[Rationale divinorum officiorum]

...well as the tabernacle (3 Kings 8). From both, namely from the tabernacle and from the temple, our material church took its form. In its anterior part, the people listen and minister. The tabernacle, however, because it was made on a journey, sometimes bears the type of the world which passes away and its concupiscence. Whence it consists of the four colors of the curtains, and thus the world is fashioned from the four elements. ● Therefore, in the tabernacle, God is in this world as if in a temple rubricated by the blood of Christ. Expressly, however, the tabernacle bears the type of the militant church, which does not have a lasting city here but seeks a future one. And therefore it is called a tabernacle; for the tabernacles are of those who are fighting; for God is in the tabernacle, [as] God is in the faithful, gathered in His name. The first part of the tabernacle, in which the people sacrificed, is the active life, in which the people labor in the love of their neighbor. The other part, in which the Levites ministered, is the contemplative life, in which the sincere conversation of religious men is vacant for the love and contemplation of God. The tabernacle will be turned into a temple when one runs from the military to the triumph. The church is to be built as follows: for the foundation having been prepared in a stony place, "The house of the Lord is well founded upon a firm rock." A bishop or priest, by his license, may sprinkle blessed water there to drive away the phantasms of demons, and place the primary stone, upon which a cross is impressed, in the foundation. It ought also to be founded so that it looks directly with its head toward the east, of which it will be said in Psalm 5, namely, toward the rising of the equinoctial sun, to note that the church which militates on earth holds itself equanimously in times of prosperity and adversity, and not toward the solstitial [sun], as some do. ● Furthermore, if the walls of Jerusalem, which is being built as a city, were commanded to be built by the Jews at the order of the people, how much more ought we also to build the walls of our church? ● Since indeed the material church, in which the people come to praise God, signifies the holy church, which is built in heaven from living stones. This is the house of the Lord firmly built, whose foundation is the cornerstone, Christ, upon which foundation is placed the foundation of the apostles and prophets, as it is written: "Its foundations are in the holy mountains." The walls built upon [them] are the Jews and Gentiles, coming from the four parts of the world to Christ, and those who have believed, or believe, and will believe through Him. The faithful, however, predestined to life, are stones in the structure of this wall, which will always be built until the end of this world. Moreover, stone is placed upon stone when the masters of the church take up lesser ones into their own study to teach, correct, and stabilize. In the holy church, one has stones upon oneself, [ready] to bear for the building, whoever bears the labor of a brother. The thicker, however, and polished or squared stones, which are placed on the outside in the middle of which the smaller stones lie, are the men who are perfect, who by their merits and prayers hold up the weaker ones in the holy church.

The cement, however, without which the stability of the walls cannot exist, is made from lime, sand, and water. Burning lime is charity, which joins to itself sand, that is, earthly work, because true charity has great care mixed in for widows, the elderly, orphans, and the weak. And therefore it strives to work with its hands so that it may have wherewith to do good to them. But so that the lime and earth may avail for the building of the wall, they are glued together by the mixture of water. Since indeed water is the spirit, just as without cement the stones of the wall are not joined for the stability of the wall, so neither can men be joined together for the building of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem without charity, which the Holy Spirit works. All the stones of the wall are polished and squared, that is, holy, clean, and firm, who, namely, are arranged by the hands of the supreme Artificer to remain in the church, of whom some burn and are not carried, as the simpler ones in the church; others are carried and carry, as the middle ones; others are only carried, not carried except by Christ alone, who is the singular foundation, as the perfect ones, all whom one charity joins in the manner of cement, while the living stones are gathered by the bond of peace. Christ was our wall in conversation and the ante-mural in passion. Truly, with the Jews building the walls of Jerusalem, enemies were present, wishing to hinder their work, so that, as is read in Ezra, they were harassed by enemies, so that they placed stones in the walls with one hand and fought against the enemies with the other hand. And to us, building the walls of the church, enemies are present in the circuit, namely, vices or perverse men wishing to hinder our work. Whence, let us build virtues as walls; let us impugn the enemies, and according to the Jewish manner of the people, let us hold our weapons: the shield of faith, the breastplate of justice, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the word of God in our hands, so that we may defend ourselves against them. And the shepherd or priest is thus with us in the place of Christ, who teaches us through reading and defends us through prayer.

Moreover, the Lord shows from what the tabernacle was to be made in the Old Testament, saying in Exodus to Moses: "Take first-fruits, that is, every precious thing, from the people of Israel, but only from him who offers freely: gold and silver and bronze and jacinth and purple and twice-dyed scarlet," i.e., of jacinth, purple, and crimson color, "and fine linen," which is a kind of soft and white Egyptian flax, "and goat hair and rams' skins dyed red," which we call parchment, as they devised it thus colored, "and violet skins and shittim wood." The name of the mountain and region and tree, which is similar to a tall thorn in its leaves, and it is the lightest wood and incorruptible and incombustible; and oil for the luminaries, and aromatics for ointments and incense of good odor, and onyx stones, so that they may make the sanctuary out of sardonyx and gems, that I may dwell in the midst of them, so that it may not be a labor for them to run to this mountain. The master follows this fully in the histories concerning Exodus. The disposition of the material church, however, holds the mode of the human body: the chancel or place where the altar is represents the head; the cross on either side, the arms and hands; the remaining part from the west represents whatever remains of the body.