ASK THE LITURGIST (10) – The altar in ‘offertory’ rites

Enrico Finotti

In our church, after the Mass, the altar tablecloth is removed, which remains always bare. The tablecloth, the candles, the flowers, the cups, the chalice, the ampoules and the missal are brought to the offertory of the Sunday Mass. It’s possible? Why is it not done elsewhere?

The question contains two problems: the altar always stripped out of the celebration and the dressing of the altar in the ritual of the preparation of the gifts.

Certainly in the history of the liturgy these two modalities are also found, above all in the ancient age. When, for example, the altar was still of wood, it was introduced, placed before the liturgical assembly and covered with the tablecloth in the offering rites; then it was removed. Currently the solemn dressing of the altar, bearing the tablecloth, the candlesticks and the cross, is ritually provided in the rite of the dedication of the altar, when the same must first be sprinkled with holy water, anointed with the Chrism and then covered and inaugurated. Having established these historical and liturgical elements, we must consider how to act today in this regard.

The liturgy must be celebrated as the current discipline of the Church foresees. In fact, the Church is the subject and the “owner” of the liturgy. From this it must be excluded that individuals, groups or individuals arbitrarily dispose of liturgical laws. The local community is part of a cultic action, the liturgy, which overcomes it and is larger than the local needs of the assembly called to celebrate. It is a matter of entering into acts that are, in different ways, of Christ and of the Church as such, and it is precisely in this universal horizon that the liturgy emerges in dignity and efficacy on any other personal and subjective act of worship. On this indispensable theological basis it is possible to understand and accept to celebrate in conformity with the rites established and defined by the Church. It is not in fact our acts that save us, but those of Christ and of the Church offered to us to purify and raise a personal cult that alone would have no chance to penetrate the heavens and obtain salvation. This applies not only to the substance of sacramental acts, but to the whole ritual complex of the liturgy, inasmuch as the entire whole has as its subject Christ and his Church.

On this essential theological basis, today largely disregarded, we can outline the question asked.

In the rites of the presentation of the gifts there is no mention of the preparation of the altar, but of the disposition of the oblates on the table. In this sense the rubrics of the Missal are expressed and the Congregation for divine worship has also officially pronounced: “Answer to the doubt Utrum in offertory about the gifts that can be brought to the altar, October 31, 1999, in Enchiridion Vaticanum, vol. 18, n. 1727: In the offertory, to the procession of the gifts, can you bring the tablecloths for the same and the candlesticks to the altar? R. No” (our translation).

As for the preparation of the celebration, the instruction Principles and norms for the use of the Roman Missal (No. 79) establishes the following: “The altar is covered with at least one tablecloth. On the altar, or near it, there are at least two, even four, or six candlesticks with lighted candles; if he celebrates the bishop of the diocese, the candlesticks will be seven” (our translation). It follows that these preparations must not be different from the offertory.

To the Offertory (see No. 49 of the same instruction) “The altar, or table of the Lord, which is the center of all the Eucharistic liturgy, is prepared above all by placing on it the corporal, the purificator, the missal and the chalice, unless the latter is not prepared at the sideboard. Then the offerings are brought: it is advisable for the faithful themselves to present the bread and wine; the priest, or the deacon, receives them in the appropriate place, and places them on the altar, reciting the prescribed formulas” (our translation). Note that here nothing is said about the tablecloth to be spread.

Please note that only in the celebration of the Friday of Holy Week the altar, exceptionally, must be without ornaments at the beginning of the celebration (see Roman Missal, Friday in the Passion of the Lord, No. 2): “The altar be completely bare: without a cross, without candlesticks, without tablecloths” (our translation). After the worship of the cross, “on the altar the tablecloth is laid out, and the corporal and the book are placed” (ibid., N.21, our translation).

The thing is understandable: in fact, the altar means the “presidency” of Christ throughout the celebration, from the rites of beginning to those of departure. It would not make sense to venerate the altar with the incensation during the introital song if it were presented without its signs. Each ritual takes place entirely under the presidency of the altar, and even when the gaze is directed to the ambo and the seat, the centrality of the altar, the “icon” of Christ present and acting, must never be forgotten. In fact, the altar is the only one of the three celebratory places to be consecrated and constitutes in this sense a ‘sacramental’.