Annual Basic Training vs. Running from the Truth
The Mass Epistles of Lenten Sundays: A Case Study of Rupture in the Lex Orandi
One of the most striking areas of rupture and discontinuity between the Roman Rite and the modern rite of Paul VI is to be found in the passages of Scripture read on Sundays. The annual cycle of the old Missal, embodying the practice of well over a millennium, puts before the Christian people year after year essential truths of the spiritual life and fundamentals of morality to which we must always return. The three-year cycle of the new Mass, an unprecedented novelty against the backdrop of all historic liturgical rites, brings in a greater quantity and variety of texts but, as a result, diffuses the impact and substance of the message.
It is as if the canvas on which the painting is being executed is so large and the subjects so numerous that one cannot quite make out what the painting is of. There is not enough “useful repetition” to allow the words to sink in deeply and remain in the heart, rather than passing in one ear and out the other. As a friend of mine likes to say, education involves cutting the groove many times until a lasting mark is left. The enormous contrast between the two is appreciated perhaps only by those who have regularly attended both forms of the Mass over a long stretch of time.
An excellent example of the change in the message delivered by the liturgy can be seen if we examine the Epistles for the first three Sundays of Lent. (I use the term “Epistle” to refer to the first reading at the usus antiquior and the second reading at the usus recentior, which are nearly always taken from the Epistles of St. Paul.)
In the classical Roman Rite, all three of these Epistles emphasize the moral demands of the Gospel, in keeping with the first word spoken by the Lord: “Repent.” In particular, all three Epistles mention the non-negotiable requirement of keeping chaste, in an escalating sequence that begins with a phrase, moves to a couple of sentences, and culminates in nearly an entire reading, as we shall see.
Epistle for the First Sunday of Lent [MR 1962] (2 Cor 6:1–10)
Brethren: We exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation. Giving no offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God: by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left: by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet known: as dying, and behold we live: as chastised and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as needy, yet enriching many: as having nothing and possessing all things.
Epistle for the Second Sunday of Lent [MR 1962] (1 Thes 4:1–7)
Brethren: We pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus that, as you have received from us, now you ought to walk and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God: and that no man overreach nor circumvent his brother in business: because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before and have testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification: in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Epistle for the Third Sunday of Lent [MR 1962] (Eph 5:1–9)
Brethren: Be ye followers of God, as most dear children: and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose: but rather giving of thanks. For know you this, and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean or covetous person, which is a serving of idols, hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness: but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.
The contrast with the new lectionary could not possibly be more stark. In the nine readings that were chosen to replace the above three (because there are three cycles: A, B, and C), not a single one mentions either the virtue of chastity or the duty to avoid fornication. Is this coincidental?
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