Friday, March 30, 2018

The blood that laves the stars

"mite corpus perforatur, sanguis unde profluit;
terra, pontus, astra, mundus quo lavantur flumine!"

gently [his] body is pierced through,
     whence blood flows forth;
in which stream the earth, the sea, the stars,
     the universe [(or human race)] are washed.

     Venantius Fortunatus, "Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis" (Poems 4.2), stanza 7 (in part), as reproduced (but not translated) in the current Roman missal, at Good Friday.  In the critical edition in MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi 4 (1881-1885), pp. 27-28, this comes out as

"mite corpus perforatur, sanguis unda profluit;
terra, pontus, astra, mundus quo lavantur flumine."

gently [his] body is pierced through,
     [and] blood, a wave [of it (or blood, rising in waves)], flows forth;
in which stream the earth, the sea, the stars
     the universe [(or human race)] are washed.

See also the modern critical edition:  Poèmes, ed. Reydellet, Collection des Universités de France, vol. 1 (Paris:  Les Belles Lettres, 1994), p. 51:

"Mite corpus perforatur, sanguis unda profluit,
terra pontus astra mundus quo lauantur flumine."

"taking the form of a slave"

Grünewald
"The ignominy of a public trial is a miserable thing,—the deprivation of a man's property by way of penalty is a miserable thing,—exile is a miserable thing; but still, in all these disasters some trace of liberty remains to one. Even if death be threatened, we may die free men; but the executioner, and the veiling of the head, and the mere name of the [cross (crucis)], should be far removed, not only from the persons of Roman citizens—from their thoughts, and eyes, and ears. For not only the actual fact and endurance of all these things, but the bare possibility of being exposed to them,—the expectation, the mere mention of them even,—is unworthy of a Roman citizen and of a free man. Does not the kindness of their masters at one touch deliver our slaves from the fear of all these punishments; and shall neither our exploits, nor the purity of our past life, nor the honours which you have conferred on us, save us from the scourge, from the hangman's hook, and even from the dread of the [cross (crucis)]?"

     Cicero, Pro C. Rubirio oratio 5.16, trans. C. D. Yonge, who used for "crux" "gibbet," not "cross."  A passage cited (whether accurately or not) as proof of the claim that "Crucifixion was not only the most agonizing [(atroce)] of punishments/tortures, 'summum supplicium' (Digest, De poenis 48.19.28), it was also the most degrading, that of slaves, 'servile supplicium' (Tacitus, Historiae 4.11), and that of great criminals; normally one did not crucify a Roman citizen (Cicero, Contra Verrem 2.5.64 (165), 66).  The cross, 'arbor infelix' (Livy, Historia 1.26.6; Cicero, Pro C. Rubirio oratio 4.13), was synonymous with horror and abjection" (Dictionnaire de spiritualité, sv Folie de la croix I, by Donatien Mollat, vol. 5 (1964), col. 639).  Latin from here.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Christ the trader

"He had no power of himself to die for us. . . .  Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die.  Accordingly, he effected a wonderful exchange with us, through mutual sharing: we gave him the power to die, he will give us the power to live."

