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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN LLANDUDNO
OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA
SYMBOLS IN THE SANCTUARY
The altar is very rich in symbolism – it is well worth spending a moment or two exploring it:
THE ROUNDELS
On the face of the back altar are three roundels, made of Caen stone,
as is the rest of the altar above the tabernacle.
Caen stone is a light Jurassic limestone from the Caen region of France.
The three roundels are very beautiful.
IHS
The one on the left bears the three letters IHS.
Because it is Greek, the H in this is not an H but an E.
The capital of the Greek letter E is written H.
So, IHS is really IES.
And IES are the first three letters of IESUS, the Latin and Greek word for Jesus.
The
Jesuits, or the Society of Jesus, took this abbreviation as their sign,
and in
many an ancient house across England and Wales,
where Priests hid in
the dark
days of the persecutions,
you will find the letters IHS carved out on
the dark
oak beams of their hiding holes.
CHI-RHO
Chi is the Greek letter Ch. It is written Χ.
Rho is the letter R and is written ρ.
Put the two together and you get ChR, which is short for Christ.
The two letters are usually superimposed on each other as on the roundel.
So the two roundels spell out Jesus Christ.
Between them is the middle roundel showing the familiar symbol of Christ,
the Lamb that was slain but who now lives victoriously.
He carries the triumphant banner of his Resurrection.
This is the ancient symbol of Christ the Risen Lord.
Put all three roundels together and you get JESUS CHRIST THE LORD.
This is the earliest and most fundamental creed of the Catholic Church,
dating from St Paul who says that no one can say Jesus is the Lord except under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
MELCHIZADECK
On the left hand side of the tabernacle is a depiction of Melchizadeck.
Now Melchizadeck is a very important character who appears on the stage of history for but a brief moment.
When the great Patriarch Abraham, Father of the Jewish People and our Father in Faith,
was returning home after a victorious raid against his enemies, he meets Melchizadeck.
Melchizadech, King of Salem (Peace) brought bread and wine;
he was a priest of God Most High. He pronounced this blessing:
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth,
and blessed be God Most High for handing over your enemies to you”.
And Abram gave him a tithe of everything. (Genesis 14:18-20).
When the Psalmist, many centuries later, looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, he proclaims:
The Lord has sworn an oath, He will not change;
you are a priest for ever, a priest according to the order of Melchizadech.
When
Christ finally came, the early Christians
saw Melchizadech as a forecast of him.
The
Letter to the Hebrews makes a big
thing of it.
It says that Melchizadech
appeared out of the blue
(or in the language of the Bible, without any
reference to his parentage).
So without
a beginning he was like Christ, who has no beginning
either,
but who
has always
existed in the bosom of the Father.
Like
Christ, he is a King of Peace. Like
Christ, he is a Priest.
Like Christ,
Melchizadech is greater than Abraham, for he blesses him.
And like Christ, he offers a sacrifice
of
bread and wine.
So there he stands
beside our tabernacle, clothed in priestly vestments
with the priestly
turban on his head,
offering bread and wine
at a typically ancient square
altar, with
the people bowing in reverence at the sacrifice.
A
very appropriate sign of Christ, our great High Priest and
King
of Peace,
offering sacrifice of Bread and Wine in the midst of his
people.
MOSES
On the right hand side of the tabernacle is a portrayal of Moses.
Why Moses? I hear you say. Well, he was what theologians call a Christ Figure.
Like Christ he was a great leader of his people.
While Moses led his people to the earthly promised land,
Christ leads his Church to the promised land of heaven.
And in the course of their journey the people are fed:
with Manna by Moses, with the Eucharist by Christ.
So our depiction of Moses shows him in the desert
with the Manna coming down from heaven
behind him while the Israelites are gathering it up.
The Scriptures tell us that those who gathered more
ended up with no more than those who gathered less,
and you will see the baskets held by the people in our depiction
all contain exactly the same amount of Manna.
When St Jerome translated the Bible from the original languages into Latin,
he mistranslated the bit about Moses coming down
from the mountain after receiving the Law from God.
The text says that his face was shining;
but Jerome translated this as his face had horns.
Until the 1960s the Vulgate (St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible)
was in common use throughout the Church.
So, Michelangelo’s famous Moses in St Peter-in-Chains in Rome
shows Moses with horns – and so does ours. Look at it carefully!
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