WDTPRS: Low Sunday “in albis”, Quasimodo Sunday

Strozzi thomasIn the post-Conciliar calendar this is the “Second Sunday of Easter.” It is sometimes called “Thomas Sunday” because of the Gospel reading about the doubting Apostle.

It is also famously called “Quasimodo Sunday” for the first word of the opening chant, the Introit (cf. 1 Peter 2:2-3).  Quasimodo and Sicut modo are interchangeable. Quasimodo reflects a Latin Scripture version predating what became the Vulgate. So, today’s Mass begins by exhorting the newly baptized.

Oh yes… now it is often called “Mercy Sunday” because of the emphasis on the dimension of the mercy of God’s redemptive act celebrated at Easter. The newest, third edition of the Missale Romanum of 2002 specifically labels this Sunday: Dominica II Paschae seu de divina Misericordia.

Most importantly, since ancient times this Sunday is called “Dominica in albis” or also “in albis depositis”… the Sunday of the “white robes having been taken off.” 1 Peter 2:2-3 says:

“Like (Sicut modo – Vulgate) newborn babes (infantes), long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

This is the reading on Saturday “in albis” in the traditional Roman Rite, as I write, today.

Explanation:

In the ancient Church the newly baptized were called infantes. They wore their white baptismal robes for “octave” period after Easter during which they received special instruction from the bishop about the sacred mysteries and Christian life to which they were not admitted before the Vigil rites. On this Sunday they removed their robes, which were deposited in the cathedral treasury as a perpetual witness to their vows. They were then “out of the nest” of the bishop, as it were, on their own in living their Catholic lives daily. St. Augustine of Hippo (+430), using the imagery of spring, compares the newly baptized to little birds trying to fly from the nest while the parent birds flap around them and chirp noisily to encourage them (s. 376a).

The new Collect for this Sunday (based on a prayer in the Missale Gothicum) for the 1970 and subsequent editions of the Roman Missal begins by calling God merciful.

COLLECT – LATIN TEXT (2002MR):

Deus misericordiae sempiternae,
qui in ipso paschalis festi recursu
fidem sacratae tibi plebis accendis,
auge gratiam quam dedisti,
ut digna omnes intellegentia comprehendant,
quo lavacro abluti, quo spiritu regenerati,
quo sanguine sunt redempti.

In general, when you encounter long, wordy orations, they are of newer composition.

The use of those clauses starting with quo, having no conjunctions (a trope called asyndeton) gives this prayer a very forceful feeling. I very much like that sole sunt (that goes with abluti…regenerati…redempti) imbedded elegantly in the last phrase.

Recursus is “a running back, return, a returning path.” In reference to sight it is something that has power to bring back an image. Recursus harks to the cyclical, “recurring” nature of the Paschal observance.

We have the opportunity to experience the Paschal mysteries each year. This is more than a memorial or re-enactment. By baptism we participate in mysterious events completed once and for all time, but for us in the liturgical year they sacramentally take place again.  Remember that sacramental reality is not less real that sensible reality.

According to the hardly mysterious Lewis & Short Dictionary, accendo means “to kindle anything above so that it burns downward” (the opposite of succendo or sub-cendo – to kindle from “below”, like the English “burn up” and “burn down”). You kindle a candle from above. Accendo is also “to set on fire, to kindle, light to light up, illuminate, to inflame a person or thing, to incite, to round up.” This word delivers the fiery liturgical imagery of the Vigil: when Christians are baptized the Holy Spirit (depicted as fire) comes to dwell in them. Intellegentia is “the power of discerning or understanding, discernment.” The vast verb comprehendo is too complex to treat comprehensively. Literally it involves, “to lay hold of something on all sides.” Think of … well… “comprehensive”. Comprehendo also means, “take hold, grasp, seize” or negatively “attack, arrest.” It is also “to perceive with the senses, observe.” Especially it is to grasp with the mind, but in a thorough way (on all sides). In the Collect we want to “grasp with a worthy power of understanding.” This is a profoundly interiorized “grasping” in the sense of true possession.

A lavacrum is a bath. In Titus 3:5 we have, “He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy (misericordiam), by the washing of regeneration (lavacrum regenerationis) and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us rightly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life (vv. 5-7, RSV).” This refers to both the process and effects of baptism, worked in us by the mercy of God.

