Our Traditions: A Sense of Hope

“You shall build this altar of the Lord… and shall offer on it burnt offerings to your Lord, your God.” Deuteronomy 27:5 

When we gather together as a family to celebrate holidays or birthdays, I feel a sense of hope that the traditions that were passed down to us by our ancestors will live on through our descendants. For example, the tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve (or Nochebuena as we Cubans refer to it) was started by my ancestors long ago. Today, we still continue what they started… a traditional meal of pork, black beans, rice and yuca. Since our kids were born, we’ve added our own touch of fried sweet plantains to the meal. And because our youngest, Alex, was born on that day in 1994, we’ve added a birthday cake to the traditional dessert of “turrones.” When Alex was little, he thought that the whole Christmas Eve celebration was for him, until he realized that all his friends also celebrated Christmas Eve.

Recently, I was able to witness for the very first time another tradition: the blessing of a building “made by human hands for a sacred purpose,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski. The blessing of the Our Lady of Belen Chapel made me realize how blessed I am to be part of a tradition that is more than 2,000 years old, since many of our Catholic traditions were inherited from our Jewish ancestors.  

In Jewish tradition, a building is set aside for a sacred purpose by means of ritual and blessing. An altar becomes a divine instrument after consecration. During the dedication of the Belen Chapel, we began the celebration with a bare altar. The Archbishop anointed the altar with the same Chrism with which we were anointed at our baptisms and confirmations. In this way, he communicated to us, the faithful gathered there, that “as members of Christ’s Body, we too have been set aside for a sacred purpose.” The altar has always been mentioned in the Old Testament as a place reserved for offering sacrifice to God. By consecrating the altar, the Archbishop made a direct link between God and His people. 

Also, in a solemn way, four embers of incense were placed on the four corners of the the altar. These were lighted, and the altar was swaddled in the smoke of the incense. The smell of the incense permeated through the entire chapel, “reminding us that here God dwells with his people.” I could see the smoke drifting upwards, towards God, and I was reminded of a quote from Deuteronomy 27:5 “You shall build this altar of the Lord… and shall offer on it burnt offerings to your Lord, your God.” All the prayers that will be offered at the Belen Chapel, just like the incense, will rise up to God.

Another tradition that we inherited from our Jewish ancestors and which will now be offered as a sacrifice on this new sacred altar is the Eucharist. Yes, the Eucharist was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Passover meal with his disciples, a very Jewish tradition that the Jewish community still celebrates today. But this was prefigured many centuries earlier by the offering of bread and wine made by Melchizedek as a priest in thanksgiving for Abraham’s victory as mentioned in Genesis 14. As Archbishop Wenski said: “On this altar and in this chapel, the sacrifice of the New Covenant will be offered… When Christ was sacrificed on Calvary, sin was defeated. On this altar, that same sacrifice will be made present to us each day, so that his victory over sin, death, and the evil one, will also be ours.” This New Covenant comes to us directly out of the old Jewish covenant that God made with His people. We are His people, and it is through an understanding of that old covenant that we can appreciate Christ’s sacrifice and the privileges of our Catholic inheritance. 

I felt so proud of my Catholic heritage as I stood side by side with my mother celebrating the mass in that magnificent new chapel. In the words of Father Pedro Suarez: “This is beauty that makes the soul rise to God.” Yes, beauty made by very talented human hands. Like I told my friend Alina whose husband Jorge is the architect that designed the chapel, “he can retire now because this is his crowning project.” He definitely poured his heart and soul into it. As I stood there, I could definitely feel my soul, like the incense, rising up to God. 

As I looked around, I thought of my dad and how much he would have enjoyed standing inside this beautiful chapel of his Alma Mater. It reminded me of Father Willie’s words which were quoted by the archbishop in his homily: “Be assured, the chapel is not simply an echo of our past but a loud and crisp statement of an extraordinary future.” My dad attended Belen in Cuba, graduating in 1948. He must have prayed in the Belen chapel in Havana countless times. Now, his heirs, his grandsons who graduated from Belen in 2007 and 2013, will be able to enjoy a similar place of worship. The traditions that were started back in Cuba, where Belen alumni would get married in the chapel and return to baptize their children, will continue here in Miami. I hope one day I have the privilege of witnessing the baptism of one of my grandkids at the Belen Chapel, and who knows, maybe even a wedding. I can only hope. 

Our Lady of Belen, pray for us. 

Copyright © 2022 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.