medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Offertorium – 43
I should perhaps have mentioned that the New Fire which we discussed
yesterday contains the charcoal which is put into the thurible. How
else to light it? The Paschal candle is then blessed, lit, and held up
in the darkness, the deacon singing: Lumen Christi, and the choir
responding: Deo gratias. This is done three times, and then the deacon
sings the Exsultet.
Of this, ODCC says, ‘It seems that originally it was the practice for
the deacon to compose his own praeconium, but the form which came into
general use can be traced back to 7th/8th cent. Gaul and had generally
displaced other forms by the 9th century. There were local variations
and some parts fell out of use during the Middle Ages. The chant to
which it is sung is one of the finest in the Latin liturgy.’
The deacon calls first on the heavens to rejoice:
Exsultet jam Angelica turba caelorum: exsultent divina mysteria: et pro
tanti Regis victoria, tuba insonet salutaris.
He invites the earth to do the same:
Gaudeat et tellus tantis irradiata fulgoribus: et aeterni Regis
splendore illustrata, totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.
He calls on the Church also:
Laetetur et mater Ecclesia, tanti luminis adornata fulgoribus: et
magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet.
He calls on the congregation to pray with him:
Quapropter adstantes vos, fratres carissimi, ad tam miram huius sancti
luminis claritatem, una mecum, quaeso, Dei omnipotentis misericordiam
invocate. Ut qui me non meis meritis intra Levitarum numerum dignatus
est aggregare: luminis sui claritatem infundens, Cerei huius laudem
implere perficiat. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium suum: qui
cum eo vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus. Per omnia
saecula saeculorum. Amen.
There follows the ‘Sursum corda’ dialogue, as at Mass, and then the
main part of the Exsultet, the melody being similar to that of the
Preface at Mass. It begins:
Vere dignum et justum est, invisibilem Deum Patrem omnipotentem,
Filiumquie eius unigenitum, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, toto cordis
ac mentis affectu, et vocis ministerio personare.
It relates the wonderful deeds of God, according to the Christian
understanding of salvation history. Christ, it says, has paid the debt
incurred by Adam:
Qui pro nobis aeterno Patri Adae debitum solvit: et veteris piaculi
cautionem pio cruore detersit.
It makes the first of many associations between the death of Christ and
the Jewish passover:
Haec sunt enim festa paschalia, in quibus verus ille Agnus occiditur,
cuius sanguine postes fidelium consecrantur.
‘This is our Passover feast, in which the true Lamb is slain, by whose
blood the doorposts of the faithful are sanctified.’ A reference to
Exodus 12:7, in which the people of Israel are told to take some of the
blood of the lamb they have killed, and put it on the two doorposts and
lintels of their houses.
The Exsultet continues with another reference to the Exodus story:
Haec nox est, in qua primum patres nostros filios Israel eductos de
Aegypto, mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.
‘This is the night, in which you first made our fathers, the sons of
Israel, having been led out from Egypt, to pass with dry footsteps
through the Red Sea.’ A reference to the story of the passage through
the Red Sea in Exodus 14.
There is a third reference to Exodus:
Haec igitur nox est, quae peccatorum tenebras, columnae illuminatione
purgavit.
‘For this is the night, in which you purged the darkness of sinners by
a column of illumination.’ A reference to the pillar of fire in Exodus
13:21 ‘And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to
lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them
light.’ The pillar of fire is of course represented very strikingly by
the Paschal Candle, typically about three feet long, and standing on a
pillar perhaps five feet high, beside which the deacon stands to sing
the Exsultet.
The many references to the Exodus story with which the Easter vigil
abounds are suggested in the first instance by the fact that Jesus was,
in fact, crucified at about the time of the Passover (the Gospels
differ about the exact timing, but agree that it was at Passover-tide)
and by an explicit identification at Luke 9:30-31:
‘And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in
glory and spoke of the Exodus which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.’
More anon.
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