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The Clasps and Loops

Keraza Magazine issue 45-46 November 13, 2015

When God ordered Moses to make the Tabernacle and Tent of Meeting, He gave him very specific details. Among those details was to make in each curtain (a woven fabric embroidered in a specific way and size (see Exodus 16) fifty loops on each of its sides, ordering him "that the loops may be clasped to one another" (Exodus 26:5). Then God ordered him, "And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle" (Exodus 26:6), and to do the same with the Tent with the only exception of making the clasps of bronze instead of gold: "And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle" (Exodus 26:11). Linguistically, a clasp is an inverted hook that joins two loops to pull them together.

If the Tent of Meeting is symbolic of the body of Christ, which is the Church, then the curtains resemble her members: individuals, institutions, communities, monasteries, and churches. God did not order Moses to make the material of the Tabernacle and Tent one piece woven from above to below (as was His tunic; John 19:23), but in His wise Economy He made it separate woven curtains. And yet, He ordered him to make in each curtain fifty loops from each side, that meet with the loops of the adjoining curtain, to join each curtain to the one next to it through the clasps which are placed in the loops, which join the Tabernacle and Tent into one. This means that the differences are intentional in the Divine Economy, to test our struggle to accomplish oneness and unity.

True growth for the individual, or the group, will not occur without the other. Never is the other Hell, but rather my Paradise. I will not see the Kingdom or enter it without the other. The Tabernacle will not become one unless the curtains are joined by means of the clasps placed in the loops on either side. This is what St. Paul expressed: "From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:16). These words apply to the individual, where one needs to gather up all his internal strengths of his soul and mind, to work in harmony and reconciliation with each other. They also apply to a person's relationship with others: members of the family, church, and community, and likewise apply between churches, communities, and institutions.

Yet, how can separate entities unite? How can unity be accomplished without dissolving or deforming the identity? This will not be accomplished without the loops and clasps. The clasps are in truth the work of the Holy Spirit who gathers the dispersed children of God into one (John 11:52). It is made of gold because of its purity, and of bronze because of its strength. As for the loops, which at first appear as holes in the fabric that ruin or weaken it, what are they but internal personal needs, gaps without which a person feels self-sufficient and isolates, not needing the others or reaching out to them.

Therefore, do not disdain the loops which God intended to be within us, but rather pray that God uses all of us as clasps of gold and bronze that unite, rather than divide.

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States