The Sanctuary of the desert tabernacle of the Old covenant is a prefigure of the Church were God reveals in detail His intentional plan as to the community of His Living Body as a place of sanctification of the soul in the common and Royal priesthood of the New covenant. In the fourth century St. Gregory bishop of Nyssa (335-395) discussed the mystery of the Tabernacle in a sublime way which he named he skini tou mysteriou Theou (the Tabernacle of Divine mysteries). In his work the Life of Moses he discussed this mystery in detail.  St. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) considered the tabernacle as an anti type or prefiguration of the Church. In the City of God he said among other things,

For not only the prophecies which are contained in words, nor only the precepts for the right conduct of life, which teach morals and piety, and are contained in the sacred writings – not only these, but also the rites, priesthood, tabernacle or temple, altars, sacrifices, ceremonies, and whatever else belongs to that service which is due to God, and which in Greek is properly called latreia – all these signified and fore announced those things which we who believe in Jesus Christ unto eternal life believe to have been fulfilled, or behold in process of fulfillment, or confidently believe shall yet be fulfilled. [1]

St. John Damascus (675-749) was as empathetic as to this truth. In his famous work On the Defense of the Holy Icons St. John said among other things,

 


 
  
That which is divine is immutable; there is no change in Him, nor shadow of change. Blessed Denis, who has made divine things in God's presence his study, says that these representations and images arc marked out beforehand. In His counsels, God has noted and settled all that He would do, the unchanging future events before they came to pass. In the same way, a man who wished to build a house would first make and think out a plan. Again, visible things are images of invisible and intangible things, on which they throw a faint light. [2]

By these words he was referring to the Sanctuary of Moses' desert Sanctuary and thus he added in his  defense of the holy icons,

What was the tabernacle itself? Was it not an image? Was it not a type and a figure? Hence the holy Apostle's words concerning the observances of the law, "Who serve unto the example and shadow, of heavenly things." As it was answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: "See" (He says), "that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shown thee on the Mount." But the law ,-,,as not an image. It shrouded the image. In the words of the same Apostle, the law, contains the shadow of the goods to come, not the image of those things. For if the law should forbid images, and vet be itself a forerunner of images, what should we say? If the tabernacle 'was a figure, and the type of a type, why does the law not prohibit image making? But this is not in the least the case. There is a time for everything. [3]



St. John expressed truthfully the disposition of the apostolic tradition persevered from the times of the primeval Church, as can best be seen in the Letter to the Hebrews. St. Augustine said that we were only able to understand the sacred images of the Old testament in the light of Christ's incarnation. This he did in his work De Doctrinae where he spoke of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only res (thing) and all other aspects of reality were signum or pointers to this truth – the only signum universal in significando. Later on St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross followed this signum in their encounter with God. Thus la Mader fundadora said when speaking of God's Sanctuary as the place of the infused prayer,
Here an abundance of water is given to this deer that was wounded. Here one delights in God's tabernacle. [4]


John of the Cross was as emphatic as to the Sanctuary as a place of the most sublime stages of contemplation when he wrote,

When God is joining them closer to himself they feel that this darkness is near him as though it were a tabernacle in which he dwells. [5]
Thus the Latin church fathers translated the Greek word theamata or the vision of the Divine reality as contemplatio. The prefix con means "in" or "with" and templatio is derived from the Latin noun templum or "temple." But what sheds best light upon the real value of the sacred image of the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle in the life of grace are the words of the holy fathers in the Litany of the Sacred Heart,
Heart of Jesus, sacred temple of God . . . Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High . . . Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven. [6]

The Sacred Heart of Jesus became thus a gate to heaven for Elizabeth of the Trinity when she contemplated its boundless mercy and mysteries and referred to its only and one movement,
We have been having a retreat which has been most wonderful, inspiring and divine. Father Vallee spoke all the time of Jesus Christ . . . Whatever else occupies us we must always be unified to the Word Incarnated, Jesus, who lives in us and desires to make us partakers in His mysteries. The day before His passion it was this that He had to say the heavenly Father of Himself and His disciples, He lives and works continuously within us. Just that He may build us up within, may He become the soul of our soul, our own life, so we can recite with St. Paul, "For my the life is Christ."  He desires by all His heart that the soul will not be sad, even when it does something against His wishes. He is the Savior and His Divine role consist in forgiving and our Dominican told us in these days of retreat, "I have brought them the word that you gave me. They have received it and do believe that you have sent me.""It is only one movement in the heart of Christ, to purify the souls of sin and lead them to God." [7]

