medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Offertorium – 50
The Introit for the Tuesday in Easter Week begins with Ecclesiasticus,
15, verses 3 and 4:
Aqua sapientiae potavit eos, alleluia: firmabitur in illis, et non
flectetur, alleluia: et exaltabit eos in aeternum, alleluia, alleluia.
This is not the most obvious of texts to use as an Eastertide antiphon.
It says nothing directly about the resurrection of Christ. The psalm
verse perhaps clarifies matters a little, for it is the beginning of
Psalm 104:
Confitemini Domino, et invocate nomen eius: annuntiate inter gentes
opera eius.
Now this fairly lengthy psalm tells the story of God’s dealing with his
people, particularly when they went down into Egypt. Several verses are
devoted to the story of Joseph, and then to Moses, who led his people
out of Egypt after the various plagues. The Exodus story, as we have
seen, is frequently used as a typological reference to the suffering
and resurrection of Christ. Towards the end of the psalm we have the
story of God giving his people water from the rock: Dirupit petram, et
fluxerunt aquae. This perhaps suggested the idea of giving them the
waters of wisdom to drink. There is then a connecting thread between
Easter, the antiphon and the psalm, though I must confess I find it a
slender one.
The Gradual, like that for the previous day, begins with Ps. 117:24,
Haec dies, quam fecit Dominus: exsultemus, et laetemur in ea.
But it continues with Psalm 106:2
Dicant nunc, qui redempti sunt a Domino: quos redemit de manu inimici,
et de regionibus congregavit eos.
Again we have the notion of redemption from our enemies, an idea which
is prominent in the Easter liturgies.
The Alleluia is not a scriptural verse, but appears to be a couple of
lines from a rhymed metrical hymn:
Alleluia, alleluia. Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro, quo pro nobis
pependit in ligno.
The Offertorium is from Psalm 17, verse 14 and 16:
Intonuit de caelo Dominus, et Altimssimus dedit vocem suam: et
apparuerunt fontes aquarum alleluia.
The idea of God thundering from the heavens may seem a bit remote from
that of Christ rising from the dead, but the general idea is, as with
the verse from Psalm 106, that of God snatching us from the hand of our
foes, as we see from the title (verse 1) of the Psalm:
“...David, qui locutus est Domino verba cantici huius, in die qua
eripuit eum Dominus de manu omnium inimicorum eius, et de manu Saul
...”
If we go back to verse 5 of the psalm, we find “Circumdederunt me
dolores mortis” – the pains of death surrounded me. If we interpret
this – as the Fathers did – as referring to the death of Christ, then
the meteorological phenomena which accompany God’s deliverance of David
from his enemies, logically refer to the resurrection. One should
remember that, according to Matthew, the resurrection was accompanied
by violent natural phenomena:
“And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord
descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon
it. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow.”
(Matthew 28:2-3)
Only with the Communio, Colossians 3:1-2, are we offered an “obvious”
resurrection text:
Si consurrexisitis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus
est in dextera Dei sedens, alleluia: quae sursum sunt sapite, alleluia.
Although some of these texts may, as I have said, seem a bit remote
from the idea of Christ rising from the dead, our Antiphonist is not
content with a narrow range of texts harping on the same string, but is
striving to explore the depths of the mystery by offering many
different texts with very different handles on the resurrection.
Bill.
___________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|