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"We could say that they have nothing to do with each other, this Jerusalem of rejecters and the other, the 'Jerusalem' that comes from far away (Gal 4:26), that descends from on high (Rev 21:2), unblemished, pure, glittering with a perfect light. We could say that they have nothing to do with each other, except perhaps that each has known the Lord's love, one once but no longer, the other more recently and who knows for how long, since 'forever' seems to be a fluid span in the face of God's sensitive response to every human tremor. But, having said this, we will have already given another answer, since the one love of God for Jerusalem is not a thing to be reset over and over, nor is it so easily foiled as to demand its own constant redirection. If Jesus loved Jerusalem, this one, with its broken walls and rubbled towers, it is not so much other than the city that is built around the Twelve Apostles (Rev 21:14) as it is just these Twelve tribes (Rev 21:13), fallen and routed but now redeemed.
"The disjunction between the Jerusalem over which Jesus weeps and the city of the Lamb is the same as the disjunction between Peter denying and Peter shepherding, between a thief on the cross and one in paradise, between sin and forgiveness. Between the body dead and the body resurrected. We shall say that the chasm between the two is real; we shall say, as well, that it is spanned somehow and overcome.
"If this is so, then when Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, he weeps also over his apostles: 'They will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered' (Matt 26:31; Zech 13:7). You will, each of you, leave me abandoned (John 16:32). Yet it is on these apostles that the Church is founded (Eph 2:20), on those who fail, who are scattered, who abandon and deny—and just for these does Jesus pray (Luke 22:3), and to them is new life given. This is the Church because it is Jerusalem, the same Jerusalem of Zechariah 14, which is the same as Revelation 2 and 3, sifted, yes, tested and purified, yet the Church to whom a promise was given in the struggling entry of David and Joab into the stronghold of Zion. See what love Jesus has for Jerusalem! 'I would have taken you under my wings, but you would not!' Yet for all that, I have died for you, who 'did not know what you did' in this rejection (Luke 23:34); and I have turned shame into joy, rejection into a new calling, abandonment into redemption, a sinner consoled, loved, and given new fruit for the world's sake (Isa 54). But who is this who is redeemed? The one over whom Jesus wept.
"And should we not weep over Jerusalem the Church? And for just these same reasons? And with just this end in view? An ecclesiology of tears is at the heart of an ecclesiology of joy; without this order of truth and life, there is no Church at all (Ps 126). . . ."
Ephraim Radner, A brutal unity: the spiritual politics of the Christian Church (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012), 167-168 ("Postscript: Loving Jerusalem").
As much as I love a densely packed footnote, the best parts of this wonderful (and wonderfully learned) book are the Postscripts. Blessed indeed must be those who have had Radner for a preacher. (But then, blessed indeed must be those who have had—but then rejected!—Jesus, Moses, and the prophets, too!)
". . . The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weights heavily upon us. . . ."
"Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel. . . . Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. . . .
". . . Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word."
St. Bernard, Hom. 4, 8-9, as reproduced in the Office of readings for 20 December, Liturgy of the hours.
According to Aquinas, the passions "'are not virtuous by a simple obediential subordination [(subordination obédientielle)] or by a simple habit [(accoutumance)], as Bonaventure would if pressed [(à la rigueur)] concede, but by an intimate penetration, thanks to which the mind is at home in the feelings [(l'esprit est chez lui dans les sensibilités)].'"
M. D. Chenu, "Les passions vertueuses: l'anthropologie de saint Thomas," Revue philosophique de Louvain 72 (1974): 16 (11-18), as quoted by Thomas Prügl, in "TRISTITIA: zur Theologie der passiones animae bei Thomas von Aquin," in Die Einheit der Person: Beiträge zur Anthropologie des Mittelalters, ed. Martin Thurner (Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1998), 152n43 (141-156).
"especially in an area with strong leadership, substantive resistance by clergy (and some laity) could be widespread; but still the issue remains over what was being resisted. By and large, that 'what' was never the treatment of Jews but the church's own integrity to govern her life without state interference and immune from non-Christian or even anti-Christian state influences."
