(Click here for more photos of the whole altar piece and enlargements.)
There was a little heated discussion on his blog here. And he's added a post concerned that people aren't in tune with the sacrifice as much as they should be. (Perhaps it was something I said that concerned him? I dunno. :-D ) If it's any reassurance, I think of the Mass as BOTH sacrifice and meal. You can't have the meal without the sacrifice, of course.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, I think the "Adoration of the Lamb" section of the Ghent altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers is appropriate. All very PRE-protestant in the early 1400s. There's a nice New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia article about the van Eyck's here, and good enlarged photos of the whole altarpiece in question here. I often think our Catholic schools too often fail to incorporate study of the fine arts in the school curriculum. I think it would be great if there was a concerted effort here and there to put them in Catholic school books. One of my 6th-7th grade nuns would occasionally make a stab at making sure we were familiar with some great fine art material, but she was about the only one I can think of who did so. Thank you, Sister Pauline! (She had her hands full as our English and music teacher as it was.) I think all our schools are too concerned with teaching to standardized texts these days. It was nice sister made the extra effort.
(BTW, I loved studying this one in art history. The *practicing* Catholics definitely had a leg up on this one in getting all the symbolism. I took a little time with one of my "raised vaguely Christian-but-the-children-can-decide when they're older" classmates to slip in a little Catholic apologetics helping her "get it.")
.
