Wednesday, April 9, 2025

"as true man . . . and as true God"

Source below
"It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.  For as true man he wept for Lazarus his friend and as eternal God [he] raised him from the tomb, just as, taking pity on the human race, he leads us by sacred mysteries to new life.  Through him the host of Angels adores your majesty and rejoices in your presence for ever.  May our voices, we pray, join with theirs in one chorus of exultant praise, as we acclaim:  Holy. . . ."

"Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere: Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus: per Christum Dominum nostrum. Ipse enim verus homo Lazarum flevit amicum, et Deus aeternus e tumulo suscitavit, qui, humani generis miseratus, ad novam vitam sacris mysteriis nos adducit. Per quem maiestatem tuam adorat exercitus Angelorum, ante conspectum tuum in aeternitate laetantium. Cum quibus et nostras voces ut admitti iubeas, deprecamur, socia exsultatione dicentes: Sanctus. . . ."

     Preface for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, current Roman Missal =Corpus praefationum no. 526 (CCSL 161A, pp. 146-147, and 161B, pp. 258-259).  A new composition patterned loosely upon Corpus praefationum no. 942 (CCSL 161C, p. 290, and 161D, p. 451), present in the the 9th (?)-century Supplement to the (Gregorian) Hadrianum as no. 1573 (ed. Deshusses, vol. 1, p. 517-518):

. . . Qui per humilitatem adsumptae humanitatis lazarum fleuit, per diuinitatis potentiam uitae reddidit, genus quoque humanum quadrifida peccatorum mole obrutum ad uitam reducit. . . .
. . . Qui per humilitatem assumptae humanitatis Lazarum flevit, per divinitatis potentiam vitae reddidit, genusque humanum quadrifida peccatorum mole obrutum, ad vitam reducit. . . .

. . . [He] who by the lowliness of [his] assumed humanity wept for Lazarus, by the power of [his] divinity restored him to life, and humankind buried under the quadripartite mass of sins led back to life. . . .

     More on this "quadrifida peccatorum moles":  French:  "une masse quadruple des péchés".

     Image:  Evangelist Painter, The raising of Lazarus (c. 1300), from Thomas F. Matthews and Alice Taylor, The Armenian gospels of Gladzor:  the life of Christ illuminated (Los Angeles:  Getty Publications, 2001), plate 57.