Ephraim Radner, citing Kevin Spicer, Resisting the Third Reich: the Catholic clergy in Hitler's Berlin (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004). A brutal unity: the spiritual politics of the Christian church (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012), 97n69.
"the willingness in numerous cases of clergy to oppose encroachments upon, for example, churches' right to independent teaching and decision making provoked a number of martyrdoms and what has traditionally been understood as the suffering of true 'confessors.' Yet such risks were hardly ever borne by church leaders on behalf of the Jews. It is not enough to attribute the churches' acquiescence before Jewish persecution to simply incompetent or desultory ecclesial leadership because examples of energy and clarity of vision were not lacking. What was lacking was a particular focus—what focus there was generally aimed at the chuches' survival rather than at the Jews as human beings—and the theological and moral imperatives derivative of this focus. The Christian leadership, that is, paid attention to some things and not to others, a matter that is crucial to all moral and truthful decision making. Leaders were given formal opportunities to decide on responses to key events and largely chose the path of nonresistance" (97-98).
"as the researches of someone like Richard Steigmann-Gall seem to have demonstrated (although with not a little push back from some), the notion of Nazism as intrinsically anti-Christian is a gross exaggeration: the self-consciously 'Christian' apologists within the Nazi Party were consistently strong, until near the end of the war, and were eager and often successful in integrating their Christian commitments, as they saw them, with Nazi policies."
Ephraim Radner, citing Richard Steigmann-Gall, The holy reich: Nazi conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). A brutal unity: the spiritual politics of the Christian church (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012), 93.
Deus, cui omne cor patet et omnis voluntas loquitur et nullum latet secretum, purifica per infusionem sancti spiritus cogitationes cordis nostri, ut perfecte te diligere et digne laudare mereamur.
Corpus orationum no. 1135 (vol. 2, pp. 131-132), where the variants appear in an apparatus.
c. 780: "Previously known to Anglicans as the Collect for Purity, this prayer has been re-named to avoid any possible confusion with the collect of the service. Its composition is attributed to St Gregory, Abbot of Canterbury c. 780. . . . It appears in the eleventh-century Leofric Missal, and in the Sarum rite it is part of the priest's private devotions before the start of the service" (Paul Bradshaw, Gordon Giles, and Simon Kershaw, "Holy Communion," chap. 6 in Companion to Common worship, ed. Paul Bradshaw, vol. 1, Alcuin Club Collections 78 (London: SPCK, 2001), 110). Attributed by whom? An ancient source or the most recent scholarship? By Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750), apparently. Yet his Liturgia Romana vetus (1748), ii.383, though it contains this prayer, makes (on p. 383) no attribution to St. Gregory. Cf. "This [Votive] Mass ['For Invoking the Grace of the Holy Spirit'] can be traced back to a little Sacramentary of Votive Masses put together by the Englishman Alcuin (d. 804), the great prime minister of Charlemagne and reviser of the Latin rite of the West. Whether Alcuin composed th[is] Collect himself or took it from an older service book no longer extant is not known" (Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr., The Oxford American Prayer book commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), 67). Something similar is claimed by a note in The Leofric missal (below). I have not followed up on this in the more recent scholarship to see why (say) Hatchett (in 1980) does not follow Shepherd here in locating this collect in the late 8th or very early 9th century at the latest, but speaks only of the 11th-century Leofric missal. But Corpus orationum (below) should settle that question in favor of the early 9th in any case:
9th century, first quarter (?): No. 2325 in the texts complementary to the Gregorian sacramentary as edited by Deschusses (Le sacramentaire grégorien: ses principales formes d'après les plus anciens manuscrits, vol. 2 (1979) or 3 (1982)), according to Corpus orationum no. 1135 (vol. 2, p. 131).
9th-century, first half: No. 1379 in the Tridentine sacramentary (Trent, Museo Provinciale d'Arte del Castello del Buonconsiglio 1590), as edited by Dell'Oro ("Sacramentarium Tridentium," in Monumenta liturgica Ecclesiae Tridentinae saeculo XIII antiquiora, Fontes liturgici, Libri sacramentorum II A (1985), pp. 73-416), according to Corpus orationum no. 1135 (vol. 2, p. 131).
