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In the post-Conciliar calendar this is the “Second Sunday of Easter”. In the 1962 Missale Romanum and in previous editions this Sunday is labelled: Dominica in Albis in Octava Paschae… Sunday in white garments on the Octave of Easter. In traditional parlance today is called “Low Sunday” or sometimes “Thomas Sunday” because of the Gospel reading about the doubting Apostle. It is called “Quasimodo Sunday” for the first word of the opening chant, the Introit (cf. 1 Peter 2:2-3). According to the post-Conciliar way of speaking, it is often called “Mercy Sunday” because of the emphasis on the merciful dimension of God’s redemptive act celebrated at Easter. The newest Novus Ordo edition of the Missale Romanum specifically labels this Sunday: Dominica II Paschae seu de divina Misericordia.
However, since ancient times this Sunday is called “Dominica in albis” or also “in albis depositis”… the Sunday of the “white robes having been taken off.” 1 Peter 2:2-3 says: “Like (Sicut modo [Vulgate] or Quasimodo [pre-Vulgate Latin]) newborn babes (infantes), long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” Some of our antiphons for Mass, such as today’s which starts with the more ancient Quasimodo, reflect a Latin Scripture version predating St. Jerome’s (+420) Vulgate.
In the ancient Latin Church the newly baptized were called infantes. They wore their white baptismal robes for an “octave” period after Easter during which they received special instruction from the bishop about the sacred mysteries and Christian life to which they were not admitted before the Vigil rites. On this Sunday they removed their robes, which were deposited (albis depositis) in the cathedral treasury or parish wardrobe as a perpetual witness to their vows and new status. They were then “out of the nest” of the bishop, as it were, on their own in living their Catholic lives daily. Preaching in this post-Easter season St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) used the imagery of spring and compared his newly baptized infantes to little birds trying to fly from the nest while he, the parent bird, flapped around them and chirped noisily to encourage them (s. 376a).
The Collect today found in the Vetus Ordo of the Roman Rite, the Traditional Latin Mass, comes at least from the 8th century and is found in the Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis. This prayer survived into the Novus Ordo. It is found on the Saturday after Ascension in the 7th Week of Easter.
COLLECT (1962MR):
Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus:
ut, qui paschalia festa peregimus;
haec, te largiente, moribus et vita teneamus.
The first meaning of perago in our very much present Lewis & Short Dictionary, is “to thrust through, pierce through, transfix”, but it comes logically to mean also “to carry through, go through with, execute, finish, accomplish, complete”. This past tense drives home that we are at the end of the Easter Octave. In other words, peregimus points out that Easter season is over.
That teneamus, from teneo (“to hold, keep, have” and with the idea of persistence, “maintain, “hold fast”), has as its object the neuter plural haec, which refers back to the paschalia festa, “the Easter feast and days of the Octave”, indeed, the transforming mysteries they made present to us. How should we “maintain” these mysteries: “moribus et vita… in our conduct and our life”. Moribus is from mos, “manner, custom, practice, behavior, morals”, collective and of individuals. In one sense, mos and vita are synonyms, which would make this a trope called a pleonasm. Cicero used this combination with some frequency and it also often appears in our Roman prayers. On the other hand, you can argue that they are different concepts, our regular and habitual behavior and also the whole arc of our life. In that case we have a trope called hendiadys. The sense of this would be, “May we keep the paschal feasts by our conduct for our whole lives.” Moreover, that rapid, compressed “O” so Roman in its concision, haec … teneamus provides a petition which rings as: keep Easter forever. We ask God the grace to live the fruits of Easter every day. We remember also that the celebrations followed a time of penance and examination of conscience.
We have to make a choice about what to put into black and white when making a translation. With our Latin prayers, which have layers of meaning, we are often forced to sacrifice one idea for the other. This is an advantage to hearing them spoken in sung in Latin, which some preparation before hand. The trick is to try to hear both the pleonasm and hendiadys at the same time as it is raised for you by the priest to the Father.
ONE SUPER LITERAL VERSION:
Grant, we beg You, Almighty God,
that we who have carried through the paschal feasts
may, You bestowing it, hold to them in conduct and in life.
OTHERWISE A BIT LOOSER:
Almighty God, we beg You, grant
that we who have completed our observance of the paschal solemnity and octave,
may, as You lavish this grace upon us, hold fast to them still in our outward conduct for our lives.
The great liturgist and Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Bl. Ildefonso Schuster wrote of this prayer:
To bring our actions into harmony with the Easter rites means to live a life of resurrection and innocence.
Pius Parsch, another figure of the 20th century Liturgical Movement offered:
The Collect is both highly instructive and beautifully phrased. Easter, indeed, is past but its transforming power should show itself in how we “act and live.” A life program in a few words! Having risen spiritually, we must live accordingly.
It sounds easy, doesn’t it? It is and it isn’t.
Our Gospel from John 20:19-31 presents two appearances of the Risen Lord to the Apostles who were locked inside “for fear of the Jews”. Because of the post-Resurrection quality of His Risen Body called subtlety, the Lord came to them unhindered by walls and doors. In the first appearance “He breathed on them” and instituted the Sacrament of Penance, giving them His power and authority to forgive sins. At this appearance Thomas was not present, but as a member of the college of apostles, he received that power and authority. Thomas was present for the second appearance. He had expressed doubt about the Lord’s coming to them. Next we have the astounding moment when Christ tells Thomas to probe the marks of the nails in His hands, which the Lord deigned to retain after rising, and to “thrust”. The Lord told Thomas to “thrust” (Greek balle) his hand “eis ten pleurán… into (His) side”. The Greek word “cheír” can mean “hand”, but it can also mean “finger” or “hand and arm”, this later definition so much so that in some contexts additional words are added to denote “hand” as distinct from the arm (cf. Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon aka LSJ – “χείρ , ἡ”).
Christ told Thomas to use his finger for the nail holes, but to “thrust” his hand into His side, which tells us how wide the wound in His side was. That wound from the Roman lance went all the way through His lung to his Heart. The Greek supports a reading of Thomas being instructed to thrust, like another lance, his hand and forearm all the way to Christ’s Sacred Heart, where He would have felt its pulse while feeling the breath – Christ’s ruach – upon his arm within the lung that streamed forth blood and water, the sacramental life of the Church. To be clear, we don’t have a statement in the Gospel passage that Thomas did either, that he in fact explored the nail wounds or lance channel. What we do have is John’s unmistakable wonder, carefully recorded, as Thomas’ profound exclamation, “my Lord and my God”. Then John says there were more wonders besides. However, this made such an impression on the Apostle and Evangelist that, so many years later, John remains elated and assertive in affirming their truth.
Commenting on this amazing passage and “faith that does not see or understand” and yet believes, Pius Parsch wrote:
The them of the Mass is again touched upon lightly here – when you find it difficult to believe, put your finger into Christ’s wound, that is, receive the holy Eucharist. Then you will be strengthened, then you will see Christ; and with Thomas you will say, “My Lord and my God.”
Christ in His appearances to the Apostles first bequeathed the Sacrament of Penance and then in His exchange with Thomas offered a mystical view of Communion. St. Bonaventure wrote about how Thomas the Apostle looked through the Lord’s visible wounds and saw His invisible wound of love, which is a way of describing the soul in Eucharistic communion.
When life is grinding you or faith may be quavering, you need the sacraments. Make a good confession. Go to Holy Communion well disposed.
