A History Of The Mass And Its Ceremonies In The Eastern And Western Church -Rev John O'Brien A.M.

SACRED SYMBOLISM OF ALTARS

The precise symbolism of the altar is that it denotes Christ our Lord, in accordance with what St. Paul says in his first Epistle to the Corinthians: “They drank of the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (Bouvry, ii. 222). According to Venerable Bede, the altar is the body of Christ, or all the saints in whom a divine fire ever burns, consuming all that is flesh.