The Roman Liturgy: Lent – 'What think you of Christ?'
It’s the most important question of our lives, to which each man must give an answer.
We tend to think of Lent as a time for meditation on the passion of Our Lord. This may manifest itself at Holy Mass thh the choice of hymns focusing on Christ’s passion and sufferings.
During Septuagesima, the Church’s liturgy showed us the state of fallen man, his need for a Saviour, and what this salvation will cost him and each of us. On Ash Wednesday, we accepted the sentence of death which was first issued in the Garden of Eden, and readied ourselves to follow Christ on the way of the Cross.
But in the last piece, we considered how far the actual liturgy of the First Sunday of Lent is from this spirit, with no special mention of the passion at all. The spirit of this First Sunday is quite different from what we find in Passiontide, and in devotions relating to the passion.
In fact, this spirit continues for the subsequent Sundays of Lent. Pope Pius XII noted as follows:
“During the days of Septuagesima and Lent, our Holy Mother the Church over and over again strives to make each of us seriously consider our misery, so that we may be urged to a practical emendation of our lives, detest our sins heartily and expiate them by prayer and penance.
“In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the divine Redeemer, to carry the cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our own hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him.”1
In other words, there is a distinction between Lent and Holy Week (which we could include as a part of Passiontide). It is almost as if the Church wants us to undergo a further, different preparation before we are to be admitted into the Holy of Holies of the passion in Passiontide.
The Roman Liturgy – an ongoing series of standalone pieces on the liturgical texts, the crisis in the Church and hope:
Septuagesima I: The Beginning of the Liturgical Year?
Septuagesima II: The Babylonian Captivity and the Crisis in the Church
Lent I: The Protection of God
Lent II: “What Think You of Christ?”
Lent III: Laetare Sunday and the Church
Passiontide I: The Silence of PassiontideChrist the King: “Are you a King, then?” – Christendom and the Social Kingship of Christ
Advent I: The Advent Liturgy and the Apocalypse
Advent II: The Close Presence of Christ in Advent
Advent III: Advent and the Preparation for Victory
Christmas and Christ's Triumph over Darkness
Epiphany as the Manifestation of Christ's Kingship
Epiphanytide: Ordinary Time or our Entrance into Eternity?
Baptism
Although Lent beings on Ash Wednesday, it might be said to “begin in earnest” on the First Sunday of Lent. This Sunday marks the start of a period of preparation for baptism, culminating at Easter.
In the early Church, and at various times of persecution throughout history, (including today) being baptised really could lead to the loss of family, friends, position and even life. In this Mass, as Lent starts in earnest, the Church seems more concerned to offer comfort to those to be baptised – as well as the rest of us, who must do penance for our sins.
The proper chants of the First Sunday are saturated with the hope, confidence and trust of Psalm 90 – of which the twentieth century liturgical writer Fr Joahnnes Pinsk writes:
“The worshipers wrap themselves, as it were, in the words of this Psalm, they wind the pictures and phrases of this Psalm like cloths around head and body and so stand, robed entirely in this Psalm, before the God they have come to worship.
“But being robed in this Psalm and standing before God in such a robe means nothing else than standing in the infinite compassion of God which suffices for every situation.”2
Showing us Christ
This recalls St Paul’s command that we “put on the armour of God” – mentioned also in the Epistle – so that we “may be able to resist in the evil day.” (Eph. 6.13) It also recalls St Paul’s command that we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 13.14).
This is crucially important, both for catechumens and for the baptised. The Gospel of this Mass depicts Our Lord emerging victorious from his combat with Satan in the desert. Although he is hungry, there seems to be little sign of weakness in him. On the contrary, as Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi writes:
“In this new kind of Eden, Christ faces the enemy and puts him to an ignominious flight, thus securing for us the courage and the strength to conquer all our temptations.
“We have but to imitate His promptitude in resisting the suggestions of the Evil One. Against the claims of the flesh and of vanity we must oppose, as Christ did, the rights of God and our duty to Him.”3
For us to win a similar victory, especially in times of persecution, we must not rely on our own powers, but rather we must “put on Christ” and abide in him. This is what Christ himself tells us on the eve of his passion:
“Abide in me: and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine: you the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.” (John 15.4-5)
The Sundays of Lent prepare us to answer Our Lord’s question, and each man must give his answer to it:
“What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matt. 22.42)
Each Lenten Sunday shows us something about this Christ, in whom we are to abide. As our knowledge and love of him increases, we are to enter more and more into him, to rest under the shadow of his wings, and to stand before the Holy Trinity, robed in Christ and his grace. We are to allow him to transform our hearts, so that we can stand firm with him through Passiontide, and through whatever horrors might await us in our own lives, in the future.
This is the goal which the Church presents in her Lenten liturgies to those preparing to die to their old lives in baptism. She presents it also to those joining them through penance and Lenten fasting.
Once we have grasped what the Roman liturgy seems to be doing in Lent – preparing the catechumens for Passiontide and for their new life in Christ, attained through baptism – many interesting aspects of the liturgy fall into place.
