Summa de Ecclesia

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Moreover the Church is also read as described under the name of tabernacle. Hence Apoc. 21: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself with them shall be their God. The Church is called a tabernacle by reason of the condition of the state of the present life, which state is a state of warfare: Job 7: The life of man upon earth is warfare; and of pilgrimage, because while we live in this mortal body we are pilgrims far from the Lord: in 2 Cor. 5. Concerning this tabernacle it is said thus in Ps. 30: Thou shalt protect them in thy tabernacle. On this word blessed Augustine says thus: What is the tabernacle but the Church of this time, which is called a tabernacle because it still sojourns upon the earth? For the tabernacle is the dwelling of soldiers stationed on campaign. And on that verse of Ps. 131, Until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, he says thus: Although the tabernacle of God is sometimes called the house of God, and the house of God the tabernacle of God; yet more precisely the Church according to this time is understood as tabernacle, while the house is the Church of the heavenly Jerusalem, whither we shall go. For the tabernacle is as it were of those who campaign and fight, the tabernacle of soldiers in battle array, on campaign. Hence soldiers are called tent-companions, as having the same tents. As long therefore as we have an enemy with whom to fight, we make the tabernacle of God; but when the time of battle shall have passed and that peace shall have come which surpasseth all understanding, as the Apostle says, when that homeland shall have come, it shall then be a house; no adversary shall assail, that it should be called a tabernacle; we shall not go forth to fight, but shall remain to praise. For what is said of that house? Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord; they shall praise thee for ever and ever: this is Augustine.

Here it is to be considered that the Lord, commanding that a material tabernacle be made for him, through which this tabernacle of the soldiers of Christ is designated, ordered, as is gathered in the book of Exodus, ch. 26, that ten curtains be made of four precious colors, each of which was to be twenty-eight cubits in length and four in breadth, and, as is reported, they had fine linen in the warp, hyacinth, purple, and scarlet twice dyed in the woof. The curtains signify the holy and perfect in the Church, who serve the contemplation of the Creator the more freely the further they are removed from love of this world. They are ten, that their perfection may be marked; for ten is a perfect number. The curtains are adorned with four colors, because the saints are adorned with the perfection of virtues according to the teaching of the four Gospels, having for fine twisted linen the continence of mind and body, for purple a kingly power against vices, for hyacinth an intention raised to the things above, for scarlet twice dyed the perfect love of God and neighbor. The length of the curtains, of twenty-eight cubits, signifies the long-suffering patience and watchfulness of the Church; for this number is produced by seven multiplied by four. Seven signifies the rest toward which the Church through faith and the keeping of the four Gospels and the practice of the principal virtues patiently hastens. The breadth of four cubits suggests the breadth of love, toward which it tends through the four Gospels and the virtues.

It is not to be passed over that in that ancient tabernacle there was an altar on which sacrifice was offered, a table of proposition on which twelve loaves were set, and a candlestick on which seven lamps were placed to give light, as is found in Exod. 25. The Church has an altar, that is, pure hearts, minds consecrated to God, in which the most acceptable sacrifice of devotion is offered to God without ceasing, concerning which Ps. 50: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. The table of the twelve loaves figured the teaching of the twelve apostles, who administer to all who enter the tabernacle of the Church the food of eternal satiety. The candlestick with the seven lamps is the whole body of prelates, preachers, and teachers, who, having with the splendor of wisdom the fire of divine ardor, shine upon others with charity and with the teaching of word and example, to whom it is said in Matt. 5: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and so on. Hence of blessed John the Baptist it is said in John 5 that he was a burning and a shining lamp. Burning, I say, as the Gloss says, with the spirit of charity; shining, with the light of truth. Moreover the Church is read as called a temple. Hence in 1 Cor. 3: You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. And below: The temple of God is holy, which you are. And this for two reasons. First, by reason of the likeness of the building of the temple of Solomon, in which was figured the temple of God, which is the Church. In the first temple there were stones, mortar, cedar wood, and gold. The stones designate the faithful, who are living stones, chosen and perfect, of which the temple of the Lord is built. The mortar is charity itself, which unites, cements, and binds together the faithful of Christ to one another, concerning which it is said in Ps. 44: Virgins shall be brought to the king, that is, the chaste minds of the faithful, into the temple of the king. On this blessed Augustine speaks thus: The temple of the king is the Church herself. Of what is the temple constituted? Of the men who enter the temple of the king. Living stones — who are they but the faithful? They shall be brought into the temple of the king, and so on. And below he speaks thus of the mortar: The temple of the king is in unity; it is not ruinous, not cut away, not divided. The joining of the living stones is charity: this is Augustine. Cedar wood, that is, sweet-smelling wood, means the examples of holy life, by which the Church herself in her saints gives forth a wondrous sweetness of fragrance. Gold is the divine wisdom by which she herself glows and shines in the souls of the just, and especially of the holy teachers, to whom it is said in Phil. 2: Among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.

Moreover, that the temple was built in seven years and its dedication instituted in the eighth signifies that throughout this whole time, which revolves in seven days, the structure of the Church grows; but the dedication of the eighth year designates the festivity of the heavenly homeland.

Second, the Church is called the temple of the Lord because in her the divine worship is performed; for in her the true God is prayed to and adored. Hence the prophet: I will enter into thy house; I will worship towards thy holy temple and will confess to thy name: Ps. 5. And again: I will worship towards thy holy temple and will confess to thy name. In this temple alone is the true worship of God, since outside the Catholic Church there is no place of true sacrifice, as Augustine says in ch. Extra, 1 q. 1. And the same Augustine on Ps. 130 says to our purpose: For whoever shall have prayed apart from the temple of God shall not be heard unto that supernal peace of Jerusalem; and if he shall be heard unto certain temporal things which God has granted even to pagans — for even the demons were heard, that they might go into the swine — to be heard unto eternal life is another thing, nor is it granted except to him who prays in the temple of God. But he prays in the temple of God who prays in peace, in the unity of the body of Christ: this is Augustine. Here moreover it comes to be considered concerning this that, as Damascene says in book 1, because we are composed of a twofold substance, namely intellectual and sensible, we offer a twofold adoration to God in this his holy temple, namely a spiritual one, which consists in the inward devotion of the mind, concerning which the Apostle in 1 Cor. 14: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind; and in John 4: The true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and charity; and a bodily adoration, which consists in the humiliation of the body, as are genuflection and other such bodily signs, which are signs and testimonies of the devotion of the inward man.

This twofold worship, by which God is worshipped in the temple of God, was figured in the two altars which were in the material temple of Solomon. One was within the sanctuary, which is called the altar of incense, on which incense was burned, through which is designated the sweetness of devotion, the ascent of the mind to God through prayer, and the most ardent desire for the divine vision, concerning which in the psalm: I will offer up to thee holocausts full of marrow, with the incense of rams: Ps. 66; the Gloss: Holocausts, that is, myself with the marrow of inward love; for charity is within me, not on the surface. With incense, that is, with prayer. Of rams, that is, with the apostles, who are the leaders of the flock and pray most devoutly for the flock. The other altar is recorded to have been in the temple, on which animals were sacrificed, which was in the court; through it is signified the sacrifice of good action, such as the maceration and chastisement of the flesh, fasts, vigils, genuflections, and other holy exercises, concerning which it is said to the Romans, ch. 12: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. Your bodies — the Gloss: not in mind only, but bodies too, though the flesh resist. Offer a victim in the mortification of carnal desires. Living, through good works. Holy, that is, firm in God. Pleasing to God, that you may act with good intention.