Real presence

Our daily calender from the Metropolitan Museum of Art had this image of the 800-year old "Tabernacle of Cherves" a few days ago. If I'm not mistaken, it's prominently displayed but in a place I'm always passing through on my way elsewhere (the Gubbio Studiolo or the American Court), so this is the first time I've really spent with it. An artistic marvel it's also full of the kind of intricate theological symbolism that makes me especially fond of Romanesque art. As a tabernacle from before it was obligatory to have a special space to store the consecrated Host, I learned from the somewhat brief decsription online, its imagery is focused on the physical presence. 

of Christ after the Resurrection. The central image is the deposition of the cross, which one can imagine moving right into the communion wafers stored below. The roundels in the door are apparently subtly paired: the left begins with Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and proceeds with the women in the empty tomb as Christ rescues the blessed from Hell. At right, noli me tangere yields to Christ's insistence that "doubting" Thomas" touch his wounds. continuing with the breaking of bread at Emmaus and ... something, not described. Can't wait to be in its presence again soon! But in the meantime I'm enjoying what I wouldn't be able to see there, this image of its parts opened up, which are also all the parts surrounding the Host when closed.