Collect of the week - 25

This is the last Sunday of the Christian Year, now entitled the Feast of
Christ the King;  but this feast was not instituted until 1925 (when it fell
on the last Sunday in October), and moved to its present position, the
Sunday before Advent, in 1970.  It is a one-day feast, and for the rest of
the week we still use a (sort of!) translation of the ancient collect for
the last Sunday of the Year:

Excita, quaesumus, Domine, tuorum fidelium voluntates;  ut divini operis
fructum propensius exsequentes, pietatis tuae remedia majora percipiant.
Per Dominum.

BCP:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;  that
they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be
plenteously rewarded;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yes, this is "Stir up Sunday" - Good luck with your Christmas puddings!

However, those of us in communion with the Holy See must endure (let us
hope, cheerfully) this offering from ICEL:

Lord, increase our eagerness to do your will and help us to know the saving
power of your love.  Through . . .   [Yes, that's it].

Let me begin with Goulburn's analysis:

'It would naturally be supposed that the alterations of the originals, which
the Reformers made in translating from the old Latin Office books, would be
in what is called the evalngelical direction, - that the new-fashioned
prayer would speak more distinctly the doctrines of grace than the old one
had done.  But this is by no means always the case.  There is a remarkable
instance to the contrary in the Collect before us, for the exhibition of
which it will be necessary to give a close translation of the original
Latin, as it stands in the Sacramentary of Gregory.  "Stir up, we beseech
thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;  that they, more readily
following after the effect of [thy] divine working, may obtain from thy
fatherly goodness larger assistances.  Through the Lord."

'Comparing this with our present collect, we see at once that the turn given
to the aspiration (or latter part of the prayer), while entirely warranted
by Holy Scripture, and withal very pointed and terse, is rather away from
than towards the doctrines of grace.  Thus the words rendered "fruit of good
works," really are "the fruit of the divine work" (divini operis fructum).
"Fruit of good works" is a perfectly scriptural, [Luke 3:8, Titus 3:14,
Romans 6:22] and therefore entirely justifiable phrase;  but it does not
exhibit the agency of the Holy Ghost in the production of good works so
distinctly as "fruit of the divine work."

'The idea of the original is just this, that as God works in the realm of
Nature beneath the soil to produce those fruits which, in their season,
become visible above the soil, so in the realm of grace He works secretly
and invisibly within the heart, to produce those results in the character of
the man, which are called by St Paul the fruit of the Spirit.'

We should note the interaction of Will and Grace:  "Stir up the wills of thy
faithful people".  They enjoy free will, and voluntarily obey the
commandments of God, but even the exercise of this free will is the product
of grace, and therefore to be prayed for.  How then can it be called "free"
will?  Goulburn remarks:

'And how does God stir up the will under these circumstances?  Observe that
He only stirs up or rouses, never forces it.  A fire when stirred does not
always blaze;  stir it as you may, it is sometimes quenched.  A sleeper,
when roused, does not always arise;  sometimes he turns on his side, folds
his hands, and composes himself to sleep again [cf. Proverbs 6:10, 24:33].
Man is under no compulsion to move, when God stirs up his will;  whether he
shall move or not, is a question which can be decided only by the will itself.'

And let me quote Goulburn once again on "fructum":

'One sees why the translators wrote "bringing forth the fruit," rather than
what they found in the original, exequentes fructum - "following after the
fruit."  The latter expression would have been in English a confusion of
metaphor.  An object or end is followed after.  Fruit is not followed after,
but brought forth.  But in Latin the word fructus, which is the origin of
our "fruit," does not necessarily carry our thoughts to trees or vegetable
produce;  its root-meaning is enjoyment [fruor, "I enjoy"];  and thence it
comes to signify the means of any sort of enjoyment, any good result (or
effect, or consequence,) of any kind.  So here the literal translation would
be, "That we, following after the result of the Divine working in the heart"
(not content, that is, with the consciousness that such a work is going on,
but earnest to see its results and evidences in our own life and
conversation), "may obtain from thy fatherly goodness larger assistances"
(properly the assistances of medical skill), remedia majora.  There is no
indication, you see, here of "plenteous reward;"  the idea is altogether
different . . . the "larger assistances," of the Latin Collect, which we may
obtain by greater and more earnest endeavours after the fruit of the Spirit,
are the assistances which our Heavenly Father always gives to His children,
when He sees them striving in the pursuit of holiness.  These assistances
consist in the remedial efficacy of the blood and grace of Christ,
constantly applied to the soul;  and the doctrine conveyed in this clause of
the Latin Collect is, that they will be applied in larger measure, in
proportion as our pursuit of holiness, our cultivation of the fruit of the
Spirit, is more earnest, prompt, and diligent.'

And so say I.

Oriens.



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