Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 5

For the modern Protestant, who begins to learn his religion

85.

from Bible stories, there is a very long interval between the Fall of Adam and the Birth of Christ, because a large part of his religious education consists in learning the story of the Old Testament-so much so that there are many respects in which Protestantism is often more of a Hebraism than a Christianity. But in traditional Christianity the religion is learned less from the Bible than from the cycle of the Christian Year, which is a ritual reliving of the life of Christ. Within this cycle the events of the Old Testament are interwoven in such a way that they form, not a continuous story, but a system of oracles or prophecies.

From this point of view, history begins with Adam and begins again with Christ, so much so that what happens in between occurs within an epoch of darkness wherein G.o.d is known only through "types and shadows. That is to say, the Old Testament-the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the history of Israel-is significant to the Catholic mind only because it is a symbolical foreshadowing of Christ. Thus the Old Testament stories enter into the Christian story in so far as they seem appropriate "types" of the various "mysteries" of the life of Christ which are celebrated through the course of the Christian Year. As an excellent example of the way in which the Old Testament is used as a source book of typology, the reader should turn to the Liturgy of Holy Sat.u.r.day in the Roman Missal and go through the section ent.i.tled "The Prophecies, noting how both events and actual quotations :rom the Prophets are used as a prefiguring of the Christian nysteries?

The reader will find it much to his advantage to have a copy of the Roman Missal available for reference as he goes through this book. Very inexpensive editions are available, but he should be careful to acquire the Daily Missal and not the Sunday Missal, since the latter is very much abridged. The Missal is divided into the following sections: (1) the Ordinary of the Ma.s.s, consisting of the unchanging pans of the Ma.s.s which are recited daily; (a) the Proper of the Time, consisting of the parts of the liturgy appropriate to the seasons of the Christian Year; (3) the Proper of the Saints, consisting of the variable parts of the Ma.s.s recited on the feasts of the saints; (4) the Common of Saints, consisting It must be understood that with the Fall of the Angels and of Man the whole created universe of time and s.p.a.ce, material and immaterial, became corrupt--so much so that at one period the deeds of men became so evil that the Lord G.o.d sent a flood upon the earth which destroyed all except Noah and his family, who floated upon the waters in an Ark built at the commandment of G.o.d. For Christianity, the Ark of Noah is naturally a type of the Church-the Nave or s.h.i.+p of Salvation, wherein men are saved from the Flood of everlasting d.a.m.nation. However, when G.o.d the Son came into the world as Jesus of Nazareth, the universe was redeemed from this curse, and time itself became holy so that the very years are reckoned from his birth-Anno Donini, in the Year of the Lord. Furthermore, the seasons of the year are themselves transformed from the pagan Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter to the Christian Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Pa.s.siontide, Easter, and Pentecost.

However, because the sun itself in both its daily and annual course is seen as a type of Christ, the Sun of Justice, the Christian Year is rather significantly integrated with the cycle of the sun. The Christian Year begins about four weeks before Christmas, which coincides approximately with the Winter Solstice-the time when, in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is at its lowest meridian and is about to begin once more its upward journey to the midheaven. Anciently this time was sometimes known as the Birth of the Sun, being, as it were, the midnight of the year, from which point the sun begins to rise. According to tradition, then, Christ was born at midnight at the Winter Solstice.

of Ma.s.ses for certain general types of saints rather than particular individuals; (S) Votive Ma.s.ses for special needs and occasions; (6) Ma.s.ses for the Dead. The Liturgy of Holy Sat.u.r.day will be found under (2), the Proper of the Time. It might also be useful to the reader to have available a translation of the Breviary. For this purpose I would suggest either The Short Breviary (St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn.) or The Monastic Diurnal (Oxford University Press, London, 5940).

7.

The Vernal Equinox, corresponding in the daily cycle to sunrise, is the approximate season of Easter, the feast of Christ's Resurrection, the actual day of Easter being the Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. As the sun climbs to the midheaven after the equinox, the Church celebrates-forty days later-the Ascension of Christ into heaven, and in another ten days Pentecost or Whitsunday, the feast of the descent of the Fire of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. The solar symbolism is obvious, except that the Church keeps no seasonal feast at the Summer Solstice, and observes only the course of the sun in its rising. The other half of the year is mostly occupied by the somewhat formless season of "Sundays after Pentecost, which end only at the beginning of Advent, and during which the Church rehea.r.s.es the ministry and the miracles of Christ upon earth.

