Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 14

Having blessed the New Fire, he blesses the five nails of incense~

that not only the sacrifice which is offered this night may s.h.i.+ne by thy mysterious light; but also into whatever place anything of this mystical sanctifica, tion shall be brought, there, by the power of thy majesty, all the malicious artifices ofthe devil may be defeated.

He sprinkles both with holy water, and, when the coals in a censer have been lighted from the flame, they move a little into the church. Here they kneel for a moment while fire is brought 1" Eternal glory" is perpetua daritas, more literally "perpetual clarity", the quality of a "pure mind" which is "empty" of any clinging to the past. Thus, "Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see G.o.d". Note again the symbolism of Christ as the Cornerstone "who maketh botlt one", who overcomes the opposites.

FIG. I0 TRIPLE CANDLE FOR HOLY SAt.u.r.dAY.

to one of the branches of the triple.candle, carried by the deacon, who, as it catches, sings on a quiet, low note:

Lumen Christi! The light of Christ! And on the same note the choir replies: Deo gratias! Thanks be to G.o.d!

The procession moves to the middle of the church, where a second branch of the candle is lighted, and upon a note higher and louder the deacon sings again, The light of Christ! Again the choir responds, Thanks be to G.o.d! When they arrive at the sanctuary, close to the high altar, the third branch is lighted, and the voice of the deacon calls out with full force, The light of Christ!" And now the choir roars back, Thanks be to G.o.d!

Beside the high altar, at the Gospel corner" which is to the left as one faces it, there stands a great candle known as the Paschal Taper, which is to burn throughout the Great Forty Days from Easter to the Ascension as witness of the Risen Christ upon earth. To this the deacon now carries the triple, candle with its three branches alight, and begins to sing the Paschal Praeconium for the blessing of the Paschal Taper. This prayer is chanted to what is perhaps the most ancient music in Christendom, and const.i.tutes one of the most extraordinary pa.s.sages in the whole Liturgy, sometimes known as the Excultet from its first words

Exsultet iam angelica turba caelorum-Rejoice now all ye heavenly legions of angels! Celebrate with joy the divine mysteries, and for the King that cometh with victory let the trumpet proclaim salva. Lion. Rejoice, 0 earth, illumined by this celestial radiancy: and may the whole world know itself to be delivered from darkness, brightened by the glory of the Eternal King.

Having called upon the whole Church, and upon all those present to rejoice with him, he sings the versicles and responses which normally introduce the Canon of the Ma.s.s:

V. The Lord be with you.

R, And with thy spirit.

V. Hearts on high!

R. We lift them up to the Lord.

V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our G.o.d. R. It is meet and just.

And the Praeconium continues:

It is truly meet and just to proclaim with the whole affection of heart and mind, and with the service of our voice, G.o.d the invisible almighty Father, and his only.begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who paid for us to the eternal Father the debt of Adam; and by his precious Blood put away the bond of the ancient sin. For this is the Paschal feast in which that true Lamb was slain, by whose Blood the doorposts of the faithful were consecrated.' This

1 Throughout the Praeconium the Old Testament types, especially those connected with the Pa.s.sover, are rehea.r.s.ed. Most missals for the laity translate From Easter to Pentecost 17S is the night wherein formerly thou didst bring forth our forefathers the sons of Israel from Egypt, leading them with dry feet through the Red Sea. This, therefore, is the night which purified the darkness of sin by the light of the Pillar (of Fire). This is the night which today delivers throughout the whole world those who trust in Christ from the vices of the world, and from the darkness of sin, restores to grace, and clothes with sanct.i.ty. This is the night in which, breaking the chains of death, Christ ascended conqueror from the depths. For it availed us nothing to be born, unless it had availed us to be redeemed.

how wondrous is thy faithfulness towards us!

how inestimable is thy loving kindness: in that thou halt delivered up thy Son to redeem a slave!

truly necessary sin of Adam, which the death of Christ has blotted out! 0 happy fault, that merited such and so great a Redeemer!

0 truly blessed night, which alone deserves to know the time and the hour, in which Christ rose from the depths. This is the night of which it is written: And the night shall be as light as the day, and the night is my illumination in my delights.'

veteris piaculi cautionem as "the guilt of the ancient (or original) sin'"-which is somewhat misleading in that the modern equivalent of cautio is a bond given in bail. In the Exodus narrative the Destroying Angel "pa.s.sed over" the houses of the Hebrews whose doorposts were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. Presumably the doorposts are the gates (ayatana) of the senses, which, when purified from the past, do not involve the mind in death.

' Step by step the Praeconium builds up "the praise of night", including even the darkness of sin, to conclude with the phrase from Psalm 138 (Vulg) or 139 (AV) which St. Dionysius applied to that "divine darkness" which is the highest degree of mystical contemplation-because the light of G.o.d is to be seen only in the moment when it is realized that all other knowledge is by comparison darkness and ignorance. In yet another sense the immediate knowledge of G.o.d is "dark", because metaphysical reality is always denoted by negations. Thus it is only in the Dark Night of the Soul, the "despair"' of finding that one has neither past nor future, that it is possible to "know the Therefore the sanctification of this night puts crime to flight, washes away blame, and restores innocence to the fallen and joy to the sorrowful. It banishes enmities, brings concord, and humbles empires.

