Why do we celebrate the consecration of churches?

The Church and the congregation hold dear the feasts of the consecration of churches, such as the consecration of the Church of St. George the martyr in Lydda (7[th] Hathor / 16[th] November). What is the purpose of these commemorations? And when did our Lord Jesus institute such celebrations?

First: God Himself honors His martyrs and saints and He seeks the honor of every believer, saying, “for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30). When a church, a house of God, is consecrated in the name of one of the martyrs or saints, this may be considered as a kind of honor bestowed by God upon the saint. With each annual commemoration of the consecration of a church, we glorify God as the Lover of humanity, and His saints are blessed with honor according to His divine pleasure and not in the manner of the glory of this world. This is why our celebration of the consecration of a church invites us to focus our inner eyes on denying vain glory and seeking instead the glory that the Lord grants to His beloved.

Second: God’s pleasure is to dwell in the midst of His people and in the depths of every believer. Our celebration of the consecration of any church impels us ever more strongly to seek His dwelling always within us and increases our desire for the transformation of every human heart into a temple of the Lord in which dwells the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16).

The Church Fathers never ceased to describe the Church as the community of believers, or to describe the inner person of the believer as a holy heaven, the object of God’s pleasure. St. Augustine says, “the Church of God is heaven.”⁶²⁵

In St. John Chrysostom’s homily on those who did not attend gatherings at church, he says, “For we ought to go out from this place as it were from some sacred shrine, as men who have descended from heaven itself … Teach ‘them that are without’ that you have joined the chorus of the Seraphim, that you are ranked as a citizen of the commonwealth above, that you have been enrolled in the choir of Angels, that you have conversed with the Lord, that you have been in the company of Christ.”⁶²⁶

Third: On these feasts, the faithful should not come empty-handed before the Lord, but rather come to the house of the Lord with some kind of offering. God requested of Moses that he ask every person to bring an offering, each according to the will of his heart (Ex. 35:5); that is, to contribute, as much as one’s charity allows, an offering to be used in building the sanctuary where the Lord dwells among His people: “And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate” (Ex. 25:3–7). Each of these has a symbolic meaning. For example:

• a. Gold: Origen⁶²⁷ interprets the offering as gold as a symbol of the faith that creates a heaven out of our hearts. Therefore, gold symbolizes heavenly things in the same way that it symbolizes the saints; for they are considered heaven in whose hearts God dwells.

• b. Silver: Offering silver is the practice of preaching, for the word of God is like silver refined and purified seven times (Ps. 12:6). If gold symbolizes virginity, then the Fathers see silver as a sign of virtuous marriage.

• c. Bronze: Offering bronze symbolizes the virtue of patience in a spirit of strength that defies the thorns of sin. The hands of the Lord Christ appear as rings of gold (Song 5:14) because His deeds are heavenly, but His feet are like fine brass that is refined in a furnace (Rev. 1:15) by which we crush all the thorns of this life and its afflictions without fear.

• d. Wood that does not decay:⁶²⁸ indicates our sincere concern to acquire knowledge and chastity that do not age or decay.

• e. Fine Linen: Linen symbolizes the body, and its being woven means that the body is under control and subjection, as the apostle says: “But I discipline my body and bring

625 St. Augustine, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 7.6 (NPNF I/6:281).

626 St. John Chrysostom, Homily to Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly 4 (NPNF I/9:227) amended.

627 See Origen, Homilies on Exodus 9.3 (FOTC 71:340).

628 Origen, Homilies on Exodus 13.6 (FOTC 71:385).

it into subjection” (1 Cor. 9:27). Every struggle to discipline and control the body in Christ Jesus is an offering of fine woven linen to the house of the Lord.

• f. Scarlet: The scarlet cord that saved the life of Rahab and her whole house (Josh. 2:18) symbolizes the blood of the Lord Christ the Savior, and the scarlet thread that we offer to the house of the Lord is our testimony to Him even unto the shedding of our blood: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8:36). Scarlet denotes martyrdom or a daily life of dying for the sake of the Lord.

• g. Purple: Origen believes that the purple symbolizes the light of love,⁶²⁹ and fire.⁶³⁰ true Christian bears in his heart the fire of the Holy Spirit that lights the way and burns away the thorns that suffocate the soul.

• h. Goat hair: Offering goat hair is a symbol of dying to sin (Ex. 35:6, Lev. 4:23). Origen says, “He who offers this animal shows that the disposition to sin is already dead in himself, nor does sin further live or rule in his members.”⁶³¹

• i. The skins of rams: If offering goat hair symbolizes dying to sin, then offering the skins of rams symbolizes overcoming anger. Thus, whoever offers rams’ skins declares that anger has died in him and no longer has power over him.