Maxwell E. Johnson - Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year

John F. Baldovin, S.J.

Paul F. Bradshaw

Martin J. Connell

Maxwell E. Johnson

Catherine Mowry LaCugna

Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B.

H. Boone Porter

Patrick Regan, O.S.B.

Susan K. Roll

Mark Searle

Robert F. Taft, S.J.

Thomas J. Talley

James F. White

Gabriele Winkler

A Pueblo Book published by Liturgical Press

Design by Frank Kacmarcik, Obl.S.B.

2000 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any retrieval system, without the written permission of Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 56321. Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN 978-0-8146-6282-3 (e-book)
ISBN 13: 978-0-8146-6025-6
ISBN 10: 0-8146-6025-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Between memory and hope : readings on the liturgical year / John F. Baldovin [et al.]; edited by Maxwell E. Johnson
p. cm.
A Pueblo book.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8146-6025-8 (alk. paper)
1. Church yearHistory. 2. Catholic ChurchLiturgyHistory.
I. Baldovin, John Francis. II. Johnson, Maxwell E., 1952
BV30 .B49 2000
263.9dc21

00-042844

Maxwell E. Johnson
Introduction

Robert F. Taft, S.J.
1. The Liturgical Year: Studies, Prospects, Reflections

Thomas J. Talley
2. Liturgical Time in the Ancient Church: The State of Research

H. Boone Porter
3. Day of the Lord: Day of Mystery

Mark Searle
4. Sunday: The Heart of the Liturgical Year

Robert F. Taft, S.J.
5. The Frequency of the Celebration of the Eucharist Throughout History

Thomas J. Talley
6. History and Eschatology in the Primitive Pascha

Paul F. Bradshaw
7. The Origins of Easter

Patrick Regan, O.S.B.
8. The Three Days and the Forty Days

Patrick Regan, O.S.B.
9. Veneration of the Cross

Robert F. Taft, S.J.
10. Holy Week in the Byzantine Tradition

Thomas J. Talley
11. The Origin of Lent at Alexandria

Maxwell E. Johnson
12. Preparation for Pascha? Lent in Christian Antiquity

Patrick Regan, O.S.B.
13. The Fifty Days and the Fiftieth Day

Catherine Mowry LaCugna
14. Making the Most of Trinity Sunday

Thomas J. Talley
15. Constantine and Christmas

Susan K. Roll
16. The Origins of Christmas: The State of the Question

Gabriele Winkler
17. The Appearance of the Light at the Baptism of Jesus
and the Origins of the Feast of Epiphany:
An Investigation of Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Latin Sources

Martin J. Connell
18. The Origins and Evolution of Advent in the West

John F. Baldovin, S.J.
19. On Feasting the Saints

Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B.
20. The Marian Liturgical Tradition

James F. White
21. Forgetting and Remembering the Saints

Maxwell E. Johnson
22. The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary:
A Lutheran Reflection

John F. Baldovin, S.J.
23. The Liturgical Year: Calendar for a Just Community

J OHN F. B ALDOVIN, S.J. , is professor of liturgy, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

P AUL F. B RADSHAW is professor of liturgy, University of Notre Dame.

M ARTIN J. C ONNELL is assistant professor of liturgy, School and Department of Theology, St. Johns University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

M AXWELL E. J OHNSON is associate professor of liturgy, University of Notre Dame.

C ATHERINE M OWRY L ACUGNA (+ 1997) was professor of theology, University of Notre Dame.

K ILIAN M C D ONNELL, O.S.B. , is founder and president of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, St. Johns Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

H. B OONE P ORTER (+ 1999) was the first professor of liturgics (1960), The General Theological Seminary, New York City.

P ATRICK R EGAN, O.S.B. , is abbot of St. Josephs Abbey, St. Benedict, Louisiana.

S USAN K. R OLL is associate professor of liturgy, Christ the King Seminary, Buffalo, New York.

M ARK S EARLE (+ 1992) was associate professor of liturgy, University of Notre Dame.

R OBERT F. T AFT, S.J. , is professor of eastern liturgy and vice-rector, the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

T HOMAS J. T ALLEY (retired) was professor of liturgics, The General Theological Seminary, New York City.

J AMES F. W HITE (retired) is professor emeritus of liturgy, University of Notre Dame.

G ABRIELE W INKLER holds the Lehrstuhle in Liturgiewissenschaft at the University of Tbingen.

At the conclusion of his 1982 essay History and Eschatology in the Primitive Pascha Thomas Talley writes: We always live between marana tha, that prayer for the coming of the Lord which is somehow already a shout of greeting, and maran atha, the confession that the Lord has come, a focus on the ephapax of Gods ultimate act in history. We always live, this is to say, between memory and hope, between his coming and his coming; and the present which is the threshold between these, between memory and hope, between past and future, this present is the locus of the presence of him who is at once Lord of history and its consummation. The remembrance of his passion and the recognition of his glory are integral to one another, and have been from the beginning.

Between memory and hope, between past and future. If all liturgy occurs precisely at the intersection of these two poles, the liturgical year belongs especially here as by means of its , Pentecost, and through the lives of his saints throughout the ages.

The liturgical year is one important means by which we are allowed, invited, and privileged to celebrate the reality that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, mediated to us by Word, Sacrament, and community declares us, forms us, and calls us to be Easter people, Lenten people, Christmas people, Advent people, and members of the communion of saints, who live in hope and expectation for the Day of His Coming. The liturgical year thus celebrates precisely our

Similarly, the one

This ecumenical anthology of essays is intended, primarily, as a supplementary textbook for seminary and graduate-level courses on the evolution and theological interpretation of the liturgical year to accompany those books which have become standard works in the field (e.g., Thomas Talleys The Origins of the Liturgical YearLent, and, finally, the season and feast of Pentecost, including the rather late appearing idea feast of the Trinity. Essays dealing with the origins of Christmas and Epiphany and the later development of Advent appear next. And, although, strictly speaking, the origins of the sanctoral cycle, especially the cult and feasts of martyrs, antedate historically many of the other more central feasts and seasons in the calendar, essays on feasts of Mary and the saints form the concluding unit of this collection.

From my own now several years experience of teaching courses in the liturgical year on the graduate level, I have adopted a five-fold approach to the topic. After an introductory unit on the liturgical year and its theology in general, I call the first major unit From Sabbath to Sunday, the second From Passover to , the third From Pascha to Parousia, with the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany understood not as historicized commemorations of Jesus birth, but as the celebration of incarnation, and the revelation or manifestation of salvation and his parousia or coming again at the close of the age, and the fourth, From Pascha to Persons, as the mystery of Christ, crucified and risen, is reflected in the lives of holy men and women throughout the ages. This structural outline is employed in the overall organization of this collection as follows: