by CCW | 18 December 2019 09:00
Part One:
Advent is the season of anticipation, of an awakening to God as Word and Light coming to us in the darkness of the year and in the darkness of our souls. In a way it is a wonderful pageant or parade of Word and Song which is intended to awaken us and to enfold us in the power and wonder of the Divine Word coming to us and ultimately dwelling with us in the intimacy of Christ’s incarnation, literally “the Word made flesh”. The word ‘advent’ means the ‘coming towards’ us, ad venio, of God and thus to his being with us. “O come, O come, Emmanuel”.
The Psalms are a critical feature of our liturgy and hymnody. And there are as well the various Antiphons, scriptural sentences, that are used with purpose to highlight certain seasonal themes, most poignantly, it seems to me in what are known as the Great ‘O’ Antiphons of Advent used with the Magnificat at Evening Prayer from December 16th to the 23rd, originally omitting St. Thomas’ Day on the 21st and adding later “O Virgo Virginum”. The Advent Antiphons anticipate with increasing intensity and expectation the meaning of Christ’s coming as the Babe of Bethlehem and the Crucified Lord of Calvary, as God and Man, as Lord and Saviour. They draw upon a rich range of imagery from the Hebrew Scriptures just as the Psalms, themselves a digest of the Hebrew Scriptures, are used to deepen our understanding of our life in Christ in the liturgy.
The Psalms of David are the Prayer Book and Hymnal of both Jews and Christians alike. Classified in the Jewish understanding as one of the Writings, as distinct from the Law and the Prophets, the Psalms embrace a wide range of poetic forms of expression. The Psalter serves as a way of praying the Scriptures. The Antiphons serve as an interpretive matrix for our reading and understanding of the Scriptures and the liturgical canticles, particularly, the Magnificat, as bracketed by the “O” Antiphons in Advent.
Among the many treatises of Augustine, one of the most instructive devotionally is his Enarrations or Expositions on the Book of Psalms. For the English reader, it was only translated in the 19th century as part of the project of recovering the Patristic heritage of the Church, an interest both in England and on the continent. E.B. Pusey, one of the outstanding figures of the Oxford Movement, provided in December of 1857 an advertisement for the translation into English of Augustine’s work on the Psalms. As he remarks,
St. Augustine was so impressed with the sense of the depth of Holy Scripture, that when it seems to him, on the surface, plainest, then he is the more assured of its hidden depth. True to this belief, St. Augustin pressed out word by word of Holy Scripture, and that, always in dependence on the inward teaching of God the Holy Ghost who wrote it, until he had extracted some fullness of meaning from it. More also, perhaps, than any other work of St. Augustin, this commentary abounds in those condensed statements of doctrinal and practical truth which are so instructive, because at once so comprehensive and so accurate.
This doctrinal and practical sensibility about the Psalms means that they are read in the light of a certain theology of Revelation. They are not read as a mine of historical information and they are not read ‘critically’ as that term has come to be used by the schools of biblical and historical criticism, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are read with a certain insight into the nature of scriptural revelation philosophically considered. In Augustine’s case, they are read from a Christian perspective as bearing constant testimony to Jesus as the fulfilling of the Law and as divine Truth present with us.
What this means is an emphasis on a multi-layered approach to the reading of the Psalms: allegorical, moral, and mystical. It means a way of reading the Psalms that identifies different voices: the voice of Christ, the voice of the human soul, the voice of the Church. As Augustine remarks on Psalm 139: “Our Lord Jesus Christ speaketh in the Prophets, sometimes in His own Name, sometimes in ours, because He maketh himself one with us.” The Psalms are seen through the lenses of the doctrine of the Incarnation and with constant reference to the doctrine of the Trinity and to various aspects of the doctrine of Redemption, particularly, the passion and resurrection of Christ.
The Christian Church inherited the Psalms and their use in prayer and praise from the Jewish Synagogue but saw in them the figure of Christ as the fulfillment of the Jewish hopes and expectations and sensibilities about the Law, the Torah. As such the use of the Psalms in the early Church is really part and parcel of the development of Christian doctrine but in a critical relation to the developments within late Judaism.
The task of defining and working out the nature of Christian doctrine was the great achievement of the Patristic Period. Augustine is a seminal figure with respect to that accomplishment. His treatment of the Psalms is a kind of summing up of much of the Patristic development, particularly in its Western and Latin expressions.