     St. Augustine, Sermo 218C =Sermo Guelferbytanus 3.1 (Good Friday, 412/415), trans. Liturgy of the hours.  SC 116 (1966):  (200-208) =PLS 2 (), col. 545.  WSA III.6 =Sermons on the liturgical seasons, trans. Edmund Hill (1993), 194:
he would not have in himself the wherewithal to die for us, unless he had taken mortal flesh from us.  That was how the immortal one was able to die, that was how he wished to bestow life on mortals; aiming later on to give us shares in himself, having first of all himself taken shares in us.  I mean, we had nothing of our very own by which we could really live, and he had nothing of his very own by which he could really die.  Accordingly, he struck a wonderful bargain with us, a mutual give and take:  ours was what he died by; his was what we might live by.
Non enim habebat in semetipso unde moreretur pro nobis nisi moralem carnem sumpsisset ex nobis.
Sic inmortalis mori potuit, sic uitam donare mortalibus uoluit, participes sui postea facturus quorum esset prior particeps factus.
Nam nec unde uiueremus nos habebamus de nostro nec unde moreretur ille de suo; mirum proinde nobiscum egit mutua participatione commercium:  nostrorum erat unde mortuus est, illius erit unde uiuamus.
SC 116, ed. Suzanne Poque (1966), 200, 202.  A footnote here:  "One sees sketched here the theme of the Christus mercator, cf. Introduction, p. 16.  In S[ermo] Denis 5[.5 =sermon no. 375B.5], the same considerations are placed in the very mouth of Christ [himself]", as translated here by Edmund Hill O.P. (WSA III/10 (Hyde Park, NY:  New City Press, 1995), 335).  Unfortunately, this is considered a sermon of doubtful authenticity:
'I had no means of dying; you, man, had no means of living.  I took from you the means by which to die for you; now you take from me the means by which to live with me.  Let's strike a bargain; I give to you, give something to me.  From you I receive death; from me receive life.  Bestir yourself; notice what I am giving, what I am receiving.  Though sublime in heaven, I received from you the form of a servant (Phil 2:7).  While I am your health , what I received from you were wounds; while I am your life, what I received from you was death.  While I am the Word, I became flesh, in order to be able to die.  I had no flesh with the Father; it was from your lump that I received what I would spend for you. . . . I took flesh from you, in which to die for you; receive the life-giving spirit from me, with which to live with me.  In a word, I died from what is yours; see to it that you live from what is mine.'

Saturday, March 24, 2018

"'whether it be little or great, hard or easy, joyous or grievous to the flesh'"

"Wesley cannot be used accurately as a resource in support of a vision of unity that requires affirming opposing understandings of practical holiness. A church with two different conceptions of holiness, in Wesley’s view, is already in schism."

     Kevin M. Watson, "'Holiness of heart and life':  unity, holiness, and the mission of Methodism," in Unity of the church and human sexuality:  toward a faithful United Methodist witness (United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 2018), 438.  The headline is from Wesley, "The Character of a Methodist" 12, Works (the Bicentennial edition), vol. 9, p. 39.

"Worship him who was hung on the cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself."

Allegrini (MMO)
"If you are crucified beside him like one of the thieves, now, like the good thief, acknowledge your God.  For your sake, and because of your sin, Christ himself was regarded as a sinner; for his sake, therefore, you must cease to sin.  Worship him who was hung on the cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself [(Προσκύνησον τὸν διὰ σὲ κρεμασθέντα [(or σταυρωθέντα)], καὶ κρεμάμενος)].  Derive some benefit from the very shame; purchase salvation with your death.  Enter paradise with Jesus, and discover how far you have fallen.  Contemplate the glories there, and leave the other scoffing thief to die outside in his blasphemy."

     St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 45 On Holy Pascha 24, trans. Liturgy of the hours (Office of readings, Saturday, Fifth Week of Lent).  The Greek of PG 36, col. 656C (the SC edition has not yet reached no. 45) isn't quite as fulsome:  "even (while) hanging".  NPNF, 2nd ser., vol. 7, trans. Browne & Swallow, pp. 431-432:
If you are crucified with Him as a robber, acknowledge God as a penitent robber.  If even He was numbered among the transgressors for you and your sin, do you become law-abiding for His sake.  Worship Him Who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness; purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into Paradise, so that you may learn from what you have fallen.  Contemplate the glories that are there; let the murderer [(confirmed in the print, though the Greek is τὸν γογγυστὴν, murmerer, mutterer, grumbler)] die outside with his blasphemies....
Festal orations, trans. Nonna Verna Harrison, Popular patristics series 36 (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2008), 184:
If you are crucified with him as a thief, come to know God as kind-hearted; if he was counted among the lawless because of you and your sin, become law abiding because of him.  Worship the one hanged for you even if you are hanging; gain something even from the evil, purchase salvation by death.  Come into paradise with Jesus so as to learn from what you have fallen.  Contemplate the beauties there; leave the murmurer [(τὸν γογγυστὴν, murmerer, mutterer, grumbler)] to die outside with his blasphemies.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Priest and sacrifice, God and temple

