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The End and the Beginning of the Year Interlocking Clasps in the Hidden Season by Wilhelm von Kaulbach by

by P. Foley Titus Destruction of Jerusalem by

t may seem strange that in a calen- tial nature of liturgical development, of the Jews that is to take place at Idar with “only one” annual cycle the Time After , and the the end of time, and even after its of readings, two of the Sundays season of . And perhaps most readings were later modified to give share virtually the same . And interestingly, it reveals a hidden the Sunday its current configuration, it may seem stranger still that these season in the Church year. it continued to explore those themes two Sundays occur consecutively. indirectly.2 The Gospel for the Twenty-Fourth or Historical Background A few centuries ago, however, Last Sunday after Pentecost, taken An obvious place to begin is how the the Church added the Twenty-Fourth from Matthew 24:15-35, contains 1962 took its present shape. Sunday after Pentecost, with its Gos- Christ’s twofold description of the Some time during the pontificate of pel reading of Matthew 24:15-35, destruction of the Temple and the Gregory the Great (590-600), knowing full well that essentially the world. That same discourse reemerg- a devastating natural catastrophe same Gospel would be read the fol- es the following week on the First (possibly a hurricane) struck Rome lowing “.” Instead of Sunday of Advent, in the slightly in late November. To console the ending on the “eternal Alliance” that abridged form in which it appears in people, the read Luke 21:25- would at last be struck between Gen- the Gospel according to Saint Luke 33, which warns of natural portents tile and Jew, the Church year would (21:25-33). From the perspective and “the distress of nations,” and now conclude with “the prophetic of the worshipper, it makes little delivered a on it. The Pope’s description of the dread coming of difference that these Sundays are precedent was duly noted by later the Lord, which is to put an end to at opposite ends of the calendar, generations, who assumed (mis- time and to open eternity.”3 since the cyclical recurrence of the takenly, it is believed) that it was liturgical year ensures that they are his intention to make this Gospel a How to Interpret experienced back-to-back. permanent feature of Advent. Hence A cynic looking at these histori- Why then this redundancy, it was included in later liturgical cal data might conclude that the especially when there are fewer books.1 has both a false “slots” for Gospel readings in the During that same millennium, start and a false ending. But were traditional Missal? Shouldn’t one of the Twenty-Third Sunday after he to do so, he would be neglect- these “slots” have been put to better Pentecost served as the capstone ing two important considerations, use? The answer to these questions to the liturgical year. Originally, it one “aesthetic” or artistic and the teaches us much about the providen- dealt explicitly with the conversion other theological. Like the great

46 Fall 2013 The End and the Beginning of the Church Year: Interlocking Clasps in the Hidden Season Liturgical Year cathedrals of Europe, the traditional souls in ). Then, it moves recapitulate the thirty-three-year era is a work of art; and to the Church Militant, especially of Christ’s earthly sojourn, the like any work of art, every element to my own dreadful ill-preparedness Time after Pentecost corresponds to be understood in context, even for the Last Things. Finally, it the penultimate chapter of the story authorial “mistakes.” What may be conditions me in such a way that I of redemption, the chapter that is an accident, a later interpolation, or may, God willing, find just cause to currently being written. even a defect, can, with or without say gladly with the Apostle, Mara- Put differently, just as Pentecost the author’s intention, contribute to natha—Come, Lord! marks the birthday of the Church in a larger unified whole. Sometimes, To espy this season more clearly, the , so too does the Time these “happy faults” can even be the let us first turn to the Time after Pen- after Pentecost mark the life of the best or most interesting part of the tecost. As both the and Church Church moving through the vicissi- work. And if this is true on a purely Fathers attest, there are several dis- tudes of history under the protection human level (and as a Great Books tinct periods of and guidance of teacher I can assure you that it is), sacred history. that same Spirit. imagine how much more it is true The age before It is for this when the art in question involves the the Law was reason that the providential guidance of the Holy replaced by readings Spirit. the age under from this season Second, we must be careful not it; and that emphasize the to confuse historical development age, in turn, Apostles’ advice with theological meaning—an was closed to the burgeon- unfortunately common presumption during the ing churches of in a great deal of twentieth-century time that Jesus the day while its liturgical scholarship. The historical Christ walked Gospel read- reasons behind the use of incense upon the face ings focus on in , for example, of the earth. the kingdom of may be quite different from its Likewise, the Heaven and its ongoing symbolic significance. As age of divine justice. It is also Saint Gregory the Great would put revelation Saint Phillip Neri at the Consecration by Joan Llimona the reason why it, the fact (factum) is one thing, the (which ended the correspond- mystery (mysterium) another; and at the death of Like the great cathedrals ing lessons from although every fact discloses a mys- the last Apostle) of Europe, the traditional the tery, the mystery cannot be reduced gave way to a Roman rite is a work of draw heavily to the fact. different era, the from the history era immediately art; and like any work of of the Israelites Time After Pentecost preceding the art, every element must be in the Old Testa- When we keep in mind these artistic . ment. All are and theological hermeneutics, a It is that era understood in context, even somehow meant startling image emerges, like a which the Time authorial “mistakes.” to teach us how figure from the fog: a hidden liturgi- After Pentecost to comport our- cal season, if you will, that begins liturgically commemorates and that selves as citizens of the city of God around the Eighteenth Sunday after era in which we now find our- as we pass through the kingdoms of Pentecost, stretches over the Last selves. Despite the expanse of two this world. Sunday after Pentecost and Advent thousand years and the plethora of The Sanctoral Cycle that con- Sunday, and ends on . This cultural and technological changes curs with the Time after , as we shall see, begins in that separate us from the Christians underscores this ecclesiastical focus. wonder at the eschatological glory who outlived the Beloved Disciple, Providentially, this is the part of and justice of God present in Him- we are still living in the same age as the year with the most ’ days. self and in His members: the Church they, the last age of mankind. Just as Saints are an important component Triumphant (the Angels, the Saints, Advent symbolizes life before and in the Christian landscape, not only and the bodies of the Elect) as well under the Old Law while the Christ- because of their capacity to inter- as the Church Suffering (the poor mas, Lenten, and seasons cede for us, but because they are