9th-century, last quarter: No. 48 in the sacramentary of St. Martin of Tours (Tours, Bibl. mun. 184, and Paris, B.N. lat. 9430), as edited by Deschusses ("Les messes d'Alcuin," in Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 14 (1972): 7-41), according to Corpus orationum no. 1135 (vol. 2, p. 131).
c. 975: No. 1790 in the Fulda sacramentary (Göttingen, Königl. Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. theol. 231), as edited by Richter & Schönfelder (Sacramentarium Fuldense sæculi X (), p. 203), according to Corpus orationum no. 1135 (vol. 2, p. 131), and Bruylants n. 206 (Les oraisons du Missel Romain, vol. 1, p. 64).
. . .
1050/1072: No. 177 in the Leofric missal (Oxford, Bodleiana 579 (2675)), as edited by Warren (The Leofric missal, as used in the Cathedral of Exeter during the episcopate of its first bishop, A.D. 1050-1072; together with some account of the Red book of Derby, the Missal of Robert of Jumièges, and a few other early ms. service books of the English church, ed. F. E. Warren (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1883), 177): "Deus, cui omne cor patet, et omnis uoluntas loquitur, et nullum latet secretum, purifica per infusionem sancti spiritus cogitationes cordis nostri, ut perfecte te diligere, et digne laudare mereamur. Per. In unitate eiusdem spiritus sancti."
. . .
14th century: The clowde of unknowyng, Prologe: God, unto Whom alle hertes ben open, and unto Whom alle wille spekith, and unto Whom no privé thing is hid: I beseche Thee so for to clense the entent of myn hert with the unspekable gift of Thi grace that I may parfiteliche love Thee, and worthilich preise Thee. Amen.
_____: Nos. 579 & 787 in the Sarum missal (first [printed] edition: London, 1554), as edited by Dickinson (Missale ad usum insignis et praeclarae ecclesiae Sarum (1861-1863), and The Sarum missal, tr. [A. Harford Pearson] (1868; 2nd edn., 1884), 216, 401.
1549: Booke of the common prayer, as reproduced in The first and second prayer books of Edward VI, Everyman's Library 448 (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1910), 212: "Almightie God, unto whom all hartes bee open, and all desyres knowen, and from whom no secretes are hid: clense the thoughtes of our hartes, by the inspiracion of thy holy spirite: that we may perfectly loue thee, and worthely magnifie thy holy name: through Christ our Lorde. Amen."
1577: Missale Romanum, p. 41.
1559: Book of common prayer (Cummings): "Almighty God, unto whom al hartes be open, al desires knowen, and from whom no secretes are hyd: clense the thoughtes of our hartes by the inspiracion of thy holy spirite, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name, through Christe our Lorde. Amen."
1662: Book of common prayer (Cummings): "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnifie thy holy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen."
1928: Book of common prayer: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen."
1959: The Missal in Latin and English, being the text of the Missale Romanum with English rubrics and a new translation (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1959), 663: "Deus, cui omne cor patet et omnis volúntas lóquitur, et quem nullum latet secrétum: purífica per infusiónem Sancti Spíritus cogitatiónes cordis nostri; ut te perfécte dilígere, et digne laudáre mereámur." "O God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inpouring of thy Holy Spirit, giving us grace to love thee perfectly and praise thee worthily."
_____: Roman missal:
1979: Book of common prayer, Rite I: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen."
1979: Book of common prayer, Rite II: "Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen."
_____: Common worship:
2010: Roman missal, revised (The CTS new daily missal: people's edition, with the new translation of the Mass (Catholic Truth Society, 2012), 929): "O God, to whom every heart is open, every desire known and from whom no secrets are hidden; purify the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily praise your holy name. Amen."
Robert Southwell, "Saint Peter's Complaint," stanza 118, as quoted by Ephraim Radner. A brutal unity: the spiritual politics of the Christian church (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012), 60.
