How does the structure of the church building reflect the inner life of the believer?

All that we see with our eyes in the church building must be accomplished by faith in our inner person. Origen comments on the Tabernacle of Meeting saying, “When I think for myself as I am about to study such matters, my courage fails me because of the greatness of these mysteries.”¹¹⁸⁸

Origen also says, “Nevertheless, the reason for constructing the tabernacle is found already mentioned in the words above when the Lord says to Moses, ‘You shall make for me a sanctuary and thence I will be seen by you.’ God wishes, therefore, that we make a sanctuary for him. For he promises that if we make a sanctuary for him, he can be seen by us … This, therefore, is the sanctuary which the Lord orders to be constructed, which the Apostle also wishes to be present in virgins ‘that they may be holy in body and spirit,’ knowing without doubt that he who makes a sanctuary for the Lord by the purity of his own heart and body will himself see God … The Tabernacle is to be made from ten courts and these ten courts, however, were constructed that they might contain the whole number of perfection and designate the Decalogue of the Law. But now the appearance of scarlet and blue and linen and purple set forth many diverse works … But lest we linger too long on the forms of individual virtues, we can briefly say that they indicate those things by which the Church is adorned. Its faith can be compared to gold; the word of preaching to silver; bronze to patience; incorruptible wood to the knowledge which comes through the wood, or to the incorruptibility of purity which never grows old; virginity to linen; the glory of suffering to scarlet; the splendor of love to purple; the hope of the kingdom of heaven to the blue. Let those, however, be the materials from which the whole tabernacle is constructed … In order to assemble the tabernacle, the frame (Ex. 26:8–25) of virtues has to be sought! Frames of

1185 Origen, Homilies on Exodus 9.1 (FOTC 71:336ff).

1186 Origen, De Principiis .

1187 Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, St. John Chrysostom: Your Ministry in Life (Arabic) (October 1967): p. 21.

1188 Origen, Homilies on Exodus 9.1 (FOTC 71:335).

silver meaning frames of patience and wisdom, supported and adorned by pillars of silver. It is also possible to extend the courts in yourself when your heart enlarges … One can also defend himself with bars when he has bound himself with the unanimity of love. One can stand on silver bases when he stations himself upon the stability of the word of God, the prophetic and apostolic word. It is possible to have a gilded capital on the pillar if the golden capital on it is the faith of Christ.”¹¹⁸⁹