Faith and Culture Group
Wednesday 21 October 2026 Seminar
Ratzinger, Joseph. The Spirit of the Liturgy. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2020. Part Two, Chapter Two: 'The Significance of the Church Building'. [‘SL’]
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1993. Part II, Section I, Chapter Two, Article 1, IV Where is the Liturgy Celebrated? [‘CCC’]
Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), Promulgated by Paul VI, Rome, 4 December 1963. Chapter III: ‘The Other Sacraments and the Sacramentals'. [‘SC’]
The chapter starts by addressing the claim that the only or at least the main purpose of the Christian temple is functional―for the believers to meet.
The word ekklesia, that in Greek meant ‘assembly’, was translated as ecclesia in Latin and came to signify―in languages derived from it such as French (église) Italian, (chiesa), Portuguese (igreja) or Spanish (iglesia)―also the building where the assembly gathers.
That claim might have found some support in the idea that in Christianity Christ is now the Temple, ‘he offers worship as he stands before the Father’ (SL 76). This would be a break with the tradition of the Old Testament (OT).
However, as St Cyril of Jerusalem points out, as far as the Pentateuch the people are called together on occasion of Aaron’s appointment as priest (Lv 8). The purpose of the gathering is, since then, to worship.
The OT community of Sinai constitutes the archetype of the assembly, the ἐκκλησία, the church of the MT. ‘They come together to hear God’s Word and to seal everything with sacrifice. That is how “a covenant” is established between God and man’ (SL 77).
The historical process through which the Christian church buildings took form can be traced back to the OT and developed in continuity with it. ‘The synagogue was never just a place of instruction,...its orientation was always toward the presence of God’, which for the Jews it is ‘indissolubly connected with the Temple’ (SL 78).
The Seat of Moses (from which the Scripture was proclaimed) was not turned toward the people, but like everyone in the synagogue, towards the Ark of the Covenant, the empty throne upon which the cloud of God’s presence (Ex 13:17-22; Nm 9:15-23) came down―and the Shrine of the Torah after the Ark was lost.
Every synagogue contains, therefore, a shrine where the rolls of the Torah are kept, reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant where God was present and pointing, as do all other synagogues, beyond itself, towards the Temple in Jerusalem (SL 80). ‘The rabbi and the people gaze at “the Ark of the Covenant” [the shrine of the Torah], and in so doing, they orient themselves toward Jerusalem,...toward the Holy of Holies in the Temple as the place of God’s presence for his people...’ (SL 80).
The synagogue’s liturgy of the word is intrinsically connected with the sacrificial liturgy of the Temple. ‘The prayers said at the and the unrolling and reading of the scrolls of Scripture developed out of the ritual prayers originally linked to the sacrificial actions in the Temple and now regarded, according to the tradition of the time without the Temple, as an equivalent of sacrifice (SL 80).
Since the OT, the synagogue ‘exhibits already the essential and constant features’ (SL 80) of the Christian churches. But there are three innovations by which Christian places of worship distance themselves from the Jewish synagogue: (i) Christians look towards the east, (ii) the altar opens heaven up to the assembled community, and (iii) the Gospels replace (and open the meaning of) the Torah.
(i) God has left the Temple now destroyed. Christians look in hope toward ‘the rising sun’ (cosmic aspect of the liturgy) who is to come at the end of salvation history (Ps 19:1-7).
From early times Christian liturgy linked the coming of Christ with his Passion on the Cross (Matt 24:30, Rev 1:7). ‘The sign of the Son of Man, of the Pierced One, is the Cross, which now has become the sign of Victory of the Risen One’ (SL 84).
Turning towards the east also signifies the cosmos, ‘praying with us’ as it awaits redemption. This cosmic dimension ‘is essential to Christian liturgy’ (SL 84).
Facing east both in the building of churches and in the celebration of the liturgy is a tradition since the time of the Apostles (SL 84).
Second innovation of the Christian liturgy compared to the Jewish one: the Eucharist is ‘an entry into the liturgy of Heaven’ (SL 84) as we saw in previous chapters.
‘...the altar signifies the entry of him who is the Orient into the assembled community and the going out of the community from the prison of this world’ through the passage Christ has opened for us, to God (SL 84-85).
‘The altar is the place where heaven is opened up’ and leads the church, the assembly, into the heavenly liturgy (SL 85).
The third innovation is that ‘the Gospels replace (and open the meaning of) the Torah’. The Gospel does not abolish the OT Scriptures but is firmly grounded on them, interprets them and reveals their full meaning (SL 85).
The church gathers around the seat associated with the shrine of Sacred Books, the former seat of Moses, which spontaneously evolved to be the bishop’s throne.
‘Just as the rabbi did not speak of his own authority, so the Bishop expounds on the Bible in the name, and by the mandate of Christ... from being a written word from the past, it again becomes what it is: God addressing us here and now.’ (SL 86).
A final point is that Christian liturgy includes men and women alike in the liturgy, even though the public Liturgy of the Word was only entrusted to the former.
‘The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited. In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).’ (CCC 1182).
‘The tabernacle is to be situated "in churches in a most worthy place with the greatest honor." The dignity, placing, and security of the Eucharistic tabernacle should foster adoration before the Lord really present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar’ (CCC 1183).
‘Finally, the church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God, we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. The visible church is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying and where the Father "will wipe every tear from their eyes." Also for this reason, the Church is the house of all God's children, open and welcoming’ (CCC 1186).
‘The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God; because they are signs they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called "sacraments of faith." They do indeed impart grace, but, in addition, the very act of celebrating them most effectively disposes the faithful to receive this grace in a fruitful manner, to worship God duly, and to practice charity.’ (SC 59).
‘Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments: they signify effects, particularly of a spiritual kind, which are obtained through the Church's intercession. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.’ (SC 60).
‘Thus, for well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event in their lives; they are given access to the stream of divine grace which flows from the paschal mystery of the passion, death, the resurrection of Christ, the font from which all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is hardly any proper use of material things which cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God.’ (SC 61).