``Where the
Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
Septuagesima Sunday
and its Vigil
With Saturday's
Vigil begins the season of
Septuagesima, and our attention turns to the themes of exile and
banishment -- our expulsion from Eden, the captivity in Babylon, the
fate of death -- rooted in sin. The Divine Office today begins with the
first chapter of Genesis and recounts man's Fall, and the fourth and
fifth lessons -- written by St. Augustine -- explain things:
Lesson Four:
The Lord had foretold that if man should sin, he would bring upon
himself the penalty of death. Thus it was that, albeit God endowed man
with free-will, he asserted his dominion over him by urging on him the
danger of self-destruction through sin. And so God placed him in that
happy Garden (as it were, in a sheltered nook of life), whence he might
have attained unto an even better life, if he had remained righteous.
But this first man sinned, and was therefore driven out of his
paradise. And by his sin, he infected all his offspring with the
disease of sin, since he himself (their source), was poisoned
therewith; whereby he brought upon all mankind the very sentence of
death and damnation which he had earned for himself. So it is that all
who descend by fleshly generation from Adam and his wife Eve (which
latter had urged him to sin, and therefore shared in the sentence
passed upon him), inherit original sin; whereby we are drawn on,
through divers errors and sorrows, toward the final ruin that fallen
man doth share with the fallen angels, which same are our corrupters,
masters, and partakers in this doom.
Lesson Five:
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. In this sentence, by the
word world the Apostle signifieth all mankind. Thus then did the matter
stand? All of doomed humanity lay in misery, (or rather was blundering
on, and plunging from bad to worse), together with that part of the
Angels which had sinned, until both together should suffer the condign
punishment of their vile treason.
This Season,
then, is a prelude to the penitential mortifications of Lent -- a time
that ends with the Passion of Christ and leads to the glorious
Resurrection and Ascension that end our exile. It's as if during
Septuagesima, we recognize our exile and the reasons for it; during
Lent we repent of those reasons; during Passiontide, Our Lord assuages
the Father's wrath at those reasons; and then, during Easter, we
rejoice that, through the Cross, we can avoid the eternal price of sin.
For now, though, exile it is, and to indicate this, we eliminate the alleluia
-- which means "All hail to Him Who is" -- from the Mass. Just as at
Requiem Masses (and also the Mass for the Holy Innocents), the alleluia
isn't heard and will be heard no more until the Easter Vigil on Holy
Saturday. This tenth century hymn tells of the alleluia's
absence:
Alleluia, song
of sweetness,
voice of joy that cannot die;
alleluia is the anthem
ever raised by choirs on high;
in the house of God abiding
thus they sing eternally.
Alleluia dulce
carmen,
Vox perennis gaudii,
Alleluia laus suavis
Est choris coelestibus,
Quam canunt Dei manentes
In domo per saecula.
Alleluia thou
resoundest,
true Jerusalem and free;
alleluia, joyful mother,
all thy children sing with thee;
but by Babylon's sad waters
mourning exiles now are we.
Alleluia laeta
mater
Concivis Jerusalem:
Alleluia vox tuorum
Civium gaudentium:
Exsules nos flere cogunt
Babylonis flumina.
Alleluia cannot
always
be our song while here below;
alleluia our transgressions
make us for awhile forgo;
for the solemn time is coming
when our tears for sin must flow.
Alleluia non
meremur
In perenne psallere;
Alleluia vo reatus
Cogit intermittere;
Tempus instat quo peracta
Lugeamus crimina.
Therefore in
our hymns we pray Thee,
grant us, blessed Trinity,
at the last to keep Thine Easter,
in our home beyond the sky,
there to Thee for ever singing
alleluia joyfully.
Unde laudando
precamur
Te beata Trinitas,
Ut tuum nobis videre
Pascha des in aethere,
Quo tibi laeti canamus
Alleluia perpetim.
In many places,
there arose the custom of literally "burying the alleluia," just as, in
some places, "Carnival" is buried on Ash
Wednesday, and "Lent" is buried on Holy
Saturday. Francis Weiser's "Easter Book" (1954) cites a
fifteenth-century statute book of the Church of Toul, which reads:
On Saturday
before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during
the prayer of the None, to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia.