Christianity in practice is therefore the annual reliving of the Christ/life, symbol of the union of the Christian with Christ in his birth, his labor, his pa.s.sion, his resurrection, and his ascension in glory. Other concepts of Christianity-in/ practice are post/mythical, being of a rationalized, historical, and moralistic character, and are thus beyond the concern of a study of Christian Mythology. In its Protestant form Christi anity is increasingly rationalized, and, with the exception of Christmas and Easter, the Christian Year is almost wholly forgotten? In this conception, Christianity is no longer a symbolical reliving of the Christ/life, but rather an imitation of his character based on a reading of the Gospels as history and biography-to the exclusion of all miraculous and mythological elements.

Thus the Christian Year introduces its presentation of the Christian life with the season of Advent which, to some extent, corresponds with the "historically" vast period between The story is told of a Scotch Presbyterian minister receiving a letter from a Catholic priest, dated January r7th, St. Anthony's Day, and replying with a Letter dated, January loth, Was.h.i.+ng Day.

the Fall of Man and the Binh of Christ. Strictly speaking, Advent has a double theme. It corresponds to the epoch between the Fall and the Incarnation in so far as it is a prepara, tion for Christmas, a season of longing for the appearance of the Redeemer who will save the world from the Fall and its curse. But, by a.n.a.logy, it looks forward also to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time, "to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire". For our purposes, however, we must relegate this event to the end of the story, and consider Advent as the season of preparation for Christmas, when the Church casts its mind back to the time before the first Christmas, and shares the longing of the fallen universe for release from its darkness.

O Day/spring, Brightness of the Light eternal, and Sun of Justice, come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.'

At such a time, then, it is appropriate to remember the Age of Wandering, as the time between Adam and Christ was called, during which the Lord G.o.d raised up a Chosen People to be a type of the Church and to prepare the world by prophecy for the coming of the Saviour. Thus, during the 1 The Great Antiphon, 0 Oriens, sung during Advent at Vespers on December 21st. From the Breviary. In addition to the annual "hallowing of time" by means of the Christian Year, there is also a diurnal time~hallowing by means of the Hours of Prayer to be found in the Breviary as distinct from the Missal. This is why the shorter form of the Breviary, excluding the nighttime service of Martins, is often called the Diurnal or Book of Hours. The Offices or Canonical Hours, as these services ofprayer are called, are as follows: Prime, between 3 and 6 a.m. Lauds, immediately follows. Terre, between 6 and 9 a.m. s.e.xt, between 9 a.m and Noon. None, between Noon and 3 p.m. Vespers, between 3 and 6 p.m. Compline, about 9 p.m.

go Myth and Ritual in Christianity second week of Advent, the Ma.s.s opens with the words of the prophet:

People of Sion (Jerusalem), behold the Lord shall come to save the nations; and the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard in the joy of your heart. (Introit, from Isaiah 3o.)

As the liturgy goes on, the same theme recurs

Out ofSion, the loveliness of his beauty, G.o.d shall come manifestly. (Gradual.)

Arise, 0 Jerusalem, and stand on high, and be, hold the joy that cometh to thee from thy G.o.d. (Communio.) At the same time the Epistle for the Day, from Romans, begins with St. Paul's words on the Old Testament: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that, through patience and strengthening of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Seeing, then, the entire Old Testament as the hope of Christ, the mind of the Church goes back again to the beginning of the world, and calls upon Sophia, the Divine Wisdom, the Word, to reform the universe of which he was at first the ideal form:

0 Wisdom, who came forth out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; come and teach us the way of prudence.'

In this light the entire story of the generations of Adam and of the Chosen People, from the Fall through Abraham and Moses to the Return from Babylon, is seen as a rehearsal in shadow.play for the manifestation of Christ. We saw that the very events of the Fall-the Serpent, the Tree, and its Fruit-were the reverse reflection of Christs Pa.s.sion. Thus, even Great Antiphon at Vespers, December r7th.