Fall 2013 47 Liturgical Year The End and the Beginning of the Church Year: Interlocking Clasps in the Hidden Season living proof that a holy, Catholic life Parousia or coming of the Lord and hidden season, I have been rumi- is possible in every age. be ready for the end times. nating on “a magnificent vision of In fact, the feasts kept during the Consequently, beginning on the eternal glory and reward,” both in Time after Pentecost encompass eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Christ the King and in His members, virtually every aspect of Church the Sunday Propers begin to the Church triumphant and suffer- life. If the saints in general remind take on an apocalyptic tone and ing.6 Even on the previous Sunday, us of the goal of holiness, certain theme. Verses from the depending on the , I saints, such as Saint become more common and refer- was happily contemplating how our (June 24 & August 29) and Saints ences to the final manifestation or Savior will “reform the body of our Peter and Paul (June 29), remind us visitation of Christ more insistent. lowness” to make it like “the body of the role that the hierarchy plays Again the Sanctoral Cycle col- of His glory” (Phil. 3:21).7 But with in leading the Church towards that laborates. In August, there are early the Gospel for the Last Sunday, goal. Likewise the feasts of the salvos across the bow with feasts I am now vividly struck by how Temporal Cycle, such as the Feast like the Transfiguration of our Lord Doomsday will affect me and other of the Holy , Corpus Christi, (August 6) and the Assumption of members of the Church militant. I or the of Jesus, direct the Blessed (August 15), both like the part about having a glorified our attention to the explicit , of which give us a hint of the body’s body, but will I make it that far? Am sacramentality, and final glorification I ready for the distress of nations? spirituality of the A startling image at the Church, respectively. emerges, like a figure of the Dead.4 Mich- Advent Even the physical aelmas (September Which brings us to Advent, a curious space consecrated for from the fog: a hidden 29) and the Feast of commingling of joy and penance, sacred use is adverted liturgical season, if the Guardian Angels of sorrowful violet and to: significantly, all (October 2) likewise jubilant and hymns, of sup- feasts for the dedica- you will, that begins point us to the eternal pressed Gloria’s and unsuppressed tion of churches take around the Eighteenth glory of Heaven, ’s, of holding back yet not place during the Time Sunday after as does the Feast of quite . The historical explana- after Pentecost. Christ the King (last tion of this duality is that centuries This time of year Pentecost, stretches Sunday of October). ago the customs of the Frankish truly is “the time over the Last Sunday All Saints’ Day Church, which treated Advent as a of the Church,” the after Pentecost and (November 1) and All mini-, coalesced with those of liturgical period Souls’ Day (Novem- the Roman Church, which treated that corresponds to Advent Sunday, and ber 2) direct us to Advent as a time of festivity. the spotless Bride’s ends on Epiphany. the theme of eternal But here we again see that history triumphant pilgrim- reward and the end is not the whole of the story. If age through the world. Hence the times (note the Epistle reading indeed Advent commemorates the liturgical color of green, the symbol from the Book of the Apocalypse time before Christ, when the world of hope and life. on All Saints’ Day). Significantly, groaned in darkness for its Redeemer these holy days occur mostly during and when Israel held up the lamp of The Hidden Season autumn, the season that heralds the hope, then it makes sense Biblically The Time after Pentecost mirrors end of life. that the sentiments of the Church the “penultimate chapter” of history, Finally, this growing sense of during this season should be mixed as I have called it, because we have apocalyptic anticipation crescendos like those of the Patriarchs of old, it on good authority that the final with the last Sunday after Pentecost, who were filled with joy by their chapter is the Last Judgment and the when the Gospel recalls Christ’s hope in the Messiah but grieving creation of a new Heaven and earth. ominous prophecies concerning that because He was not yet here, Regardless of whether this cosmic the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Devil still held humanity in grand finale occurs tomorrow or in a and the end of the world, when the bondage. thousand years, it remains urgently “remaining elect will be gathered And theologically, Advent brings to relevant to how we live our lives into their glory.”5 But this climactic mind not just the coming (adventus) today. Every believer must heed Gospel also marks a shift for me the of the Lord in humility to Beth- Saint Paul’s admonitions about the worshipper. Previously during this lehem but His coming in glory at

