How Eden, the Jewish Temple, and Your Parish Church are a Participation in Heaven
The New Testament lies hidden in the Old; The Old Testament is unveiled in the New.
St. Augustine of Hippo
There is a unity in Scripture made manifest through typology, i.e., Old Testament events being read in light of New Testament revelation. The crossing of the Red Sea and Noah’s Ark are both types of Baptism, for example (1 Corinthians 10:1-2, 1 Peter 3:20-21). Eden, the Tabernacle and Temples, and your parish church are types and then some – they each point us toward and are a participation in the eternal Heavenly Liturgy.
An Eternal Exchange of Love
God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #221
All of Scripture, Old and New Testament together, is one big, beautiful love story – a letter from a loving father to his sojourning children making their way back to Paradise. We were created to reverence, love, and be in relationship with our Heavenly Father, and to share His love with others on the journey. In other words, we were created for worship!
We Cannot Simply “Make” Worship
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger writes In The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press © 2000), “Man himself cannot simply “make” worship. If God does not reveal himself, man is clutching empty space” (pg. 35). The future Pope Benedict XVI continues, “Christian worship is a cosmic liturgy which embraces both heaven and earth” (pg. 67). “The New Testament [is] the between time, as image between shadow and reality” (pg. 68, emphasis added).
God’s Liturgical Sanctuary
The plan of the LORD stands forever, the designs of his heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:11
God’s plan has never changed. From creation forward His liturgical sanctuary has consisted of three divisions:
- The Holy of Holies, where God comes to dwell with his beloved children
- The Holy Place, where His priests serve to “till and keep”
- The Outer Courts, which His people are to bless and sanctify
Paradise Lost
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:8-9
The Garden of Eden (more appropriately called the Garden in Eden) is the original paradise from which we were separated by sin. The Tree of Life was the Holy of Holies, the Garden the Holy Place, and Eden/East of Eden the Outer Courts. Like everything in Eden, the Tree of Knowledge was good, but Adam and Eve were not yet prepared to eat of it. Just as a mother tells her small child, “Don’t reach into the hot oven. I’ll give you the cookie when it cools,” when God says, “Don’t do this” he is really saying “Don’t hurt yourself.” Adam and Eve, made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), lost the Imago Dei – but not their status as beloved children – when they disobeyed and were unrepentant (Genesis 3:9-13). Had they then eaten of the Tree of Life in a state of sin, they would have lived forever separated from God (Genesis 3:22-24). God sent Adam and Eve into the Outer Courts as an act of mercy, to repent and to be God’s agents of co-creation, tilling and keeping, blessing and sanctifying the earth until they were ready to return to the Holy Place, where God had stationed angels to guard the way to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24).
Old Testament Tabernacle and Temples (Shadow)
Moses’ Tabernacle was “a copy and shadow” patterned after the Heavenly sanctuary. (Hebrews 8:5, emphasis added. See also Exodus 25:9). Aaron and his sons were to tend and keep the Holy Place bedecked in fine linen covered with gold and precious stones (Ex. 28), reflecting the “covering” of Adam in the Garden (Ezekiel 28:13-15). Among its other furnishings, the lamp stand was shaped like a tree, its cups like almonds with protruding blossoms (Exodus 25:31-36). The veiled Holy of Holies, where God’s presence was to descend atop the Ark of the Covenant, was guarded by intricately formed golden angels (Ex. 25:10-22). When the portable sanctuary was erected, “The cloud covered the tent of meeting… and the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34, 35).
Solomon’s more permanent Temple (1 Chronicles 22:6-10) featured carved fruit trees and flowers throughout the Holy Place (1 Kings 6:29), along with gold and precious stones, and carvings of animals (1 Kings 8), all reminiscent of Eden. As soon as Solomon completed the prayer of dedication, “fire came down from heaven… and the Glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house” (2 Chr. 7:1,2).
After that ornate Temple was destroyed (2 Kings 25:8-10), a second, more simple Temple was rebuilt in the same three-part design. The Presence of God was significantly absent, as were the ornate furnishings and the Ark of the Covenant, hidden and never recovered following the Babylonian exile (2 Maccabees 2:4-6).
Hundreds of years later, God’s glory overshadowed the holy womb of a young Jewish girl in Galilee (Luke 1:35). The echoes of 2 Samuel 6 are striking in the subsequent passages, marking Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant. It was to Herod’s much more grand Temple that the Ark and the Glory of God finally returned (Luke 2:22-38), and on its porches and outer courts that Jesus walked, taught, cleansed of the money-changers, and was confronted by the Jewish leaders. When Jesus died once for all, the veil of the Holy of Holies was immediately torn asunder (Matthew 27:51) and, as Jesus had prophesied, the entire Temple was destroyed within 40 years, never to be rebuilt.
New Testament Worship Spaces (Image)
Through the Cross – the New Tree of Life – God’s people regained access to the Fruit of that Tree: The Most Blessed Sacrament. Like the Tree in Eden, If received unworthily it brings judgement and not blessing (1 Corinthians 11:28), thus the exclusivity of the Sacrament. Again, limiting access is a mercy. If received worthily, however, “All of us are being transformed into the same image from Glory to Glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, emphasis added). Like its Old Testament counterparts, God dwells with us in every church tabernacle, our Holy of Holies. His priests tend and keep the Holy Place with its golden and bejeweled sacred vessels and rites. His baptized and sacramentalized people gather within to worship, and after every Mass are sent to till and keep, to bless and sanctify the outer courts, making God present and inviting others into the beauty and mystery of God’s Cosmic liturgy.
The Heavenly Sanctuary (Reality)
Arise, O LORD, and go up to your resting place, you and your mighty Ark.
Psalm 132:8
Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
Hebrews 9:11
Jesus, the Great High Priest (along with His mighty Ark), bodily returned to of the Heavenly Sanctuary, opening that “greater and more perfect tabernacle” to the rest of humanity. In the meantime, as we journey through thorn and thistle towards that reality, “Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Hebrews 4:16).
One Final Story
I joined the U.S. Navy as a young man, was stationed on the West Coast, and often deployed to the Far East – half a world away from my beloved family and hometown of Washington, D.C. On my returns I would often fly into National Airport and catch the Yellow Line train over the Potomac River into the city. As the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, and other prominent and familiar features of the skyline came into view a feeling of joy overcame me. I knew I was home! As God’s imperfect but faithful disciples, having participated in the God’s cosmic liturgy all our lives, when we arrive at the end of our journey we too will immediately recognize the reality – and rejoice!
Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.
Revelation 21:3-4
Further Study
- Revelation chapters 21-22 describe the Heavenly Sanctuary, and the right worship that takes place there.
- The Epistle to the Hebrews is a Masters-level theological study of liturgical worship, especially chapters 7 through 12.
- The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Book – Ignatius Press © 2000)
- Heaven and Earth, A Study of the Creation Narrative, Steven C. Smith, Ph.D. (Lecture – https://instituteofcatholicculture.org/events/heaven-and-earth
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