Ultimate source undetermined
"Christ is therefore the one who in himself alone embodied all that he knew to be necessary to achieve our redemption. He is at once priest and sacrifice, God and temple. He is the priest through whom we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice and temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for he is this with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of God."

     St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, To Peter on the faith 22, trans. Liturgy of the hours.  FC 95, trans. Robert B. Eno (1997), 74:

Therefore, this is the one who in himself alone provided everything he knew to be necessary for the effecting of our redemption, for he was both priest and sacrifice, both God and temple; the priest, through whom we are reconciled; the sacrifice, by means of which we are reconciled; the temple, in which we are reconciled; God to whom we are reconciled.  By himself he is the priest, sacrifice, and temple, because God according to the form of a servant is all these things; not, however, God alone, because he together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God according to the form of God.
=CCSL 91A, 726 =PL 65, col. 682:
Iste igitur est qui in se uno totum exhibuit quod esse necessarium ad redemptionis nostrae sciebat effectum, idem scilicet sacerdos et sacrificium, idem Deus et templum:  sacerdos, per quem sumus reconciliati; sacrificium, quo reconciliati; templum, in quo reconciliati; Deus, cui reconciliati.  Solus tamen sacerdos, sacrificium et templum, quia haec omnia Deus secundum formam servi; non autem solus Deus, quia hoc est cum Patre et Spiritu sancto secundum formam Dei.

A prayer for deliverance from the coils of sin

2010- :
"Pardon the offenses of your peoples, we pray, O Lord, and in your goodness set us free from the bonds of the sins we have committed in our weakness.  Through our Lord."

Pre-2010:
"Lord, grant us your forgiveness, and set us free from our enslavement to sin.  We ask this through our Lord."

"Absolve, quaesumus, Domine, tuorum delicta populorum, ut a peccatorum nexibus, quae pro nostra fragilitate contraximus, tua benignitate liberemur. Per Dominum."

Dismiss, we pray, O Lord, the transgressions of your peoples, that, from the entanglements of the sins that, on account of our frailty, we have committed, we may by your benignity be set free.

Absolve, we pray, O Lord, the transgressions of your people, that, from the fetters of the sins in which, on account of our weakness, we have become entangled, we may be, by your mercy, set free.

Prayer for Friday of Fifth Week in Lent, Roman missal/Liturgy of the hours.  Bruylants no. 7 (vol. 2, p. 10) attributes this to the 8th/9th-century Gelasian sacramentary of Angoulême.  Corpus orationum no. 20 cites the late-8th-century sacramentary of Gellone, the early 8th-century Gregorian, and others, replaces "ut" with "et", and relegates the latter to the variant readings (see also nos. 18 and 19):
Absolve, quaesumus, domine, tuorum delicta populorum et a peccatorum nexibus, quae pro nostra fragilitate contraximus, tua benignitate liberemur.
I don't think it was used in the post-Tridentine missal, the 1979 BCP, or the Church of England's Common worship.

1549 BCP, 24th Sunday after Trinity:
Lord, we beseche thee, assoyle thy people from their offences, that through thy bountiful goodnes we maye bee delyuered from the bandes of all those synnes, whiche by our frayltye we haue committed:  Graunt this, &c.
1662 BCP:
O Lord, we beseech thee, absolve thy people from their offences; that through thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those sins, which by our frailty we have committed:  Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour.  Amen.
1928 BCP:
. . . for the sake of Jesus Christ, . . .