The treatment of the Psalms belongs to Augustine’s life and work as a preacher and pastor, to his teaching ministry, as it were. Contained in his reflections on the Psalms is a form of doctrine in devotion. As Pusey suggests, “the condensed statements of doctrinal and practical truth” that his commentary presents is “so instructive, because at once so comprehensive and so accurate,” accurate that is to say within the interpretative framework of credal doctrine. Almost all of the Enarrations were sermons and they have that sense of immediacy and topicality. In Augustine’s view, they all speak of God and Christ, of Christ and the Soul, and of Christ and the Church.
Among the Psalms that are used liturgically in the Church during the season of Advent is Psalm 80. This is, I think, the only Psalm that Augustine explicitly calls a Song of the Advent. “The song here is of the Advent of the Lord and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His vineyard,” an image of the Church. A few selections from his commentary on this Psalm give a sense for his voice and for the flavor of his argument about praying the Psalms.
Augustine used, for the most part, the Old Latin version of the Psalter which had been translated from the Greek Septuagint. At the same time, Jerome was translating from the Hebrew as well. Jerome’s translations of the Psalms from the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew would both remain in use in the Latin West. A feature of the version Augustine used were interpretative titles to the Psalms to which Augustine often referred in his exegesis. Psalm 80 in his version is titled: “For the end in behalf of them that shall be changed,” to which Augustine adds, “for the better.” For, as he says, “Christ, the end of the Law, hath come on purpose that He should change men for the better.” This Psalm “confess[es] both Christ and the vineyard; that is, Head and Body, King and people, Shepherd and flock, and the entire mystery of all Scriptures, Christ and the Church.”
Commenting on the first verse, “Thou that feedest Israel, hearken, Thou that conducteth [leadeth] Joseph like sheep,” and “thou that sittest upon the Cherubin,” he remarks on the name Joseph which as he says “signifieth increase” and on the Cherubin, one of the order of Angels, as “the seat of the glory of God and is interpreted as the fullness of knowledge.”
There God sits in the fullness of knowledge. Though we understand the Cherubin to be the exalted powers and virtues of the heavens: yet, if you will, you will be Cherubin. For if Cherubin is the seat of God, hear what the Scripture says: “The soul of a just man is the seat of wisdom.” How, you say, shall I be the fullness of knowledge? Who shall fulfill this? You have the means of fulfilling it: “The fullness of the Law is love.” Do not run after many things, and strain yourself. The amplitude of the branches terrifies you: hold by the root, and of the greatness of the tree think not. Be there in you love, and the fullness of knowledge must follow. For what does he not know that knows love? Inasmuch as it hath been said, “God is love.”
He speaks about those twin qualities of love and knowledge as belonging to what the Advent of Christ brings to our humanity, namely, the perfection of those divine qualities in us. “O God, convert us,” as Augustine’s psalter puts it. In the Latin, that turning is, of course, conversion, our being turned to God in whom we find the fullness of knowledge and love. As he observes, “For averse we have been from Thee, and except Thou convert us, we shall not be converted.” By God’s turning to us and looking upon us, we shall be turned and made whole. Advent is about our turning to God because God has turned to us in Jesus Christ. Augustine’s commentary shows us something of the dynamic of prayer as doctrine in devotion by way of the stirring of hearts and the enlightening of minds.
Part Two:
Along with the Psalms, the Great ‘O’ Antiphons of Advent, the Advent Prose, and the wonderful 12th century Advent carol, Veni Emmanuel, which itself is a commentary on the Great ‘O’ Antiphons, contribute to the preparatory and anticipatory nature of the Advent season and its doctrinal significance. The Antiphons in particular illustrate the ways in which Scripture is used liturgically, credally, and devotionally; in short, a way of praying the Scriptures as the living Word of God coming to us as Light and Grace. The Antiphons themselves are all drawn from various scriptural passages that are seen as contributing to an understanding of Christ.
The classical Prayer Book calendar retained not only a number of non-biblical Marian feast days but also other devotional and doctrinal traditions such as the Great ‘O’ Antiphons whose origins are probably eighth century. In the Prayer Book, December 16th designates “O Sapientia” for commemoration and in so doing points us to the whole tradition of the Great ‘O’ Antiphons. It is a curious but an arresting and intriguing feature of the Common Prayer tradition. Our 1962 Canadian Prayer Book adds as explanation: “An ancient Advent anthem for commemoration.” Not a saint. Not a biblical event, but a clear reference to a doctrinal and devotional practice that belongs to the rich and varied forms of medieval liturgy, in this case, most likely drawn from the Sarum Rite.
