NOVEMBER 12, 2017
3:00 PM EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASS
Oh why is heaven built so far,Thus begins the four-stanza poem by the Victorian era poet Christina Rosetti, who died six years before the end of the nineteenth century. This poem is titled De Profundis – Latin for "Out of the depths."
Oh why is earth set so remote?
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat.
Twice in today’s liturgy, the first lines of the De Profundis – more properly Psalm 129 (130) – are intoned: during the Alleluia verse, and in the Offertorio.
Many poets and authors have paraphrased or interpreted this text – more often than not in a spirit of despair … during a period of personal darkness or loss.
Yet today’s Mass texts and readings call us to greater perseverance and increased hope.
The Introit is from Jeremiah 29, a verse often misused and misinterpreted. The gist being that God has banished Israel to captivity in Bablyon for 70 years, and yet the Almighty proclaims that this shall pass. Awkwardly, this verse pops up on graduation cards as a declaration of a bright future. Yet the context here is of a lengthy exile … followed by a return.
In the Epistle, St. Paul gives the Christians in Philipi a choice between the Spirit or the Flesh. One is freedom, one is exile. Yet the world often portrays the license of the Flesh to be a type of freedom. But this is deceptive. True freedom is found in Christ Jesus … in the joy and the victory of heaven. We must be careful not to treat this “vale of tears” as our final destination.
The Gospel from St. Matthew chapter 9, gives us two images of our salvation. In the first, a woman with a hemorrhage is healed by the mere touch of Our Lord. For the ancients, blood was life; and the loss of blood was the loss of life. The disease that plagued this poor soul for twelve years was a slow leaking out of life … a rather graphic image of the loss of grace – when one may ignore its divine benefits and allow it to be depleted by dis-ease … either through sin or neglect.
And in the raising of the young girl, Our Lord shows Himself as Master of both life and death – being first mocked by the mourners, whose disdain turns to amazement at the restoration of life to the dead child.
Out of the depths … Out of the depths … we cry out to God for Salvation … in the midst of our earthly exile God hears our cries … and reaches out with salvation.
No matter ones condition – saint, or sinner – Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered death, both spiritual and physical. We must never tire of crying out to Him for the graces we need for salvation … for saving … from sin … from the world … from ourselves.
Rosetti’s poem ends:
For I am bound with fleshly bands,As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us call out to Christ to save us. Let us recognize the limitations of our earthly existence, and by the manifold graces of Holy Baptism and all the Sacraments let us “catch at hope.” For it is through perseverance in Faith, Hope, and Charity that we can rise out of the depths … and imitate both Christ and the Saints … to be transformed from the despair of the flesh into the glory of salvation … and eternity … in heaven.
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.