Advent gr though they laboured under the darkness of evil, the actions of men and angels could not help but resemble, in however distorted a fas.h.i.+on, the pattern of the Christlife upon which the universe was originally designed.

The discreditable incident of the two sons of Adam, Cain and Abel, was a prefiguring of the Old Israel and the New. For both sons offered sacrifice to the Lord G.o.d, and when Abel's was accepted and Cain's refused, Cain slew his brother as, in a later time, the Jews crucified Christ-so that Cain's unacceptable sacrifice was a type of those ancient offerings of bulls and goats which did not cleanse the Chosen People from sin, while Abel's sacrifice foreshadowed the perfect and acceptable sacrifice of Christ. The mysterious a.s.sumption of the patriarch Enoch into heaven prefigured the Ascension of Christ, while Jesus as the High Priest of Heaven was fore, shadowed in the remote figure of Melchizedek, King of Salem, who "brought forth bread and wine" and made offerings to the most high G.o.d".

The patriarch Abraham, as father of the Hebrew people, is a type of G.o.d the Father, and his barren wife Sarah who miraculously gave birth to Isaac are respectively types of Mary and Jesus-a symbolism further suggested by Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice when commanded by G.o.d to do so. The twelve sons of Jacob or Israel-grandsons of Abraham-from whom were descended the twelve tribes of Israel, stand for the Twelve Apostles of Christ, from whom the Church is descended.2 Much of this typology centers around the whole history of the descent and ens vement of the children of Israel in Egypt, their deliverance by Moses, and their journeying through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The descent into Egypt prefigures both the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt to escape from Herod with the child Jesus, and the descent of Christ into Hades after his crucifixion 3 The Exodus, the

1 Genesis r8: t-r6; 22: 1-13. 2 Genesis 35: i6-z6. a Genesis 46.

92 Myth and Ritual in Christianity deliverance from Egypt, finds Moses in the role of Christ, and represents both the salvation of the human race from the Kingdom of Satan and the Resurrection of Christ from death. In particular this typology centers around the Pa.s.sover Feast.' The Latin term for Easter is Pascha, from the Hebrew Pesach, the Pa.s.sover, and the first Pa.s.sover was the immediate occasion of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The sacrifice of Christ is seen in the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, whose blood was spread upon the doorposts of the Israelites to deliver them from the Destroying Angel, who was to slay the sons of the Egyptians. This terrible visitation persuaded the Egyptian king to release the enslaved people, and their miraculous escape across the Red Sea is the figure of Christ's Resurrection.

Ad regias Agni dapes, Stolis amicti candidis, Post transitum Marls Rubri, Christo cantamus Principi.

At the royal feast of the Lamb, clothed in white robes, after the crossing of the Red Sea, we sing to Christ our Prince.2 In general, the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, "flowing with milk and honey", are taken as a type of the Church Militant-that is to say, in its long period of struggle between the Resurrection of Christ and his Second Coming, and the final entry into the Promised Land foreshadows the Church Triumphant in its final attainment of Heaven. During their wanderings the Chosen People are guided, in the day, by a pillar of cloud and, at night, by a pillar of fire-symbols of the 1 Genesis 11-14. See also my Faster-Its Story and Meaning (New York, 1950), ch. 6.

Vesper hymn for Eastertide, from the Breviary.

Advent 9 3 guidance of the Church by G.o.d the Holy Spirit. They are refreshed by water from the Rock, which Moses struck with his rod, typifying the sacrament of Baptism, They are fed upon the mysterious Manna, the bread from Heaven, which is the foreshadowing of the Host, the consecrated Bread of the Ma.s.s. They are taught by the Law revealed by Gad to Moses upon Mount Sinai, and in its turn the Church is taught by the doctrine of Christ delivered in the Sermon on the Mount.'

The next great group of typological symbols is connected with David, conqueror of Jerusalem, who unified and stabilized the tribes of Israel as a single kingdom after many years of struggle and strife in their new homeland. As David was the founder of the earthly kingdom of Israel, so Christ is the founder of the heavenly kingdom, the fulfilment of the Hebrew hope for the Messiah who would restore the glories of the days of David. Hence the Christ, as duly prophesied, was born of the line of David in Bethlehem ("House of Bread") where David himself was born.2 The Father of David was the shepherd Jesse, of whom the prophet said, in a later day,

There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots:

and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.3 And with an illuminating pun the Church takes up the theme in the Missal Virgo Jesse Yoruit: Virgo Deum et hominem genuit: pacem Deus reddidit, in se reconcilians ima summis.

