|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
There is a rushed rhythm of the 4th Sunday of Advent’s Mass formulary, a feeling of quick recapitulation. Historically, this Sunday the ancient Church in Rome didn’t have it’s own set of texts. This was because the day before was the Saturday of Ember week and those ceremonies went all the way into Sunday morning. After some time, there was a strong sense that this Sunday should have its own celebration of Holy Mass. Thus, a formulary was pieced together from the Masses of the Ember Days, which gave people who couldn’t attend on those days themselves an opportunity to have something of an Ember Day experience. Ember Wednesday provided the Introit, Gradual, Gospel and Communion antiphon. The Epistle reading came from the ordination rites on Ember Saturday, the day before.
Another way in which this Sunday’s match is a review or summation is found in the three distinct Advent voices we have heard all the way. In the Introit antiphon we hear Isaiah sing, “Rorate caeli desuper… Drop down the dew from above”. The Prophet, inspired by the tale of Gideon and the dewy fleece (Judges 6:36-40), foresees how gently the Lord would come in his First Coming, in contrast to how He will come in the Second. In the Gospel from Luke 3, the Lord’s herald John the Baptist cries out, “Parate viam Domini… Prepare the way of the Lord”. John is in the wilderness. Perhaps we are too, just in another kind of wilderness. Perhaps we can call it a “bewilderedness,” with its myriad distractions and allurements. If in the geographical desert there isn’t much to see, in our post-modern, post-Christian technological desert there is too much, and therefore, too little to see. John’s shout gives us something upon which we can focus. In the Offertory antiphon the Annunciating Gabriel sings to the Annunciate Virgin, “Ave, Maria, gratia plena… Hail, Mary, replete with grace”, which immediately brings her perfect response to mind, “Fiat… let it be so”, which booms all the more in our attending minds and receptive hearts as it remains physically unchanted, but intentionally left like her mantle outspread over us all. Isaiah expresses our longing as he brings us toward the sanctuary. John prompts us to penance as we kneel in self-examination. Mary reveals active receptivity while bringing us to the altar of Sacrifice.
Our Postcommunion for the Mass subtly ties everything in a beautiful pre-Christmas bow.
Sumptis muneribus, quaesumus, Domine: ut cum frequentatione mysterii, crescat nostrae salutis effectus.
Frequentatio means, “frequency, frequent use, a crowding together.” However, as a figure of speech in rhetoric it is “a condensed recapitulation of the arguments already stated separately, a recapitulation, summing up.” This noun comes from the verb frequento, meaning “to visit or resort to frequently, to frequent; to repeat” but also “to celebrate or keep in great numbers, esp. a festival.” In English we say “frequent” a place when we go there often. In this liturgical context it means “to attend or participate in often” and it has the over tone of being crowded together with others. Advent, now swiftly drawing to a conclusion, focuses us on the Second Coming.
Mysterium and sacramentum are often interchangeable in our Latin liturgical prayers, though mysterium reaches beyond.
Briefly, about the ablative absolute sumptis muneribus, operative here is the verb sumo, which is the root of words like English resume and consume. Sumo is basically, “to take, lay hold up” and thus “to receive”. The munera sumpta are the “taken/received gifts”. Keep in mind that one way to express “to eat” is “to take”. Our taking of the Word and our taking of the Eucharist is truly an active reception. We “grasp” after them, but in the sense of our Faith seeking the growth of a transformative understanding which prompts ever greater desire. We ruminate, chew and rechew over the Word, we receptively take the Eucharist, as Christ Himself invoked in John 6 with the highly provocative verb in Greek, trogo… “to gnaw, munch.”
LITERAL VERSION:
Now that the gifts have been taken, we implore You, O Lord, that by the frequent participation in these sacramental mysteries, they may increase in us the effects of salvation.
Christ Himself, the Word Incarnate, is our frequentatio, our summing up of all things at the end of time as described in 1 Cor 15:28. In Him we throng, belong, repeat, replete with the Eucharist and formation in the Word (sumptis muneribus). By our contact with His transformative mystery (frequentatione mysterii), in anticipation He increases in us the effects of salvation (salutis effectus).
Since I have my crowbar out, can we pry open another layer for possible reflection? The Latin version is an intense prayer, though it seems to have little explicitly to do with our Advent themes. As a matter of fact, it is used on the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo. But doesn’t this oration focus pointedly on the purpose for our being at Mass in the first place? Salvation! All other concerns and seasonal themes return to that overriding objective.
Let’s us pry. In our prayer frequentatio mysterii evokes for me superimposed images of the visible and invisible dimensions of Holy Mass, the Eucharistic sacrifice (mysterium). In the earthly church building, the earthly meeting point, many people repeatedly gather (frequentatio). Imagine now the superimposed invisible meeting point at the Mass, the myriads of holy angels and members of the Church Triumphant. Mass is a glimpse of heaven. Heaven and earth draw together in the celebration of the sacred together in the frequentatio of the sacred mysteries.
How about another layer within this layer. Our imperfect world is also a place of spiritual warfare. Many at Mass are not in the state of grace. Some may be very wicked. Not only are the angels of heaven present at the sacred mysteries, but also the Enemy with the fallen ones in all their pain-filled fury. They suffer horribly in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Their pain is great but their malice is so intense that they endure agony if they might spur just one person to weaken in his conscience and make a bad Holy Communion. They are outwardly as all others, but the Holy Angels will eventually do the sorting.
By frequent Holy Communions in the state of grace God increases in us the effects of salvation (salutis effectus). In this world, our state of “already but not yet”, the Eucharist strengthens us against the persistent attacks of hell and readies us for the Lord’s Coming.
Straighten the way for the Coming of the Lord by making a good confession.
May God bless you and yours for the great feast of the Lord’s Nativity.
