The Eschatos

Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-us, Alpha and Omega, the Eschatos, the Fulfilment of all, the Word spoken to us last of all by God (Heb i, 1-2).  His Incarnation is the End and Completion of all.  Christian worship is not merely a happy remembrance of past events (what a Protestant notion), nor but a glance toward the last things (the Eschaton, or more properly, ta eschata), but an immersion in Him Who Is, the Eschatos, namely, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one Liturgist, the Leitourgos (Heb viii, 2) – trust no other! – in Whom we have a participation in the economy of salvation, in His mighty acts past, present, and to come.

For this reason, amongst others, the churches of the Byzantine tradition very often address their prayers to "Christ our God", whereas the Holy Roman Church keeps in the main to the still older tradition whereby prayers are addressed to God the Father. The insights of both East and West coincide, of course, when considering the centrality of the Enfleshment of the Divine Word.  To-day's Collect at Mass, for the 31st of December, the 7th day of the Christmas Octave (found in both the Hadrianum and the Leonine Sacramentary, and thus dating back to the 7th century at least), repays much careful consideration in its magnificent encapsulation of this mystery:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in Filii tui nativitate tribuisti totius religionis initium perfectionemque constare, da nobis, quæsumus, in ejus portione censeri, in quo totius salutis humanæ summa consistit. Per...

This may be rendered as:

Almighty everlasting God, Who hast given, in the birth of Thy Son, the beginning and end of all religion to consist, grant us, we beg, in His portion to be reckoned, in Whom the sum of the whole of human salvation doth consist. Through...

Similarly, but not quite so painfully literally, the new translation of the modern Missal englishes the Latin original thus:

Almighty ever-living God, who in the Nativity of your Son established the beginning and fulfilment of all religion, grant, we pray, that we may be numbered among those who belong to him, in whom is the fulness of human salvation. Through...

Note the Latin particularly: in Filii tui nativitate... totius religionis initium perfectionemque constare – the beginning and the perfection of all religion consists in the birth, or, rather, in the Incarnation, of the Son of God Almighty and Eternal.  "Nativity", "birth" must be understood in the sense of the first unveiling of the Incarnation to human eyes (though known first by faith, then by revelation, and then by joyful interior awareness to the Most Holy Virgin at the Annunciation; and a little later to St Joseph), when Christ was born at Bethlehem, the "House of Bread".  The Incarnation is totius religionis initium perfectionemque; just as in due measure the Eucharistic Sacrifice, whereby He, the Eschatos, becomes present to us, in an extension of His Incarnation as it were, is the "source and summit" of Christian worship:

...Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiæ tendit et simul fons unde omnis ejus virtus emanat. ("...the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.") 

— Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10.

While in many and varied ways God spoke to us through His prophets of old, in the fulness of time He spoke to us, lastly, in His Son, His Word, Who for us took flesh, and became the Verbum abbreviatum, the Infinite confined in a Body, God the Son become the Son of Man. (Like the TARDIS, Christ is "bigger on the inside"...)  As St John of the Cross rightly asks, why seek for some further or other communication from on High, when the Most Highest has spoken His Eternal Word to us?  In Christ is all the fulness of Divinity; He is the definitive revelation of the Father.

But there is still more to consider in this Collect, for its first phrase is paralleled by its last: in quo totius salutis humanæ summa consistit – in Whom the sum and height and total of all of human salvation is found, exists, consists.  For there is no other salvation than that found in Christ our God.  Note the repetition of the verb: constare, consistit.  Note the repetition of totius.  Note the paralleling of perfectionem and summa.

Religion, in St Augustine's words, is that by which man is "re-bound" to God, as if derived from re-ligare.  Hence, if the Nativity of Christ, the birth of the Incarnate God, is the beginning and the end of all religion, all re-connecting of man to the All-Highest, then of course in Him and His Nativity is found likewise the totius salutis humanæ summa.  These terms again parallel each other.

Therefore, what we pray for is detailed in the middle of the Collect: that we may have some part and share in Him.  Glory be to Christ, in Whom all glory is to God on high, and all peace to men of good will, those who enjoy His grace and favour.

Travel Journal: 1st January

Saturday 1^st January 2011: New Year’s Day; Octave Day of Christmas; the Circumcision; Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

How many mysteries this day!  The eighth day of the Nativity, the day of Christ’s Circumcision, when He was named Jesus; the commemoration of Our Lady as Mother of God; and, anciently in Rome when Christianity was still struggling against the pagans, a day of prayer “in detestation of idols”.

