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Dear Friends in Christ,

In the first of today's readings, we heard the story of how, when Moses came down from the mountain, after receiving the law of the Lord, His face was so filled with inspiration and power that it seemed a great light was shining from him – and it so disturbed the people, that Moses adopted the custom of veiling His face. It was not so much fright, as it was what we call “fear of the Lord,” which impressed and disturbed the Israelites. Before such holiness, the holiness that shines forth from a man who speaks with God, they wanted a curtain, a veil, to shield them – a sign to remind them that the presence and power of God is truly awesome and always to be respected and revered.

It was immediately after these events, that Moses fashioned what soon came to be known as the Ark of the Covenant – a repository for the two tablets on which God had inscribed His law. And this repository, or ark, soon became the most precious possession of the Israelites. They carried it with them as long as they were wandering in the desert, and they finally enthroned it on the highest hill in the holiest city, Jerusalem , and built their temple around it. It was the “holy of holies” for all the Jews, and there it was, that the High Priest, once a year, with great solemnity and by himself, uttered the holy name of God, those sounds in the language of Hebrew which mean, “I am who am.” For the Jews, nothing was more precious than this inner room of the temple, and nothing holier than the Ark , and all their important rituals and ceremonies were held in and around this most sacred space.

But when Christ came upon the earth, the holy of holies changed. The holy of holies became, in fact, the Presence of our Lord. No longer an object, but a human being - no longer the veiled presence of God, but the clearly visible Son of God, Jesus Christ, human and divine – and no longer a Presence fixed in one spot, but a God who walked again on the earth, and whose holiness moved out and among the people –to change them, to heal them, to bring them salvation.

And when Christ came to the moment in His life of suffering and dying for our sins, when He came to the moment to redeem us by His death, He created a Sacrifice, no longer to be offered in one place, and at special times, but to be offered in every place, and at every time, until the end of the world.

We are experiencing the rite of His Sacrifice at this moment – we are witnessing, or about to witness, the sacrifice of Christ's Body and Blood for our sins. And in a few moments, we will enjoy the fruits of His Sacrifice, by fulfilling His command, “Take and eat…take and drink…do this in memory of me.”

Our Catholic Faith teaches us that in all the actions of the world, in all the actions of our lives, nothing is more important than what we do now, at this Mass – nothing is more important than any Mass we worthily attend – and nowhere do we encounter the holy of holies in a closer or a more effective manner, than when we meet God here, at Mass, in the Sacrifice of His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we know how precious this action is, we are like the persons Christ describes in the Gospel – we have found a treasure buried in the field, and we will possess the field – we have seen the pearl of great price, and we will sell all that we have to possess this precious pearl. In other words, not only in our family lives, the lives we live in our homes and in our parishes, but here, in the place of our work, we wish to have a sacred space, a holy of holies – we wish to be able to feel and see, near to our work, the veiled but real Presence of God in the tabernacle – and every day, we wish to be able to offer, in this, our own temple, the Sacrifice by which we are saved – the Sacrifice which brings us the Body and Blood of our Lord, and with His Body and Blood, the grace, the strength, and the love we need to walk in His place, and bring Him near to those we serve.

And so, dear friends, we have gathered to bless our new chapel, and to begin an encounter with God that has its origins so long ago, in the desert, when Moses received the law, and enshrined it in the Ark – an encounter that was fulfilled, when Jesus Christ died on the Cross, and enshrined His Sacrifice in the Mass, in His Body and Blood, which come to us now, and will remain with us, in this holy place.

May the presence of this sacred space in the midst of the field we are tilling, remind us every day, that our work is holy – and with our minds and hearts refreshed by the Presence of our Lord, may we work ever more effectively, to bring to all we serve, the pearl of great price, the unending, all-healing power of His love.

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