Liturgi

I dag leses evangeliet (i den tradisjonelle kalenderen) om enkens (døde) sønn i Nain (en tekst som nesten helt er blitt borte i vår tid – les om det her):

Lukas 7
11 Kort tid etter gav Jesus seg på vei til en by som heter Nain. Disiplene og en stor folkemengde drog sammen med ham. 12 Som han nå nærmet seg byporten, ble en død båret ut for å begraves. Han var sin mors eneste sønn, og hun var enke. Sammen med henne kom et stort følge fra byen. 13 Da Herren fikk se enken, ble han fylt av medlidenhet med henne og sa: «Gråt ikke!» 14 Så gikk han bort og la hånden på båren. De som bar den, stanset, og han sa: «Unge mann, jeg sier deg: Stå opp!» 15 Da satte den døde seg opp og begynte å tale, og Jesus gav ham til hans mor. 16 Alle ble da grepet av ærefrykt, og de priste Gud. «En stor profet er oppreist blant oss,» sa de, «og Gud har gjestet sitt folk.» 17 Og ryktet om dette kom ut i hele Jødeland og områdene omkring.

Til matutin leses vi hl Ambrosius’ kommentarer til teksten:

Homily by St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. – Bk. v. Conwi. on Luke vii.
The history which we here read in the Holy Gospel hath for us specially two gracious lessons, the one from the literal, the other from the mystic interpretation thereof. According to the letter then, we see how quickly the compassion of God was aroused by the sorrow of this mother, who was a widow, a widow broken down by nursing her only son, or by the bitterness of her grief for his death. She was a widow also whose worshipful conversation is borne witness to by this, that, much people of the city was with her. Mystically however, this widow encompassed by the multitude was something more than a poor woman whose tears won from the Lord the resurrection of her young and only son; for she is a type of our holy Mother the Church, who calleth back her young children to life from the pursuit of deathly vanities, and soul-slaying honours, by bidding them look on those tears which she sheddeth for such as they, and which it is unlawful for her to shed for them of whom she knoweth that they will rise again.

This man, then, being dead, was carried out on a bier to the grave by four bearers, even as the sinner is borne to destruction by the four elements of which he is composed. But there was hope in his latter end, from this, that that whereon he was carried was of wood, and wood, albeit it had profited us little before, is become everything to us now since Jesus touched it, being a figure of that gibbet, the Cross, which was made thereof, and wherefrom salvation floweth unto all people. When, therefore, the horrid bearers of the corpse heard the commandment of God, they stood still, and carried no farther him who was dead through the fatal course of a material nature. And is not our case even as that of the widow’s son, when we lie, as it were, lifeless, in our spiritual coffin, that is, in the last bed of our soul’s death, consumed by the fever of unbridled lust, or frozen by cold-heartedness, or with our whole manliness sapped by some degrading habit of this earthly body, or starved by a spiritual lockjaw that shutteth our mouth to the bright food of our soul? These, and such as these, are they which carry us out to burial.

But even at the last hour, when the hope of life hath been utterly extinguished, and the bodies of the dead are lying by the side of the grave, by the word of God those carcases live again, yea, arise and speak. Then doth Jesus deliver the son to his mother, for Jesus calleth him out of the grave, and delivereth him from death. O, what is the grave of the soul but a bad life? Sinner! thy grave is unbelief, and thy throat is a sepulchre! Even so is it written Their throat is an open sepulchre, Ps. v. ii, whereout breathe their pestilential words. Lo! Christ maketh thee free from that grave! If only thou wilt hear the word of God, thou shalt yet arise from that sepulchre! Yea, though thy sin be exceeding weighty, so that the tears of thine own sorrow cannot wash it away, let thy Mother the Church weep for thee, that longing Mother who weepeth for every one of her children as though he were the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Believe me, her spiritual anguish is keen like the anguish of nature, when she seeth her children dead in sin, and carried out to be buried for ever.