The Dominican Breviary appoints a special collect for to-day as the Octave Day of Christmas – unlike the Roman, which has always used a Marian collect, Deus qui salutis æternæ, celebrating the Divine Motherhood of Our Lady.

The Dominican Collect:

Deus, qui nobis nati Salvatoris diem celebrare concedis octavum: fac nos, quæsumus, ejus perpetua Divinitate muniri, cujus sumus carnali commercio reparati: Qui tecum vivit…

(O God, Who dost concede unto us to celebrate the octave day of the birth of the Saviour: make us, we beseech, perpetually to be defended by His Divinity, by Whose assumption of flesh* we are restored: Who with Thee liveth…)

*I just cannot render carnali commercio as “carnal/fleshly commerce/exchange”, since in English that sounds appalling: so I pretend it reads carnis assumptio!  The thought is that there occurs a marvellous transaction, a sacrum commercium, God the Son taking on our human nature that we might be partakers of His Divine nature.

The Book of Common Prayer includes, for to-day as “The Circumcision of Christ”, this collect following, a piece of Anglican patrimony that may fitly be welcomed into full communion with the Catholic Church:

ALMIGHTY God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true Circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Paris Missal of 1738 contained another collect for this day that nicely sums up both the import of the Circumcision and of the Holy Name:

Deus, qui pro nobis homo factus, hodierna die circumcidi, et Salvatoris nomen accipere voluisti; concede propitius, ut carnis renuntiantes operibus, salutis aeternae praemium per invocationem sancti tui nominis consequamur.  Qui vivis…

(O God, Who for us being made man, wast circumcised this day, and didst will to accept the name of Saviour: graciously grant, that renouncing the works of the flesh, we may obtain the reward of eternal life by the invocation of Thy holy name.  Who livest…)

Again, the Dominican Office appoints a different hymn, an authentic product of St Ambrose, for Christmastide Vespers: Veni Redemptor gentium.  The opening stanza is magnificent, and oft on my mind and lips these days:

Veni, Redemptor gentium,

Ostende partum Virginis,

Miretur omne sæculum,

Talis decet partus Deum.

Come, Redeemer of the nations,

Reveal the birth-giving of the Virgin:

Let every age stand in amaze:

Such a birth befits a God.

Having arrived very early in Melbourne, I acquired my hire car and set off for the CBD: being unworldly, I didn’t realize that on New Year’s Day nearly everything would be closed!  I parked by Parliament House, and ended up breakfasting at the Windsor Hotel for lack of anywhere else open.  After that, I walked over to the Cathedral for a visit.

Coming in to St Aloysius, I made my first stop the kneeler before the new shrine of Bl John Henry Newman there, praying in especial for all incoming Anglicans.

The 11 am Mass to-day at St Aloysius, North Caulfield, was a Solemn High Mass (Fr Tattersall, celebrant, Fr Terence Mary, deacon, Mr Steinbeck, ersatz subdeacon); we sang Mass IV and Credo III; the choir sang the Gregorian propers gloriously, including melismatic verses of the Offertory, and for a communion motet, Puer natus in Bethlehem by Prætorius.  The organ was ably played by Justin as usual – including some quiet variations on “O come let us adore Him” after the Elevation during the Canon.  After Mass, the Veni Creator with versicle and collect was sung for to obtain the plenary indulgence available, and then we concluded with a hearty “O come all ye faithful”: all these solemnities took just over an hour to complete.  A moving sight: after High Mass, Fr Terence returned to the altar to offer a private Low Mass.

In his sermon, Fr Tattersall remarked on the words of the angel to St Joseph: Name the Child Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins (see the Gospel of the Vigil Mass of Christmas).  Jesus indeed means “God saves”: and in literal truth this is the case.  He, our Mediator, presages His bloody self-sacrifice to save us by first shedding His Blood at His Circumcision, at the very moment on the eighth day when He receives His Name, ordained from all eternity and now conferred in time.  We were reminded that the true circumcision is of the heart, and that we must “work out our salvation in fear and trembling” by ever “putting to death the old man”, under the inspiration of the grace won for us by Our Lord, which alone gives us the power to be made regenerate, new men in Christ.  How well the B.C.P. and Neo-Gallican collects address this moral imperative!

