Holy Smokes: Why Catholics Use Incense in Worship

At Mass and other liturgical services we see priests and altar servers swinging censers, sending clouds of incense wafting through the air. In Catholic liturgy, everything symbolizes a theological truth.

So, what does incense symbolize?

Incense has been used in Christian liturgy from its earliest centuries. In fact, it was a part of the Jewish tradition that came before it, a use that was commanded by God himself and recorded in Sacred Scripture.

INCENSE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

God commanded Moses to make an Altar of Incense for worship in the Tabernacle:

You shall make an altar to burn incense upon; of acacia wood shall you make it . . . And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it,  and when Aaron sets up the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. (Exodus 30:1-10)

God also commanded how the incense should be made, a "holy recipe":

And the Lord said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part),  and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy;  and you shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you; it shall be for you most holy. And the incense which you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves; it shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.” (Exodus 30:34-38)

From these passages and others we infer that incense was part of a ritual cleansing and purification of the sacred space of the Tabernacle, making it a worthy place for the worship of God - according to His terms.  In fact, frankincense, mentioned in the Bible, is now known to have antiseptic and disinfectant properties.

God gave these specific instructions to Moses because worship of God by Israel in His earthly Tabernacle was a pattern of the worship of God by the angels in His heavenly throne; that is, worship on earth was to be unified with the worship in heaven.

INCENSE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The use of incense is also recorded in the New Testament. Frankincense was one of the precious gifts that the Three Kings brought in homage to the Baby Jesus, which was a sign of his role as priest in addition to prophet and king.

In his apocalyptic visions of heaven, St. John the Apostle recorded that he saw incense being used in God’s heavenly throne:

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth; and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (Revelation 5:6-8)

In the above passage, incense is identified with the prayers of the saints. In the one below, incense is added to the prayers of the saints by an angel, highlighting the mediation of the angels in our worship of God:

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. (Revelation 8:3-4)

INCENSE IN CHRISTIAN LITURGY

From the Catholic Bible passages above in both the Old and the New Testaments, we can see that incense is an important part of the worship of God on earth, first by the Jews, and continued by the Christians.

The smoke of the incense is symbolic of sanctification and purification, as well as symbolic of the prayers of the faithful. It is one of the outward signs of spiritual realities, and that is why it has its place in Christian liturgy.  These two purposes reveal a deeper truth that prayer itself purifies and sanctifies us, making us worthy of worshiping God in heaven for eternity with all the angels and saints.

Many Bible commentators show how the Tabernacle in the Old Testament is a pattern of us, human beings, as temples or dwelling places of the Holy Spirit.  Before we can dwell with God in eternity, there is a need for our purification and sanctification, the removal of sin. One of the ways this happens is through prayer.

This spiritual meaning is evident in the Wisdom books of the Old Testament, where prayer is connected with purification, making our prayer a sweet aroma rising up to God:

Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice! (Psalm 141:2)

Listen to me, O you holy sons, and bud like a rose growing by a stream of water; send forth fragrance like frankincense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. (Sirach 39: 13-14)

INCENSE CALLS US TO PRAYER

When we see incense being used in our churches, it is meant to remind us of heaven, and that our worship of God in the Christian liturgy is divine in origin. It also reminds us to pray, and that our prayer rises to God like the smoke from the censer, purifying our worship of God, and allowing his Holy Spirit to work in us to make us holy.

“The usage of incense adds a sense of solemnity and mystery to the Mass. The visual imagery of the smoke and the smell remind us of the transcendence of the Mass which links heaven with earth, and allow us to enter into the presence of God."  - Father William Saunders

The video below shows the world-famous giant thurible from St. James Cathedral (Santiago de Compostela) in Spain.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass transcends space and time, and the use of incense helps the worshiper to enter into this eternal reality through the use of the external senses.

This article has been updated and was originally published in October 2014. © The Catholic Company