In our Collect is abluo, “to wash off, wash away, cleanse, purify.” In classical Latin, abluo is used by Cicero (+43 BC) to describe a calming of the passions coming from a religious rite of washing away of sin (Tusc 4, 28, 60) and even by the poet philosopher Lucretius (+ AD 55) in De rerum natura to describe the removal of darkness by the bringing in of light (4, 378). Early Latin speaking Christians lacked vocabulary to express their faith. Abluo was ready made to be adapted to describe the effects of baptism.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God of mercy,
you wash away our sins in water,
you give us new birth in the Spirit,
and redeem us in the blood of Christ.
As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection
increase our awareness of these blessings,
and renew your gift of life within us
.

Do you want to know what the Latin prayer really says?

WDTPRS LITERAL TRANSLATION:

O God of eternal mercy,
who on this recurrence of the paschal feast
do kindle the faith of a people sanctified for Yourself,
increase the grace which You have given,
so that all may comprehend with worthy understanding
by what laver they were washed,
by what Spirit they were regenerated,
by what Blood they were redeemed
.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

God of everlasting mercy,
who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast
kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,
increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed,
that all may grasp and rightly understand
in what font they have been washed,
by whose Spirit they have been reborn,
by whose Blood they have been redeemed
.

In today’s Collect we pray that by the recurring sacred mysteries we veteran Christians and neophytes together as a People will be continually renewed and that our grasp of how we have been redeemed and the effects of that redemption will continually deepen. We who were once set on fire with the indwelling of the Spirit, should want each day for God to rekindle us, burn us up again from above. We want an increase of grace, faith that seeks to grasp, comprehend, understand ever more fully who He is, who we have become in Him. Grace and faith come first, of course. As the ancient adage goes: Nisi credideritis non intellegetis… Unless you will have first believed, you will not understand. We can only go so far on our own. Faith then brings to completion what reason begins to explore.

In a sermon addressed to the catechumens before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, St. Augustine used the imagery of light to help them understand who they were to become (cf. s. 223 and s. 260c):

“Keep the night Vigil humbly. Pray humbly with devoted faith, solid hope, brightly burning charity, pondering what kind of day our splendor will be if our humility can turn night into day. Thus, may God who ordered the light to blaze out of the dark make our hearts blaze brightly, that we may do on the inside something akin to what we have done with the lamps kindled within this house of prayer. Let us furnish the true dwelling place of God, our consciences, with lamps of justice”.

Augustine (and our Church) wants Christians truly to “possess” these mysteries in a way that made a concrete difference.

The newly baptized infantes eventually put off their white robes and get to the business, the work, of living as Catholics.

We who have done this already, perhaps long ago, must continue to wear them in our hearts.

And persevere.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. Father K says:

    The hunchback of Notre Dame was called ‘Quasimodo’ because he was a foundling discovered on this day. It is also the last Mass heard by the Catholic passengers on the Titanic. Just thought readers might be interested.

  2. Geoffrey says:

    This has got to be the one day of the Church year with the most names / nicknames!

    In addition to the story of “doubting Thomas”, the Gospel reading for this Sunday, which is the same in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite, illustrates the institution of the Sacrament of Mercy, i.e. Confession. There are also tremendous graces that can be received this Sunday: https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/indulgence_vs_promise.htm

    Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

  3. Aquinas Gal says:

    It’s also called Divine Mercy Sunday because that’s what Saint John Paul II declared it should be called:

    “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church, will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’ ” (Homily on April 30, 2000, for the canonization of St Faustina)

    [And… so?]

  4. moconnor says:

    I transcribed and edited a large-scale Mass setting from the Kromeriz collection (Moravia) called Missa in albis. It was attributed to Heinrich Biber, but that’s questionable. Still a nice work and one of the few I’ve seen written for this Sunday. We performed it in concert about 2 years ago.

  5. VexillaRegis says:

    Testing. My last post could’t reach the site. Hmm

  6. VexillaRegis says:

    Dear moconnor, very interesting indeed! I’m familiar with some of Heinrich Biber’s works, although I’ve never played any of them myself. Would you say the Mass is of Biber quality or slightly lower? How long is it?

    Vexilla

  7. Kathleen10 says:

    Father K, thank you, how interesting! I often wondered about Quasimodo but was embarrassed to ask, and how poignant to consider the poor people on the Titanic hearing that Mass. God rest their souls.
    Fr. Z., have you ever considered compiling these insightful comments for a book? I would find that book very helpful. Everything is so much richer when you understand the true meanings.
    God bless you and keep you, for the work you put into this blog.

  8. jameeka says:

    That entire reading from St Peter is so beautiful.

    I would like to recommend Father Z”s Podcazt 83 (partly because the birds chirping in the middle of it but also it is for this day).
    Wonderful wdtprs.

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