1 For the wanderings, see Exodus x6-4o, Deuteronomy x, 2, 3 and 34. Entry into the Promised Land, Joshua x-5. Incidentally, Joshua, who in the end leads the people into the Promised Land, is the Hebrew form of the Greek name J.

esus.

2 x Samuel 16: x-13. 2 Isaiah Ix: x-2.

94 Myth and Ritual in Christianity The verge of Jesse hath blossomed: A virgin hath brought forth G.o.d and man: G.o.d hath restored peace, reconciling in himself the highest with the lowest.'

Naturally, David's victory over the Philistine giant, Goliath, is likened to Christ's triumph over Satan,2 the fact that he was originally a shepherd boy makes him a type of the Good Shepherd, his power of healing with music pre, figures Christ the Healer,3 and his eventual setting up of the Throne of Israel in Jerusalem makes him the type of Christ the King, who reigns enthroned in the New Jerusalem on high.4 Other figures and events from the Old Testament playing an important part in this scheme of typology may be listed briefly as follows: TYPE.

The a.s.sumption of Elijah the Prophet; 5 The miracles of the Prophet Elisha: The multiplication of the widow's oils Raising the Shunamite's son'

Jonah and the Whales The deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed,nego in the furnaces Susanna and the Elders1 Tobias and the Fishll MYSTERY.

The Ascension of Christ

[fishes The miracle of loaves and The raising of Lazarus

The Death and Resurrection

Salvation from h.e.l.l

Persecution of the Church

by the Jews and Pagans

The Healing Christ The juxtaposition of the Old Testament type and the New Testament mystery was always a favourite convention of 1 Annunciation S.V.M. The Alleluia when 2 Samuel 17.

4 2 Samuel S: 6-12. a Revelation 3: 12. 62 Kings4 '2Kings 4:8--37.

9 71..t.' , 10 Cs At o - / -- - the Feast is in Paschaltide.

s I Samuel 16: 14-23. 5 2 Kings 2: 8-13.

sJonah 1 and 2.

Christian an, as when the opposite walls of a nave would be painted with the related scenes from the two Testaments. Often they were represented side.by.side in double panels of stained gla.s.s, or worked together into the design of initial ornaments in illuminated ma.n.u.scripts.

A more general typology than this symbolism of particular events was connected with the two great Old Testament inst.i.tutions of Sacrifice and the Law-inst.i.tutions embodying the promise but not the fact of salvation. In the Old Testament the selfoffering of man to G.o.d represented in the burning of bulls and goats upon the altar was, from the Christian standpoint, an ineffectual shadow of the only offering which can restore human nature to its proper union with G.o.d. For the perverted human will cannot make a genuine surrender of itself to the divine will, so that there can be no true sacrifice unless G.o.d himself enters into man, and, as man, makes the "full, perfect, and sufficient" sacrifice which was consummated in the death of the G.o.deman upon the Cross. Similarly, the Law given to Moses is one which the human will is in. capable of obeying. It serves only to "convict man of sin" by setting a standard to which he fails to attain. Thus in the new covenant of the Christian dispensation the ancient sacrifices are replaced by the Crucifixion, of which the Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s is a continuing reecollection,) and the Law gives way to the mystery of Grace, the power of G.o.d which enables the human will to perform works beyond its own capacity.

Because this long, long epoch of types and shadows ems bodies the promise, and man's expectation, of a Redeemer, the liturgy of the Advent season refers again and again to "captive Israel", to "the people that walked in darkness", and their 1 Anamnesis, usually translated as "memory", "memorial", or "recollection", is no mere reminder of a chronologically past event. Strictly speaking, anamnesis is much more than the simple sign of a fact distant (in time) from itself; it is rather the actual "recollection" of a truth which eternally is, so that to recollect the sacrifice of Christ is to make it really and effectively present.

gb Myth and Ritual in Christianity hope of deliverance. This is the theme of the great Advent hymn Veni Emmanuel 0 come, 0 come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel, Which mourns in lowly exile here, Until the Son of G.o.d appear.