My girlfriend (a new-comer to the Baptist faith and faith in general) had a question concerning having a wedding on the beach. She says that if, God-willing, we get married one day, she would like to have it on a beach. I told her I’d very much have it inside a church for reasons she would hopefully come to understand later. Now, we are both younger people, but its something nice to hope for. But her question made me think: now why exactly do we have it in a church setting? Now, I’m pretty sure I know why but I wanted to make sure I was correct before I said anything. Thanks.
Why do we have the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony inside a consecrated Church, celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist on a consecrated altar? Well, definitely this is something that is hard to grasp for someone who is not familiar with the apostolic faith, but the question should not even be pondered by us. The sacred liturgy is not a matter of pleasing our fancies, it is worship to the living God, and it is a sacred setting. The Church did not invent it, rather the Holy Spirit guided its development through twenty centuries (though it only took a few centuries for the basic liturgy to be fixed).
The Eucharist is God among us. Christ is made present, and the sacrifice of Calvary is re-presented before our eyes in a mystical way. For this reason, the apostolic tradition desires the Eucharist to be carried out in a sacred place, celebrated in the most reverent environment possible. While for a missionary or a military chaplain a consecrated Church may not be available, for most of us this is not the case. No matter where we live, there is always a consecrated Catholic parish somewhere in the area.
This is even specifically included in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal: “
for the celebration of the Eucharist, the people of God normally are gathered together in a church or, if there is no church or if it is too small, then in another respectable place that is nonetheless worthy of so great a mystery”. Such a “respectable place”, while not designed to be used for Mass, would still not be intrinsically inappropriate.
Necessity is the key word: if a Catholic church is readily available, under normal circumstances it is difficult at best to even justify the celebration of Mass elsewhere. If Mass can be said in the church, then it should be said in the church.
