Septuagesima
“They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”
James B. Janknegt’s contemporary (2009) depiction of The Boy Jesus in the Temple mimics some elements of the classic iconographic style with a decidedly modern interpretation of the scene. The boy Jesus is depicted as a young adult of our times — indeed, a student, seated at a desk. The figures around him resemble Einstein, Freud, Marx, and Darwin, imagined as high priests of our secular age. Yet in the midst of their fashionable philosophies, Jesus gestures to the grandeur of God and the bigness of the universe, both illuminated by the Divine Light, and emitting it from within.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who live accordingly.
— Ps 111:10
Three Sundays before Lent - Septuagesima
Texts for this Week
Prayer
O God, you know that we are set in the midst of many grave dangers, and because of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant that your strength and protection may support us in all dangers and carry us through every temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Sorrows of Death Compassed Me …
At the liturgical revisions of the mid-20th C, Gesimatide was effectively removed from the Western calendar, but the rich prelenten traditions should not be forgotten — even and especially as we’re in the midst of this ongoing-cum-never ending sociocultural Lent of the pandemic!
The historic introit in the Latin mass for this Sunday — Circumdederunt me — drew from those Psalm 18, evocative also of Jonah’s hymn, and verses from the 116th Psalm.
The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple. V. I will love you , O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer.
A portion of this same text is used as the Antiphon in the Office of the Dead, and in that capacity, has polyphonic settings like de Morales’s darkly hopeful rendering featured here, or Byrd’s characteristically impeccable rendering (of which Ben Inman’s quarantine recording seems to fit the mood, even if there are better recordings). The plain vanilla Gregorian chant of the introit, however, is perfectly powerful for the purpose. You can even hear it chanted (with subtle Lutheran inflection) in English!