The Sanctuary of the Tabernacle is a precise organizing plan where God "has noted and settled all that He would do" (St. John Damascus) in His predestination in the New covenant. We can in full right name it the Recycling plant of the Holy Spirit. In its efficacious grace it is the Sacred Heart of Jesus which draws us to itself, as our Lord and Savior said Himself He would do while still among us on earth, "I will draw all to myself" (Jn 12. 32). It is God the Holy Spirit who draws us to the Sacred Heart in the contemplation of the mysteries of the Tabernacle and thus we are graciously able to take part in the Divine worship at the Throne of Grace in the Heavenly Tabernacle because, as St. Silouan the Athonite (1886-1932) said so rightly, "The Holy Spirit fills everything in heaven and on earth."



We can quote thousands of references of the holy fathers and mothers of the Church in Patrologia Greace and Patrologia Latina as to the sanctifying grace concealed in this Sanctuary of our Living God and many of them appear in the work The Golden House of God: Moses' Desert Tabernacle as a Pattern for the Prayer of the Heart below. In this work – which is a fruit of 25 years of contemplation –   the revelation of the Sanctuary is discussed in detail, but it is nothing but to be clothed in the vestments of our Lord Jesus Christ as the "High Priest over all the Sanctuary of God" (Heb 10. 22) because His Majesty was for us "made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption" (1 Cor 1. 30). Only thus "we reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man fully in mature with the fullness of Christ himself" (Ep 4. 13). You can browse through excerpts from this book in the Gallery below.



             
 

Let us thus pay heed of the council of Isaac the Syrian (7th century) which he gave formerly because thus we see the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle as a Jacob's ladder to heaven and a bridge between God and human beings,
Try to enter the inner treasure house and you will see the treasure house of heaven. For both the one and the other are the same, and one and the same entrance reveals them both. The ladder leading to the kingdom is concealed within you, that is, in your soul. Wash yourself from sin and you will see the rungs of the ladder by which you can ascend thither. [8]

We just repeat the words which the Blessed Virgin said to Mariette, the seer of Banneux in Belgium, Bon Voyage!


NOTES
[1]. City of God, VII. 32
[2]. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Volume IX.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Interior Castle, 7. 3, 13.
[5]. The Dark Night, II. 16, 11.
[6]. The Litany of the Sacred Heart.
[7]. Ecrits spiritueles d’Elisabeth de la Trinité,  28.
[8]. Patrologia Greaca, 44. 405 A-D.


SLIDE SHOW OF THE SANCTUARY

The Tabernacle of Life, Love and Light   — The Black Tabernacle of Death —  The Chaplet of the Sparkling Jewels   — The Jewels of Betrothal  — The Diamond Castle — Four Steps to Aspiration  — The Celtic and Icelandic Tetramorphs  —   The Tetramorph  and its Peace Message in Iceland  —  The Silent Language of the Bessastada Church  — The Mystical Interpretation of the Ancient Fathers of the Icelandic Tetramorph  —  Our E-MAIL Store  —  Related Sites — Our Friends — The Sanctuary and the Contemplation — Selected Ouotations on the Tabernacle  — The Inner Dwelling of St. Catherine of Siena  — Luther’s comments on the Tabernacle  — St. John’s of Damascus Defence of Sacred Images (Icons) — The Tabernacle´s Theology of Gregory of Nyssa  — Bunyan’s Spiritual Temple —  Bunyan’s Celestial City— The  Stones on Mount Carmel — Ruysbroeck´s Spiritual Tabernacle or Van den geheesteliken tabernakel — The importance of the Tabernacle Theology for Christians of all denominations