48 Fall 2013 The End and the Beginning of the Church Year: Interlocking Clasps in the Hidden Season Liturgical Year the end of time. This double com- only-begotten Son, whom we joy- from a different canonical author) memoration of the first and second fully remember as our Redeemer, during the First Sunday of Advent Comings again makes sense Bibli- may be seen by us also without underscores this central fact.9 cally, since the Prophets themselves dread when He comes as our Judge, rarely distinguished between the two our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son who Interlocking Harmony (which is one of the reasons why livest…8 Moreover, both the similarities and deciphering prophetic literature is so the differences between these two difficult). What an astonishing aspiration: Gospels serve as interlocking clasps Moreover, the Church is teaching to have our hearts so thoroughly which serve to unite the bejeweled us that in order to be ready for the purified, rectified, and inflamed with necklace that is the ecclesiastical Lord’s triumphant return as Judge the love of God that beholding Him calendar. For like a clasp, these of the living and the dead, we must as our Judge in His terrifying glory Gospel selections have parts that are prepare as our holy forefathers once will bring us no dread but merely identical and parts that are different did for His nativity. By preparing the warm joy of greeting Him as if but complementary. for , He were still As Saint Augustine points out, soberly and vigi- a Babe in the Christ’s discourses on the destruc- lantly, we prepare stable with His tion of the Temple recounted in Mat- ourselves for our mother. Yet that thew 24 and Luke 21 are essentially Final Judgment. is precisely the in harmony, both occurring in the In other words, aspiration of the same context and both having more one of the goals Church in her or the less the same content.10 In of Advent and sacred liturgy. both cases, Jesus makes a remark Nor is it unat- about the days of the Temple being (the second half tainable. When numbered, and in both cases the Final Judgement (detail) by Hans Memling of the “hidden a young Saint Apostles ask for more information. season”) is to use Every believer must heed Aloysius Gon- Christ’s answer, as Saint the First Coming to zaga was told on observes, combines three different make us ready for Saint Paul’s admonitions his sickbed that events: the destruction of the Temple the Second. And about the Parousia or he was going to (which took place in August A.D. here again both coming of the Lord and be die, he quoted 70), the Second Coming of Christ, joy and penance Psalm 121:1— and the end of the world. It is not come into play. ready for the end times. “I rejoiced always easy to distinguish among The more we are prepared for our when I heard them say, we shall the three, and indeed it is possible Lord’s Coming through penance, go into the house of the Lord.” that the Evangelists themselves were the more we will truly welcome it, And when Saint Thérèse the Little not clear on which passages applied moving beyond our well-deserved Flower first coughed up blood in to which event. sense of unworthiness to an exulta- her kerchief, indicating that she But there are also differences tion in His arrival. We will know had the fatal disease tuberculosis, between the two readings. Part of that we are ready for the Parousia she called it “a joyful thing.” Both this is by design of the Evangelists: when the very mention of it strikes of these saints were in the of while both accounts are cryptic and not the slightest trepidation in our youth with a long and lustrous life frightening, Matthew’s is arguably hearts, even though we are fully ahead of them, and so their zeal for more so, with eerie phrases like aware of its awesome nature. On death and judgment is all the more the “abomination of desolation.” the contrary, we will welcome the impressive. Luke, on the other hand, contains Day of Wrath with the same joy as In any event, it is clear that the verses that point more clearly to the welcoming Christmas morning. question of personal preparedness destruction of the Temple, such as Such, in sum, is the of the is not abandoned at the close of the the prediction that an army shall sur- Church on December 24: Church year with the Last Sunday round Jerusalem (21:20), an event after Pentecost but continued into that occurred when four Roman O God, who dost fill us with glad- and even heightened by the seasons legions led by the future Emperor ness each year in the expectation of Advent and Christmas. The return Titus camped around the city in of our redemption: grant that Thine of the same Gospel discourse (albeit April A.D. 70 and laid siege to it.