Lunch at the Balaclava Hotel followed; then I went and checked in at my accommodation, and betook myself to bed at 4 pm!  I was utterly tired out, having had a restless night (a neighbour’s party kept me awake until after midnight), and risen at a quarter to five in order to catch my early flight.

Transeamus usque Bethlehem

Transeamus usque Bethlehem, et videamus hoc verbum, quod factum est, quod Dominus ostendit nobis.  Et venerunt festinantes : et invenerunt Mariam, et Joseph, et infantem positum in præsepio.

Let us pass over unto Bethlehem, and let us see this Word, which was made, which the Lord hath shewn unto us.  And they went hastening: and they found Mary, and Joseph, and the Child placed in the manger.

— St Luke ii, 15b-16

This post is a plea for solemn Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction during Christmastide, by which we may intensify as at this time (as is most appropriate) our desire for and spiritual communion with Christ, Who became Man for us, that He might give His Flesh for us, to be our Bread, so we could become partakers of the Divine Nature:

But as from the Highest Place Thou didst for us humble Thyself, submit now to my humility, and as Thou didst consent to lie in the cave and in the manger of dumb beasts, so now consent also to enter in to the manger of my dumb soul and into my defiled body.

— Byzantine Rite, Prayers of Preparation before Holy Communion, 3rd Prayer "by St John Chrysostom"

It ought ever be remembered that one of the English-speaking world's favourite carols, "O come, all ye faithful" was originally written by an eighteenth-century Englishman, a Catholic recusant, written in Latin (only done into English in the nineteenth century), and intended for singing, not at Mass (as was unheard of then) but at Benediction at the chapel of the one of the London embassies of Catholic countries.

This hymn, then, was sung in Latin ere ever it was sung in the vernacular.  Proving this, I have a copy of A Companion to the Altar, or Compact Pocket Missal, for all the Sundays, Festivals of Obligation & Devotion &c. &c. in the Year (2nd edition, London: 1796), which gives this hymn as follows in four stanzas  - I copy out the English only, from the left-hand column (the Latin is given on the right):

The Prose, ADESTE FIDELES, sung from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany.

Ye faithful souls rejoice and sing,
To Bethlehem your trophies bring:
Before the new-born Angels' King,
Come let us him adore.
Come, &c.

True God of God, true light of light,
Borne in womb of Virgin bright:
Begot, not made, true God of might,
Come let us him adore.
Come, &c.

Angelic Choirs with joy now sing,
Th' heav'nly Courts with echoes ring,
Glory on high to God our King,
Come let us him adore.
Come, &c.

Jesus, whose Life this day begun,
The Father's co-eternal Son,
Glory to him be ever sung:
Come let us him adore.
Come, &c.

Adeste fideles is therefore addressed to Catholic worshippers, and the triple refrain, Venite adoremus Dominum, is an exhortation to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance on the altar.

Is not Bethlehem "the House of Bread"?  Let us go over to Bethlehem, that is, to the church - the House of Bread - and to the holy altar thereof, whose tabernacle is the holy of holies wherein God rests under the sacramental signs, to behold the Word made flesh for us, concealed in form of bread, nay, not so much veiled as revealed therein by the outward sign: for bread is the staff of life, and the True Bread come down from heaven, better than the ancient manna, feeds us unto life eternal.

After all, what is a cratch or manger but the feeding trough for lowly animals?  Christ laid therein shews forth His extreme kenotic self-giving sacrifice, making Himself food for us debased and fallen creatures.

The Lord has shewn this unto us, that His Onlybegotten Son, Christ, is incarnate for us, having taken our nature upon Him: and He is not far from us, but even in His sacred humanity He is present on our altars, as He has willed.  We can go to Bethlehem!

In our Bethlehem, we will find the Child, God's Eternal Son, reposing in great humility, not displaying His Divine Majesty but rather manifesting His great goodness and desire to nourish us.  And going to Bethlehem, to our church, we shall not find Christ alone - no pretended religion bereft of the communion of saints - but we shall find Him, and His Holy Mother Mary, our Mother also, and St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.

Consider now the stanzas of Adeste fideles: we who believe are called urgently to come to Bethlehem, to behold Him Who is born the King of Angels; for He is God from God, Light from Light, true God, begotten not created - as the Nicene Creed sings - and yet (taking flesh) carried in the Virgin's womb.