The first of the ‘O’ Antiphons derives from the apocryphal book of Jesu ben Sirach or Ecclesiasticus. It is one of the books which belong to the category of Wisdom literature. The Antiphon begins with an almost direct quote from Wisdom about Wisdom having “come out of the mouth of the most high” as well as the famous passage from the Wisdom of Solomon about wisdom “reaching from one end to another mightily: and sweetly doth she order all things.” It is an important passage in the literature of consolation, for instance, in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy.
Each of the Antiphons invokes Christ by way of certain Scriptural attributes: Wisdom; Lord; Root of Jesse; Key of David; Dawning brightness or dayspring of light; King of Nations; and, of course, Emmanuel. They are all terms attributed to God and to Christ in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.
As with all of the Antiphons, except “O Virgo Virginum”, they end with the invocation, “Come” in which those attributes of divinity are applied to us. For example in the “O Sapientia,” after rehearsing the Scriptural references to Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, the invocation is for Christ as Wisdom to “Come and teach us the way of prudence.” Prudence is one of the four classical virtues and refers to practical wisdom. The Antiphons seek the application of these divine attributes to us in the pilgrimage of Advent.
The second Great ‘O’ Antiphon draws upon the Greek word, Adonai, meaning Lord but in reference to Christ as Lord with the remarkable and strong association with the story of the Burning Bush where God reveals himself to Moses as “I am Who I am.” In John’s Gospel, the so-called seven “I am” sayings of Jesus intend to make that same connection between Christ and God and to the pageant of redemption. The references are from Exodus and from John.
The third Antiphon invokes the story of David, the son of Jesse, and to Isaiah’s prophecy about a saviour king coming out of the Davidic lineage understood to be fulfilled in Jesus’ human or family line. The biblical passages that inform the Antiphon are drawn from Isaiah and The Book of The Revelation of St. John the Divine.. The fourth Antiphon also draws explicitly upon Isaiah and Revelation in the image of Christ as the Key of David, the one who unlocks the door to the kingdom and liberates those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, another powerful image from Isaiah.
The fifth Antiphon picks up directly on the theme of light that has been assumed in the previous Antiphons: Wisdom as light; Lord as revealed in the burning bush, a flame of fire; Root of Jesse as an ensign of the people; Key of David unlocking the prisoners from the prison-house of darkness and bringing them into the light. Here Christ is spoken of as the Sun and Light, whose coming is enlightenment, referencing again Isaiah’s prophecy about liberation from sin and darkness.
The sixth Antiphon speaks of Christ more universally as the King of Nations and the Desire of Nations, meaning all peoples, a theme taken from the prophet Haggai but married to the idea of Christ as the Cornerstone upon whom the Church as body and temple depends.
The seventh Antiphon, traditionally the last, invokes Jesus Christ as Emmanuel drawing upon Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 7.14 as well as building upon the previous Antiphon. It alludes as well to Matthew’s explication of Isaiah’s use of the name Emmanuel, “which being interpreted is, God with us.” Thus the Antiphons provide a rich and thoughtful reflection upon the truth of God coming to us through the witness of the Scriptures to Christ as the one in whom all these images find the fulness of meaning.
The eighth Great ‘O’ Antiphon is a later addition, a reminder to us of the rather fluid character of medieval liturgical practices which varied from place to place. It serves, however, as a wonderful testament to the underlying theme of Advent about the coming of God to us in Jesus Christ through the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is about the gathering up of all these images into the unity of Christ as Emmanuel, God with us who is essentially God with God. “This thing which ye behold,” the Antiphon proclaims, “is divine.” “That holy thing which shall be born of thee,” as the Angel Gabriel says to Mary at the Annunciation, “shall be called the Son of God.”
The sense of anticipation and indeed the heightening of anticipation is also signalled in the conceit that the Antiphons in their reverse order starting with “O Emmanuel” form an acrostic, ERO CRAS meaning “I will be there tomorrow,” even as the Antiphons bring us to Christmas Eve and so to Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.
Fr. David Curry
Advent Programme: Psalms & Antiphons of Advent, 2019
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