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Part of the dif- the first and last Conclusion ference, however, Sundays of the Father Francis Weiser finds the is by design of year may be seen traditional season of Advent “to the Church. The in the . be wanting in that harmony and Last Sunday The Collects of unity which characterizes the other reading from the first, sec- seasons of the ecclesiastical year,” in Saint Matthew is ond, and fourth part because it contains “two some- longer, containing Sundays of what opposite trends of thought,” more of Christ’s Advent are “Stir a “season of joy” and a “season discourse, while up” prayers, of penance.”11 Weiser’s critique is the Advent reading orations begin- especially curious given that his own from Saint Luke ning with Excita excellent work discloses the answer contains only part or “stir up” that to his dilemma. If indeed Advent is of the second half petition the Lord a season about the Second Com- of the discourse, to arouse either ing, then what better disposition can omitting several the people or there be for the faithful to have than of the frightening His own power. one of both joy and penance: joy at details and the Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Francesco Mancini Sometimes the prospect of eternal peace with clear references The Church is teaching the prayers are our Savior, penance at the thought to the Roman invasion. addressed to God the of one’s own unworthiness? Holding When the Matthean us that in order to be Father, sometimes in tension these two opposite trends excerpt is proclaimed ready for the Lord’s to the Son. Fitting in of thought could well be the first, the hearer’s first neatly with this pat- behind the Wise Virgins’ vigilance response is one of triumphant return as tern is the for in waiting for the Groom. And the fear or apprehension. Judge of the living the Last Sunday after interlocking clasps formed by the When it is followed and the dead, we Pentecost, which asks end and the beginning of the tradi- by the Lukan excerpt to stir tional liturgical year are instrumen- the following Sunday, must prepare as our up (excitare) the wills tal in fostering this salutary tension, that fear is slightly holy forefathers once of the faithful that helping us—as we learn from the mitigated. Not only they may receive the Epistle on Advent Sunday—to cast has repetition dulled did for His nativity. greater remedies of off the works of darkness and put on the initial impact, but By preparing for His mercy. Highlight- the armor of light. ✠ the shorter account is Christmas, soberly and ing the distinctiveness less frightening. After of these Collects is the Michael P. Foley is an confronting us with vigilantly, we prepare fact that there are no associate professor of the awesome facts ourselves for our Final others like them in the patristics at Baylor about the Last Day, the rest of the Temporal University. He is the Church slowly pre- Judgment. Cycle. Once again the author of Why Do pares us for a joyful appropriation of worshipper gets the sense of some- Catholics Eat Fish on them. The transition from fear to trust thing overlapping the two seasons, Friday? The Catholic Origin to Just About in God’s mercy has begun. with the last and first Sundays as the Everything (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) Finally, the interlocking quality of double hinge. and Wedding Rites (Eerdmans, 2008).

Notes 1. Francis X. Weiser, S.J., The Handbook of Christian 5. Weiser, 54. 9. For more on “repetition” in the 1962 calendar, see Feasts and Customs: The Year of the Lord in Liturgy 6. Weiser, 54. Michael P. Foley, “Divine Do-Overs: The Secret of and Folklore (Harcourt, Brace and World, 1958), 52. Recapitulation in the Traditional Calendar,” The 7. From the Epistle from the Twenty-Third Sunday after 2. See Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, vol. Mass: The Journal of Catholic Culture and Tradition Pentecost. If there are more than twenty-four Sundays 19:2 ( 2010), 46-49. 11, trans. Dom Laurence Shepherd (St. after Pentecost, Masses from the Time after Epiphany Publications, 2000), 468-82. are inserted in between the Mass for the Twenty-Third 10. On the Harmony of the Gospels 2.76. 3. Guéranger, 483-484. Sunday after Pentecost and the Mass for the Twenty- 11. Weiser, 54. In fairness, Weiser lists other “wanting” 4. For more on this subject, see Michael P. Foley, “Showing Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (which then becomes qualities in the Advent seasons, such as the absence the Tree to the Acorn: Feasts About the Resurrection the “Last Sunday after Pentecost”). of a . This deficiency was rectified in of the Body,” The : The Journal of Catholic 8. Collect of the Mass and Breviary. 1962 with inclusion of an optional Gallican Preface Culture and Tradition 20:3 (Summer 2011), 38-42. for Advent.

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