The shepherds, being called, left their flocks abiding "in tempest, storm and wind" (as another carol exaggerates), and humbly ran to the cradle; so we too should hasten our footsteps, praising.  Likewise come the Magi, wise men, led by the star to Him; they fall down and worship, offering gold, incense and myrrh; so therefore we should offer our hearts to the Christ-Child, God our Jesus, the Eternal Word born a tiny Babe and speechless.

For He is the Splendour Eternal of the Everlasting Father: veiled in the flesh we shall behold Him, God an Infant, wrapt in swaddling bands!  (We may add, in unparalleled humility sacramentally present under the form of bread.)  For us He is born poor and needy, cradled in a manger - in a feeding-trough - and so we ought wish to embrace Him in all piety, loving Him Who so greatly first loved us: what ought we not do for Him as some poor recompense?

The choirs of the angels now sing in jubilation, now sings all heaven, Glory to God in the highest!  (Such is the ceaseless worship of the Godhead by all angels and saints; such is their worship of Christ Incarnate, of Christ's Real Presence.)  Therefore to Thee, O Jesu, born for us this day, be all glory, Thou the Eternal Father's Word made flesh.

What an act of faith to sing this in presence of the Blessed Sacrament!

"O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord."

Murder in the Cathedral

A pity that today is no longer St Thomas à Becket's feast; I suppose the late pre-Conciliar liturgical reformers felt it intruded into the Christmas Octave in a way that the first-millennium, immemorially celebrated feasts of St Stephen, St John, and the Holy Innocents didn't.

In any case, after making my humble confession this morning, I was delighted to read the start of the Epistle to the Romans (1:1-19, at the end of Matins; vide infra), and after some more psalms and such the collect of the Octave, followed soon by the collect of the Saint, while saying Lauds, since both proved so apposite:

Concede, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut nos Unigeniti tui nova per carnem nativitas liberet; quos sub peccati jugo vetusta servitus tenet.  Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(Grant, we beseech, almighty God, that the new birth of Thy Onlybegotten in the flesh may deliver us, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

As Ven. Jean-Jacques Olier used to say forcefully, "We must slay the old man" – thus terrifying the gardener, who was listening at the chapter-room window while weeding!  Only Christ, by His Nativity coming to us in the flesh, can so apply the merits of His passion to us via the physical instrumentality of His Humanity so we can be delivered from the age-old slavery to sin, Satan, death and hell.  We pray that His will may be done in us, that our earth become His heaven.

Deus, pro cujus Ecclesiæ gloriosus Pontifex Thomas gladiis impiorum occubuit: præsta, quæsumus; ut omnes, qui ejus implorant auxilium, petitionis suæ salutaris consequantur effectum.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(O God, for Whose Church the glorious Pontiff Thomas was slain by the swords of the ungodly: grant, we beseech Thee, that all, who implore his aid, may obtain the saving effect of their petition.  Through Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

I pictured to myself all England, if not all Christendom, in past ages making their way to the glorious shrine of the blessed martyr at Canterbury, as Chaucer has immortalized it, there to pray for relief from all their troubles, confident in receiving ready aid – and we too can turn to the holy martyr in like confidence, as a very friend of God, elect and precious; and then I recalled how wicked Henry VIII despoiled the shrine and burnt the sacred relics within.  How the children of the world hate the children of the Kingdom...

In charity we pray that Henry will not burn world without end, tho' it seems likely that that tyrant, so given to lust, schism, heresy and murder, may well, alas, have remained resistant to grace until the last.  Mors peccatorum pessima.  A warning to the would-be penitent not to return to his old path like a dog to its vomit!

To return to Romans 1:1-19... I was struck, first, by the wonderful dense description the Apostle gives of the Son of God: "made of the seed of David according to the flesh... predestinated to be the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification... Jesus Christ our Lord"; second, by the realization that, given how greatly St Paul must have prayed "for all the churches" while on earth, how much greater it must be in heaven, where he lives and reigns as a saint amongst saints; third, that the Good News of Jesus Christ "is the power of God unto salvation unto every believer" – and why? – because God's wrath has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, not in blazing anger, not in eternal condemnation, but in a Babe born for us, a Son given for us: Who hath taken our sin upon Himself, thus appeasing Divine justice and fulfilling Divine love – the two are one – as the spotless Lamb, Who taketh away the sins of the world (cf. Dix, Power of God; wherein he takes these verses as the start for his meditations on the Seven Last Words).