After the last Benedicamus [i.e., at the end of the service] they march
in procession, with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they
carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they proceed through the aisle,
moaning and mourning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury
the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon
they return to the sacristy by the same way.
This book also
tells us that in "Paris, a straw figure bearing in golden letters the
inscription 'Alleluia' was carried out of the choir at the end of the
service and burned in the church yard." Such a custom could be easily
adapted by families for the evening before Septuagesima Sunday: the
word alleluia can be written on paper and burned, or it can be
carved or decoupaged onto a wooden
plaque, embroidered with golden thread onto fabric, etc., and then be
laid to rest in a wooden box and covered with a semblance of a pall
-- or literally buried -- until the Vigil on Holy Saturday, when
it can be "resurrected" and used to adorn the Easter table with the
Paschal candle (a graphic in
pdf format you can use for this custom). One or both of
the following two antiphons, which date to the 9th century, can be used
to "say farewell" to the alleluia:
May the good
angel of the Lord accompany thee, Alleluia, and give thee a good
journey, that thou mayst come back to us in joy, Alleluia, Alleluia.
Alleluia, abide with us today, and tomorrow thou shalt set
forth, Alleluia; and when the day shall have risen, thou shalt proceed
on thy way, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
Know though that even during this somber season there is
great hope, as
always with God.
The Gospel reading on Septuagesima Sunday recounts the parable of the laborers in the vineyard which
speaks of God's mercy, and warns against spiritual envy:
Matthew 20:1-16
The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in
the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with
the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And
going about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place
idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will
give you what shall be just. And they went their way.
And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in
like manner.
But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and
he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle?
They say to him: Because no man hath hired us.
He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was
come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers
and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.
When therefore they were come, that came about the eleventh hour, they
received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought
that they should receive more: and they also received every man a
penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house,
Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them
equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.
But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst
thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way:
I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for
me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the
last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.
Today, read to
your children the story of Adam and Eve
-- their creation, their fall, and their banishment from the paradise
of Eden (Genesis 1-3). Next week (Sexagesima
Sunday), the focus will be on Noe (Noah), and
the week after that (Quinquagesima Sunday),
the focus will be Abraham. You can use these excerpts from the Book of
Genesis from the
Catholic Children's Bible (Saint Mary's Press, 2013) to do so, along
with downloading coloring pages that include Creation, Adam and Eve,
Noe, and Abraham:
As to music for
the day, please enjoy Bach's BWV 92, Ich hab in Gottes
Herz und Sinn, which he wrote especiallly for Septuagesima Sunday:
Finally, as mentioned on the Septuagesima overview page, you
might be interested in starting to read St.
Thomas Aquinas's "Meditations
for Lent" from this site's Catholic library. This book has
meditations for every day of the seasons of Septuagesima and Lent.
Reading
Septuagesima Sunday
From "The
Christian Year"
by Blessed John
Keble
The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things which are made. -- Romans i. 20.
There is a book, who runs may read,
Which heavenly truth imparts,
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
The works of God above, below,
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to shew
How God himself is found.
The glorious sky embracing all
Is like the Maker's love,
Wherewith encompass'd, great and small
In peace and order move.
The Moon above, the Church below,
A wondrous race they run,
But all their radiance, all their glow,
Each borrows of its Sun.
The Saviour lends the light and heat
That crowns his holy hill;
The saints, like stars, around his seat,
Perform their courses still.
The saints above are stars in Heaven-
What are the saints on earth?
Like trees they stand whom God has given,
Our Eden's happy birth.
Faith is their fix¹d unswerving root,
Hope their unfading flower,
Fair deeds of charity their fruit,
The glory of their bower.
The dew of heaven is like thy grace,
It steals in silence down;
But where it lights, the favour'd place
By richest fruits is known.
One Name above all glorious names
With its ten thousand tongues
The everlasting sea proclaims,
Echoing angelic songs.
The raging Fire, the roaring Wind,
Thy boundless power display:
But in the gentler breeze we find
Thy Spirit¹s viewless way.
Two worlds are ours: 'tis only Sin
Forbids us to descry
The mystic heaven and earth within,
Plain as the sea and sky.
Thou, who hast given me eyes to see
And love this sight so fair,
Give me a heart to find out Thee,
And read Thee everywhere.