For example, it may seem strange that the Gospel of the Second Sunday depicts the Transfiguration of Christ, which has its own commemoration in the liturgical year as a feast on 6th August. What are we to make of this appearing also in Lent?
The Second Sunday – our Transfiguration in Christ
First, let’s consider the Epistle, in which we are given another comfort: the express revelation of God’s will for every one of us, including the catechumens.
“[T]his is the will of God, your sanctification.”
Pinsk comments:
“The will of God is in reality directed to perfecting man in the glory of Christ. Let anyone who has received the body of the Lord, who has been permitted to assist at the eucharistic Mystery, who is living in a state of sacramental matrimony – let such a Christian just once get the thought: the fact that things have fallen out for me this way, the fact that I am involved in this way in the work of Christ, the fact that I can become effective in this way in the grace of his redemption – all this is the will of God.”4
St Paul then talks of the resurrection of the dead on the last day, which raises an important question: what will we be like, when we rise from our graves and step into the light once more? The answer lies in the Gospel account of the Transfiguration, in which we are presented with a foretaste of our future state. In some way, we too are to be transfigured in glory.
Our Lord had Ss Peter, James and John witness his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor specifically so that they might be able to bear his sufferings, which began on the Mount of Olives and ended on the mount of Golgotha. We too are preparing to go and die with Christ at Passiontide, and so it is fitting that the liturgy presents us with the transfigured Christ at this point in Lent.
He is to be our strength in preparation for baptism, during the fast, and the contemplation of his passion. He is to be our strength in facing a hostile world, which like Saul is “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9.1)
In the face of such fear and pain, we are to be filled with the power of the risen Christ, which we taste in advance in his Transfiguration.
Foretastes of Easter
The foretaste of Easter even appears musically in the tract of this Second Sunday’s Mass:
Tract: Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus: quoniam in saeculum misericordiam ejus.
(“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.”)
These words of the psalm are sung with all the usual leitmotifs of the penitential tracts.
This tract is already looking forward to Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, where these words are repeated over and over again.
Musically, the recurring leitmotifs of the tracts will begin to take on a more hopeful air on Holy Saturday, and by the time that we reach the Alleluia for the Mass (which uses the same words above) these leitmotifs have been transfigured altogether from mourning into a calm hopefulness and joy.
The Gradual of Easter Sunday will shed this melody altogether, replacing it with another whose soaring high notes can only be called a “victory cry.”
The musical and textual link between this Second Sunday of Lent and the climax of the Paschal cycle reinforces the sense that the Second Sunday of Lent is giving us a foretaste of the triumph of Easter, and of eternal life.
In light of this foretaste, we can also understand why the Communion addresses God as “my King and my God”, alluding to his power and glory. This latter phrase forms a textual link with the following Sunday, which is also infused with the image of a conquering Christ and uses the same words in its own Communion.
The Third Sunday
In the Third Sunday’s Introit, we sing words simultaneously anxious and confident, which emphasise the importance of contemplating Christ and resting in him:
Introit: My eyes are ever towards the Lord: for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare: look thou upon me, and have mercy on me; for I am alone and poor.
The Gradual speaks of our enemies, and how they will be overcome by the power of God:
Gradual: Arise, O Lord, let no man be strengthened; let the nations be judged in thy sight.
V. When my enemy shall be turned back, they shall be weakened and perish before thy face.
This continues in the Gospel. Having put Satan “to an ignominious flight” on the First Sunday, this Sunday depicts Christ exercising his power over the other demons, by casting them out of the possessed.
This same exercise of power will benefit the catechumens, who are preparing to be exorcised and to renounce Satan, and all his works and pomps – just as godparents do for babies being baptised today.
In response to Christ’s power over his unseen enemies, his human enemies accuse him of casting out devils with the help of other devils. His answers to this are full of authority, majesty and dignity, and they silenced those who opposed him.
He declares that he casts out devils “by the finger of God,” and we can see here that there is more power in God’s “finger” than in all the arms of his enemies. He also warns us about the dangers presented by a man falling back into the influence of Satan after having been liberated by Christ, because then “the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
He tells a parable, presenting Satan as “the strong man”, but himself as one “stronger than he”:
“If a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils.”
Pinsk suggests that “[a] mysterious power and grandeur must have radiated from the Lord as he spoke these things of himself.”5 He continues, portraying Christ as the true King of Creation:
“So too do we penitents gaze upon the Lord in the gospel and see him as ‘the stronger’ who has but to lift his finger to overcome the world. He it is on whom we turn our eyes full of trust and joy; he alone it is who takes from us the fear that we might lose the world and life when we do penance.”6
This is the basis of the trust expressed in the propers at the start of Mass, as well as the contentment expressed in the Offertory and the Communion (which latter speaks again of the authority of “my King and my God”):
Offertory: The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts, and his judgments are sweeter than hone and the honey-comb.”
