Exodus 3:5

[Mark1124]

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

If the area around the burning bush was holy ground, surely around the Blessed Sacrament is more holy, so why do we wear shoes in church?

 

[Alexander_Smith]

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

If the area around the burning bush was holy ground, surely around the Blessed Sacrament is more holy, so why do we wear shoes in church?

Probably for Moses, taking off your shoes was something you did out of respect when entering a house or some place. In modern times, it is the other way around.

 

[Julian0404]

Abraham, Moses, and Joshua were all told to remvoe their sandals. I do so in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, but not in Church.

 

[Della]

Moses was approaching God as man to God. The Blessed Sacrament is the man-God made present. Jesus is the incarnation of God, which makes him approachable, unlike approaching God alone. As the 2nd Adam Jesus stands between God and man. We can certainly take off our shoes if we’d like, but Jesus already did that for us by becoming one of us, you see.

 

[Reuben_J]

Just last week (is this a coincidence?) a visiting priest was the celebrant during our Sunday mass. We were sitting at the back pew, having been caught up in the traffic and just managed to sneak in as the procession was about to start. Somewhere at the Gloria my wife whispered to my ear, “Look father is not using any shoes”. True enough as I scoured below his garment, he was barefooted! She asked me whether it was alright for a priest to say the mass barefooted. I answered her something to the effect - Moses was asked to take off his shoes near the burning bush as it was holy ground. Where there is God, it is holy. I didn’t know whether the celebrants of the early Christians were barefooted when they celebrated the mass, but I thought that how it should be considering the sanctuary is holy ground.

I have seen if the Blessed Sacrament is placed in a prayer room outside the main chapel that sometimes it is possible to go in after taking off our shoes.

I think it is about culture - whether it is alright to take the shoes off or not. The Semitic people consider shoes as dirty and an insult - that perhaps most probably the reason behind the command to take off the sandals. Generally we should not profane what is holy. Having said that, certain amount of courtesy should be applied to respect the place. It may not necessarily like taking off the shoes though.

 

[diggerdomer]

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

If the area around the burning bush was holy ground, surely around the Blessed Sacrament is more holy, so why do we wear shoes in church?

Because we are not ancient people in the wilderness confronting a literal burning bush, as Moses did. Just like we don’t adopt, literally, all the customs that Jesus and his disciples did at the Last Supper when we celebrate Eucharist.

 

[Della]

None of my fellow members’ answers are “incorrect” :tiphat:, but the theological reason is the one I cited in my post #4. Jesus as the God-man stands between the terrible and unendurable glory of God and us. He is our “burning bush” in that he is of the earth and also divine. We can only behold the Father in the Son, who has made it possible for us to approach God “face to face”. When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father and they would be content. Jesus responded: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:8-9) So, the Blessed Sacrament, being the body and blood of Christ stands between us and the Father. It’s why we can receive the risen, gloried Christ under the forms of bread and wine and still live. There is no need to remove our shoes to receive the Eucharist because by our baptism into Christ we have been made worthy.

 

[rcjones]

In sensus plenior, we are reminded that Jesus told his disciples to take two shoes and one cloak. This is an odd thing to say…‘two shoes’. It points to the riddle. To them he said you must walk in the world and in the spirit, (two shoes) but only do one work (garments are works). The one work was that of the kingdom. They were not to do earthly work on their mission, but to trust God to provide.

So we normally wears shoes to separate us from the earth/earthly. But where God is, all things are Holy. Therefore there is to be no separation between us and God’s holiness, hence Moses took off his shoes.

When God’s Holiness comes from within us because of His indwelling Spirit, then the symbols of shoes have been replaced with the reality of Life.