Evangeliet om den blindfødte, fra Johannes 9, er en sentral (om svært lang) tekst rundt 4. søndag i fasten. I den nye kalenderen brukes den på 4. søndag i år A, den kan også brukes på denne søndagen andre år (spesielt om noen voksne i menigheten forberedes til dåp i påskevigilien), og om den ikke brukes om søndagen, kan den leses på hvilken som helst dag uken etter. I den tradisjonelle kalenderen leses den i dag, onsdag etter fjerde søndag i fasten:

Evangelieteksten begynner slik (hele teksten kan leses her):

På den tid fikk Jesus øye på en mann som var blind fra fødselen av. Hans disipler spurte ham da: «Rabbi, når han er født blind, hvem er det da som har syndet, – han selv eller hans foreldre?» Jesus svarte: «Hverken han selv eller hans foreldre har syndet; han ble født slik for at Gud skulle få vise sin gjerning gjennom ham. Så lenge det er dag, må jeg arbeide for ham som har sendt meg, og utføre hans verk. Natten kommer; da kan ingen mer arbeide. Men så lenge jeg er i verden, er jeg dens lys.» Så med disse ord spyttet han på jorden, laget en søledeig med spyttet, og smurte deigen på hans øyne. Så sa han: «Gå og vask deg i Sjiloah-dammen.» (Sjiloah betyr «utsendt».) Han gikk da av sted og vasket seg, og kom seende tilbake. Naboene og de som hittil hadde vært vant til å se ham som tigger, sa da: «Er ikke dette han som satt og tigget?» Noen mente at det var ham; andre sa: «Nei, det er bare en som ligner ham.» Da sa han selv: «Jo, det er meg.» Så spurte de ham: «Hvordan gikk det til at dine øyne ble åpnet?» Han svarte: «Den mannen de kaller Jesus laget en deig av søle, som han smurte på øynene mine, og så sa han at jeg skulle gå ned i Sjiloah og vaske meg. Jeg gikk dit, og da jeg vasket meg, fikk jeg synet igjen.» «Og hvor er han nå?» spurte de. Han svarte: «Det vet jeg ikke.» …

Til matutin i de tradisjonelle tidebønnene leses denne betrakningen over teksten:

Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to John 9:1-38
In that time Jesus passing by, saw a man, who was blind from his birth. And so on.

Homily by St Augustin, Bishop of Hippo. – 44th Tract on John.
Dread and wondrous are all the things which our Lord Jesus Christ did, both His works and His words; the works, because He wrought them; the words, because they are deep. If, therefore, we consider the meaning of this work of His, we see that that man which was blind from his birth was a figure of mankind. This spiritual blindness was the consequence of the sin of the first man, from whom we all inherit by birth, not death only, but depravity also. For if blindness be unbelief, and faith, light, whom, when Christ came, did He find faithful? May, the Apostle who had himself been born of the race of which the Prophets came, saith We also were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Eph. ii. 3. And if children of wrath, then children also of vengeance, children of damnation, children of hell. And wherefore so by nature, unless it were that the sin of the first man had made all his descendants to be born in sin, in that they partook of his nature? If, then, our nature bring sin with it, all men, according to the spirit, are born blind.

The Lord came; and what did He? He set before us a great mystery. Jesus spat on the ground, and made clay of the Spittle for the Word was made flesh. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay but yet that man saw not. He was anointed, indeed, but yet still he saw not. And He said unto him Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam. Now, it was the duty of the Evangelist to impress upon us the name of this Pool, and therefore he saith Siloam, which is, by interpretation, Sent. Ye, my brethren, know Who is signified where it is written: (The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from his loins, until) He that shall be Sent cometh. Gen. xlix. 10. Yea, He it is, Who, if He had not been sent, we had never been sent loose out of the prison-house of sin. The blind man went his way therefore, and washed his eyes in that Pool, which is, by interpretation, Sent in other words, he was baptized in Christ. When, therefore, he had figuratively been baptized in Him Whom the Father hath Sent into the world he came seeing. When he was anointed, he was perchance made a figure of a Catechumen.

We have heard this great mystery. Ask of a man: Art thou a Christian? He answereth thee I am not. Then, if thou ask him: Art thou a pagan then, or a Jew? And he still saith unto thee Nay and thou say Art thou then a Catechumen, though not yet one of the faithful? and he saith Yea, a Catechumen then there thou seest a man anointed, but not yet washed. With what hath he been anointed? Ask of him, and he will tell thee. Ask of him in Whom he believeth, and, being a Catechumen, he will say: In Christ. But, behold, I speak before both Faithful and Catechumens. What said I touching the. Spittle and the clay? I said for ‘the Word was made flesh.’ This the Catechumens hear, but it is not enough for them to be anointed; they must make haste to the washing, if they would have their eyes opened.

