hearts, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people” (Jer.31.31-33). God wished to make his presence known to his people so the spirit assumes flesh, the immaterial assumes material. Likewise, man, abiding in grace, must bring the invisible to the visible, the unseen to the seen—Jesus to those who do not know Jesus. Our lives must be the very Incarnation of Jesus!

“When the priest is present, then we can have our altar, our tabernacle, our Jesus.”

-Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch , Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of John, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003.

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