Communion: The sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest, where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God: blessed are they that dwell; in thy house, they shall praise thee forever and ever.”
Laetare Sunday, and a conclusion
Finally, in the Gospel reading of the multiplication of loaves on Laetare Sunday, we see one of the most striking exercises of Christ’s power: his power over matter itself, and his ability to feed his followers in a miraculous way. Providing abundant food for his followers is a stark contrast with his refusal to turn stones into bread for his own benefit in the desert, and thus shows his tender care for us.
Further, this miracle is part of his preparation for feeding us with his own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist. In the words of Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“Such a miracle is, indeed, an evident proof of Jesus’ mission; but he intends it as a preparation for something far more wonderful; he intends it as a figure and a pledge of what he is soon to do, not merely once or twice, but every day, even to the end of time; not only for five thousand men, but for the countless multitudes of believers.
“Think of the millions who, this very year, are to partake of the banquet of the Pasch; and yet, He whom we have seen born in Bethlehem (the House of Bread), He is to be the nourishment of all these guests; neither will the Divine Bread fail.”7
Across the Sundays of Lent, we have seen Christ as the warrior in the desert, transfigured and glorified on Mount Tabor, as “the stronger man” overcoming his enemies, and as the provider of food for his flock. These four presentations of Our Lord across Lent are intended to inspire confidence and admiration for him, amidst the trials of the season and of life itself. They are to equip us to answer what we have already seen is the most important question of our lives:
“What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matt. 22.42)
These Sundays are also intended to spur on our contrition and sustain it, as we consider how we have sinned against such an admirable God and Sovereign Lord. We cannot love someone that we do not know, nor can we fittingly lament our offences against one whom we do not know. Pinsk writes:
“The encounter with Christ is of vital importance for anyone devoting himself to penance and thereby practicing detachment from this world, from the sources and forms of its life, whether it be one who is preparing himself in this way for baptism or one who is already baptized and wants to keep his power of decision supple for everyday life.
“If any such one loses sight of Christ, then the gaining of the ‘new’ life will have no attraction for him and he will rather be paralyzed by the fear of losing the ‘old’ life, a fear that will haunt his thoughts and inhibit his actions. Thus the Lenten Christophany will be a crucial factor in penance properly understood and rightly practiced.”8
But as we reach the threshold of the austere and holy season of Passiontide, having contemplated the person of Christ on these Sundays, the liturgy of Laetare Sunday finally brings us face to face with another reality.
Throughout Lent, the Church has been forming the catechumens in Christ, and preparing them to die with him at Calvary. But on Laetare Sunday, Holy Church finally unveils her own face to those who would be born again to her in baptism, as well as to those who already know and love her as their mother.
In light of all that we have seen above, we can see that the rejoicing of Laetare Sunday is not a break with the spirit of Lent at all, as is sometimes suggested. Rather – as we shall see – it is the culmination of the Sundays of Lent, and the ultimate preparation for Passiontide and Holy Week.
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Further Reading:
Dom Prosper Guéranger – The Liturgical Year
Fr Johannes Pinsk – The Cycle of Christ
Fr Leonard Goffine – The Church’s YearOur Lord in the Desert – from Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi SJ’s “Companion to the Spiritual Exercises”
How should Catholics approach Lent today? Timeless advice from John Henry Newman
The Roman Liturgy – an ongoing series of standalone pieces on the liturgical texts, the crisis in the Church and hope:
Septuagesima I: The Beginning of the Liturgical Year?
Septuagesima II: The Babylonian Captivity and the Crisis in the Church
Lent I: The Protection of God
Lent II: “What Think You of Christ?”
Lent III: Laetare Sunday and the Church
Passiontide I: The Silence of PassiontideChrist the King: “Are you a King, then?” – Christendom and the Social Kingship of Christ
Advent I: The Advent Liturgy and the Apocalypse
Advent II: The Close Presence of Christ in Advent
Advent III: Advent and the Preparation for Victory
Christmas and Christ's Triumph over Darkness
Epiphany as the Manifestation of Christ's Kingship
Epiphanytide: Ordinary Time or our Entrance into Eternity?
Pius XII, Encyclical Mediator Dei, 1947, n. 157-8. http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20111947_mediator-dei.html
Johannes Pinsk, The Cycle of Christ, trans. Arthur Gibson, Desclee Company, New York, 1966, 21. Fr Johannes Pinsk (1891-1957) was involved with the twentieth century liturgical movement in ways that many readers would consider regrettable. However, his works have a wealth of interesting information about the liturgical year, which I would like to share. They also contains some things which traditional Catholics might not appreciate. My purpose here is to present what is good, along with some comments, to help us appreciate the holy Roman Liturgy.
Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi SJ, A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius (and for UK readers)
Pinsk 28-9
Pinsk 32.
Ibid.
Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year Vol. V, ‘Lent’, 1949. Trans. Dom Laurence Shepherd, OSB., St Bonaventure Publications, 2000, p 317
Pinsk 30