As I explained in my last blog, the Way celebrates the Eucharist like a family gathered around a banquet meal. The Way's altar is another complaint I hear from our Catholic brothers and sisters who are not walking in the Way. In fact, they don't even see it as an altar, but as a table. This is how the altar of the Neocatechumenal Way looks like. It is a bit different from what one would see in a Parish Mass. The size of the table varies, and the table is located in the center with the assembly seated around it. In this photo, the late Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on the Way's altar. And yes, we do call it an altar. We never called it a table.
With the exception of Santa Barbara Church in Dededo, one would see the altar at the front of every Catholic Church on Guam. The altar in Santa Barbara Church, however, is situated in the middle with God's family around it, similar to what the Way has.....except that the Way is not in Santa Barbara Church. Nevertheless, one should always be focused on the body and blood of Christ at the altar during the Mass for that is the REAL body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. His presence on the altar is not a symbol, but REAL.
During the penal days in Ireland, the Irish Catholics would use rocks as an altar. They called this "rock Masses". One can still see these rock masses in Ireland today. Yet, the faithful still focused their attention on the body and blood of Christ on these rock altars. Is this altar considered any less?
I just want to add about the unleaven bread. It's in the cathchism book:
ReplyDelete1334 In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 156 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God's faithfulness to his promises.
The "cup of blessing" 157 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.