The words with which the Gospel ends today – “Give back … to God what belongs to God”[i] – point to the purpose for which we dedicate a new altar in the Cathedral today. We recognise at the altar that we have received all from God, and at the altar we seek to offer all to Him, united in the perfect sacrifice of His Son. In the words of Isaiah’s prophecy, it is here “Men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that, apart from me, all is nothing”.[ii]
The altar is the most striking and prominent furnishing of a church, so much so we might give little thought to its meaning. The altar is not a stand, nor a desk nor a workstation, nor is it merely a beautiful work of art with its precious materials and crafting. The altar stands before our eyes solidly representing the earth yet pointing us to Heaven. It is at once a rock of sacrifice, representing Mount Calvary and a table anticipating the heavenly banquet we are called to share. It is at one and the same time, a memorial of the Cross inviting us to recognise the same Jesus who offered Himself on the Cross of Calvary now present on the altar. The altar is the place where the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated for us and the place where all our prayers and offerings are united to His. The altar also represents the tomb of His resurrection, the stone where they laid His crucified body and came to recognise by faith that He is risen. The altar cloths represent the linen cloths in which the body of the Lord was wrapped in the sepulchre and which gave silent testimony to his resurrection.
From earliest centuries, the tombs of the saints who had given their lives for Christ formed the altar. This ancient tradition continues by placing of the relics of the saints into the altar over which the Eucharistic Sacrifice will be offered. Into the Cathedral’s altar will be placed the relics of Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr, at the dawn of 2nd Century; relics of the greatest of Parish Priests, Saint John Mary Vianney who died in 1859 and whose ministry for a new evangelisation in Europe marked the first years of our Cathedral’s life; and of the relics of lay Christians, Saint Charles Lwanga and the Martyrs of Uganda who gave their lives in June 1886 during the lifetime of our Cathedral.
The altar is itself the symbol of Christ truly present in our midst as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from Heaven giving Himself to us.[iii] As Saint Ambrose wrote some 1600 years ago, “The altar represents the Body and the Body of Christ is on the altar.” In the Eastern tradition the altar is often screened from the congregations view by the Iconostasis, leading our eyes from earth to Heaven. In the West, the
Fathers spoke of the altar’s prominence even as being surrounded by a thicket of candles and flowers. Yet the gaze of both priest and people are directed simultaneously to the sacred actions and to the Cross placed within view of the altar. In both East and West, whether obscure or in full view, the altar was gradually placed towards the ‘Mystical East” where the sun rises to turn all eyes towards Christ’s glorious return.
It was first anticipated that the Cathedral altar might be placed below the Great Cross and framed by the arch, yet the architects (and two of England’s most famous architects, Augustus and Edward Pugin) overruled us. They overruled us by making the sight lines, even the gradation of light within our Cathedral, lead to one and the same point where the altar is now placed. We had anticipated making sacrifices to provide the best for the construction of a new altar worthy of Divine Worship and in harmony within the treasured architecture of this historic Cathedral. Yet, it seemed the Lord had other plans! In one of England’s most ancient Cathedrals at Ely in Cambridgeshire, an altar had been designed in the Catholic style by Philip Coldwell Thicknesse who once lived in this Shrewsbury Diocese. The altar was made in 1896 for Saint Catherine’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral. By the generosity of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, this altar, made from precious stone of alabaster and red jasper, was offered to Shrewsbury Cathedral for the cost of £1.00! It today stands as if this had always been its place.
In the rites (rarely witnessed) by which an altar is consecrated so much of the rich and deep meaning of the altar is proclaimed. The altar is marked by five crosses representing the five wounds in the Body of Christ; anointed with the Sacred Oil of Chrism; hallowed by the relics of the Saints and Martyrs placed into a sepulchre; incense is burnt on the altar table as the Scriptural symbol of our prayers rising up before God; and finally, the altar is covered with linen clothes and illuminated by candles calling to mind Christ’s Resurrection. May these ceremonies help us better recognise, every time we enter this Cathedral or indeed any Catholic church on earth, the meaning of the altar to which we are called with faith and love renewed.
[i] Mt. 22: 21
[ii] Is. 45:6
[iii] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1383
(Photos by Simon Caldwell)