is taken from, and can be read in full at,
THE HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY
“Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his Bishopric let another take.” (Acts 1:20)The Prince of the Apostles first quotes Verse 26 of Psalm 69 which is one of the many verses of various Psalms that were omitted in the modern Liturgy of the Hours, and, secondly, Verse 8 of Psalm 108, which is one of the three Psalms that were omitted in their entirety. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours explains that “Such omissions are made because of certain psychological difficulties” (n.131) I hope that you did not become depressed or neurotic during the Epistle.
St Peter applies these verses to Judas because He betrayed Our Lord. He then explains to the 120 or so men and women, including the apostles and Our Lady, that they must choose someone to take his place. The reason is found in the Communion verse of the Mass:
“You who have followed Me shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Like the other marks of the Church, universality is both part of the Church from the beginning: nobody in the world is excluded from the Church, and it is not yet achieved: there are many people in the world who are not part of the Church.
The missionary urgency of the Church has been lost, to some extent, in our time. Some people might justify this by an appeal to Vatican II, but in fact, the Decree Ad Gentes on the Missionary Activity of the Church reminded us that Our Lord confirmed the necessity of the Church into which we enter by Baptism as by a door. The Council Fathers then taught,
“Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it. Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity.” (Ad Gentes 7)
St Matthias was chosen as a witness of the resurrection of Our Lord, in order to make up the number of the apostles and so to complete the sign of their universal mission. He reminds us of the duty to proclaim the Catholic faith to all.
Saint Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome before he was finally taken there under guard. He gave thanks to God for their faith which was already known throughout the world and told them that he was ready to preach to them. When we think of the little that we manage to do for the spread of the faith, we should thrill at his confidence, take heart from his courage, and make his words our own: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” (Rom 1:16)
PICTURE CREDIT: Wikimedia.
Saint Matthias by Simone Martini (c.1317-1319)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.
Very interesting, as always, Zephyrinus.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the 3 so-called “imprecatory psalms” (Ps. 58, 83, 109 in the “New” breviary), even though they are harsh and not to be adopted as the Christian point of you, they are certainly appropriate from gods point of view of Final Judgment of the unrepentant wicked. The first time I know of them being deleted and other verses being altered or removed was an edition of the Psalms in Latin and English ca. 1950 published by Card. Augustin Bea (one of the “luminaries” of Vat.2) of the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, obviously a persuasive piece arguing for a “new Psalter.”
As you know, at what point do we start deleting everything from Sacred Scripture that offends “our refined modern sensibilities” or creates for us “psychological problems?”
Very good observations and Comments. Thank You, Dante Peregrinus.
ReplyDeleteThe one fundamental weakness of the totally-flawed Modernism, which was rampant throughout The Church, Post Vatican II, is, of course, that it only TOOK AWAY. It never GAVE.
Excellent point. Instead of building on the structure of Tradition, it demolished or removed from it.
DeleteExcellent point. Instead of building on the structure of Tradition, it demolished or removed from it.
Delete