At this point the deacon inserts the five wax nails with their grains of incense into the side of the Taper in the form of a cross-marking the Five Wounds and the five senses whereby Christ is crucified to the world. He then continues:

Therefore in this sacred night, receive, 0 holy Father, this evening sacrifice of incense, which thy holy Church presents to thee in the solemn offering of this wax candle made by the labour of bees. But now we know the excellence of this pillar, which the s.h.i.+ning fire sets alight in the honour of G.

With these words he lifts up the triple candle and with one of its branches lights the great Taper.

Which (fire), though now divided, suffers no loss from the communication of its light.l Because it is fed by the melted wax, which the mother bee brought forth for the substance of this precious lamp.

Acolytes now take lights from the flame, carrying them to the altar candles and other candles in the church, multiplying the fire to flood the whole church in light.

0 truly blessed night which despoiled the Egyptians and enriched the Hebrews: night inwhich time and the hour" which is the One Moment of Eternity. The startling "0 truly necessary in of Adam, etc." so distubed the Abbot Hugh of Cluny that he forbade it to be sung in the monastery. It remains the sole explicit mentipn, in the Liturgy, of the necessary part of Lucifer in the "play" of G.o.d.

And similarly the Bread is broken, but the Body of Christ remains entire in every fragment. By the power of the Word, G.o.d divides and dismembers himself into the whole universe of "things"; yet in truth he remains undivided and ever One.

heaven is united with earth, and humanity with divinity.' We beseech thee therefore, 0 Lord, that this candle, consecrated in the honour of thy Name, may continue to dispel the darkness of this night. And being accepted as a sweet savour, may it be united with the lights supernal. May the morning star find it burning: that morning star, I say, which knows no setting.2 That (star) which being returned from the depths, s.h.i.+neth serene upon the human race.

After the Praeconium comes the solemn chanting of the Prophecies, consisting of twelve pa.s.sages from the Old Testament prefiguring the mystery of the Resurrection. This done, the Paschal Taper is taken down from its stand and carried in procession to the Baptismal Font as the choir sings:

Like as the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so longeth my soul after thee, 0 G.o.d. My soul bath thirsted for the living G.o.d: when shall I come and appear before the face of G.o.d!

Arrived at the Font, the priest or bishop proceeds to the solemn consecration of the baptismal waters, singing an invocation similar in both form and chant to the Praeconium: O G.o.d, whose Spirit in the very beginning of the world moved over the waters, that even then the i On the whole theme of the luminous night, cf Apuleius in Metamorphoses, "Understand that I approached the bounds of death; I trod the threshold of Persephone; and after that I was ravished through all the elements, I returned to my proper place. About midnight I saw the sun brightly s.h.i.+ne"-a de. scription of his initiation into the Mysteries of Osiris.

2 The "morning scat" is, of course, lutifer-in Greek phosphorus--and is the planet Venus, representing that love which is from one standpoint divine charity, and from another venereal. This is a wonderful "riddle" of the divine ambivalence, manifesting itself in duality as that star which is both Lucifer and Christ. G z Peter r: 19, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do we11 that ye take heed, as unto a light that s.h.i.+neth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star (phosphorus) arise in your hearts".

nature of water might receive the virtue of sanctification. 0 G.o.d, who by water didst wash away the crimes of an evil world, and in the overflowing of the Flood didst give a figure of regeneration: that one and the same element might, in a mystery, be the end of vice and the origin of virtue... .

As G.o.d with his "compa.s.s divided the waters of Chaos in the beginning of time, the priest now with his hand divides the water of the Font in the form of a cross, singing:

Who makes this water fruitful for the regeneration of men by the arcane admixture of his Divine Power, to the end that those who have been conceived in sanct.i.ty in the immaculate womb of this divine Font, may be born a new creature, and come forth a heavenly offspring:' and that all who are distin guished either in s.e.x or in body, or by age in time, may be born into one infancy by grace, their mother.

Here is the process in reverse of the one Body or the one Light which, however much divided, suffers no loss. Those who were "distinguished are now brought into "one infancy-the infant signifying the evernewness of eternal life, which, like the newborn babe, has no past.

After an exorcism of the water from the secret artifices of the powers of darkness, the priest utters the blessing itself

Wherefore I bless thee, 0 creature of water, by G.o.d 4~. the living, G.o.d4} the true, G.o.d 4j. the holy, by that G.o.d who in the beginning separated thee by his Word from the dry land; whose Spirit moved over thee.

1 Baptism, as the Sacrament of Initiation, identifies the Christian with Christ--conceived by the "arcane admixture" of the divine power of the Holy Spirit with the humanity of the Immaculate Mother, and born as firstfruit of the New Creation.

Dividing the waxer again with his hands, he scatters some of it towards each of the four quarters of the world, singing:

Who made thee to flow forth from the fountain of Paradise, and commanded thee to water the whole earth in four rivers. Who, changing thy bitterness in the desert into sweetness, made thee fit to drink, and produced thee out of the Rock to quench the thirst of the people. I bless 4I thee also by Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who in Cana of Galilee, in a wonderful figure, changed thee by his power into wine. . . . Who made thee to flow together with blood out of his side?

As the blessing proceeds, he stoops to breathe thrice upon the water as G.o.d in the beginning breathed upon it with his Spirit.

Do thou with thy mouth bless these clear (simplices) waters: that besides their natural virtue of cleansing the body, they may also be effectual for the purification of minds.