Ja, faktisk, man vil på denne gledens fastesøndag kunne høre tre ulike evangelier – alle veldig kjente fortellinger – i katolske kirker rundt om i verden i dag.

De fleste steder vil man nok høre om den fortapte sønnen, den kjente teksten fra Lukas 15, som er evangeliet på 4. søndag i fasten år C. Dette evangeliet – og alle de andre tekstene i messen – kan leses her.

Men i den nye kalenderen er det også mulig å velge tekstene fra år A (spesielt om man har voksne katekumener som forberedes til dåp påskenatt) denne dagen. Da leser man den kjente fortellingen om den blindfødte fra Johannes 9. Denne teksten kan leses her.

Går man i en tradisjonell latinske messe, hører man den ikkemindre kjente teksten fra Johannes 6 om brødunderet. Denne teksten – og resten av messens tekster – kan man lese her.

Som vanlig leser man til matutin (i de tradisjonelle tidebønnene) en kommentar til søndagens evangelium, og slik leser vi i 3. lesning i dagens matutin:

From the Holy Gospel according to John (6:1-15)
In that time Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And so on ….

Homily by St Augustin, Bishop of Hippo. 24th Tract on John.
The miracles which our Lord Jesus Christ did were the very works of God, and they enlighten the mind of man by mean of things which are seen, that he may know more of God. God is Himself of such a Substance as eye cannot see, and the miracles, by the which He ruleth the whole world continually, and satisfieth the need of everything that He hath made, are by use become so common, that scarce any will vouchsafe to see that there are wonderful and amazing works of God in every grain of seed of grass. According to His mercy He kept some works to be done in their due season, but out of the common course and order of nature, that men might see them and be astonished, not because they are greater, but because they are rarer than those which they lightly esteem, since they see them day by day.

I Prim-bønnen 4. februar leste vi slik om neste dags helgener (man forberedes på dem dagen før):

February 5th anno Domini 2013 The 23rd Day of Moon were born into the better life

At Catania, in Sicily, (in the year 251) the holy Virgin and martyr Agatha. In the time of the Emperor Decius, under the Judge Quinctian, she endured buffeting and imprisonment, racking and torments. Her breasts were cut off, and she was rolled upon potsherds and coals, and at last died in prison, in prayer to God.

In Pontus, are commemorated very many holy martyrs in the persecution under the Emperor Maximian, (fourth century.) Some had molten lead poured upon them, some were tortured by having sharp reeds thrust under their nails, and were tormented with many most grievous sufferings, which were renewed again and again, and so by their illustrious passion earned palms and crowns from the Lord.

At Alexandria, the holy martyr Isidore, who in the persecution under the Emperor Decius was beheaded by Numerian, chief of the army, for Christ’s faith’s sake.

In the empire of Japan, [in the year 1597] twenty-six holy martyrs, [some Franciscans, some their pupils, and three Jesuits killed at Naugazaki,] who were crucified, and then died gloriously, transfixed with spears, while they were praising God and proclaiming His Gospel, whose names were enrolled among those of the saints by the supreme Pontiff Pius IX.

At Vienne, (in Dauphiny,) the blessed Confessor Avitus, (in the year 525,) Bishop of that see, by whose faith, labour, and wonderful teaching Gaul was shielded against the Arian heresy.

At Brixen, holy Genuinus, (or Ingenuinus, in the year 640,) Bishop (of Siben, in the Tyrol,) and Albinus, (in the year 1015,) Bishop [of Brixen,] whose lives were rendered glorious by miracles.

Den hellige Agatha feires 5. februar i både den tradisjonelle og den nye kalenderen, mens Japans martyrer er flyttet til neste dag – fra katolsk.no:

De 26 martyrene ble tidligere feiret på dødsdagen 5. februar. I lang tid ble de feiret hovedsakelig i Japan og blant jesuitter og fransiskanere, men i 1970 ble minnedagen tatt inn i den reviderte romerske kalenderen som de første martyrene fra det fjerne østen. Minnedagen ble da flyttet til 6. februar, siden dødsdagen 5. februar er opptatt av den hellige Agathe. Deres navn står i Martyrologium Romanum.