Part 5 (2/2)

Vesper hymn for Eastertide, from the Breviary.

Advent 9 3 guidance of the Church by G.o.d the Holy Spirit. They are refreshed by water from the Rock, which Moses struck with his rod, typifying the sacrament of Baptism, They are fed upon the mysterious Manna, the bread from Heaven, which is the foreshadowing of the Host, the consecrated Bread of the Ma.s.s. They are taught by the Law revealed by Gad to Moses upon Mount Sinai, and in its turn the Church is taught by the doctrine of Christ delivered in the Sermon on the Mount.'

The next great group of typological symbols is connected with David, conqueror of Jerusalem, who unified and stabilized the tribes of Israel as a single kingdom after many years of struggle and strife in their new homeland. As David was the founder of the earthly kingdom of Israel, so Christ is the founder of the heavenly kingdom, the fulfilment of the Hebrew hope for the Messiah who would restore the glories of the days of David. Hence the Christ, as duly prophesied, was born of the line of David in Bethlehem (”House of Bread”) where David himself was born.2 The Father of David was the shepherd Jesse, of whom the prophet said, in a later day,

There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots:

and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.3 And with an illuminating pun the Church takes up the theme in the Missal Virgo Jesse Yoruit: Virgo Deum et hominem genuit: pacem Deus reddidit, in se reconcilians ima summis.

1 For the wanderings, see Exodus x6-4o, Deuteronomy x, 2, 3 and 34. Entry into the Promised Land, Joshua x-5. Incidentally, Joshua, who in the end leads the people into the Promised Land, is the Hebrew form of the Greek name J.

esus.

2 x Samuel 16: x-13. 2 Isaiah Ix: x-2.

94 Myth and Ritual in Christianity The verge of Jesse hath blossomed: A virgin hath brought forth G.o.d and man: G.o.d hath restored peace, reconciling in himself the highest with the lowest.'

Naturally, David's victory over the Philistine giant, Goliath, is likened to Christ's triumph over Satan,2 the fact that he was originally a shepherd boy makes him a type of the Good Shepherd, his power of healing with music pre, figures Christ the Healer,3 and his eventual setting up of the Throne of Israel in Jerusalem makes him the type of Christ the King, who reigns enthroned in the New Jerusalem on high.4 Other figures and events from the Old Testament playing an important part in this scheme of typology may be listed briefly as follows: TYPE.

The a.s.sumption of Elijah the Prophet; 5 The miracles of the Prophet Elisha: The multiplication of the widow's oils Raising the Shunamite's son'

Jonah and the Whales The deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed,nego in the furnaces Susanna and the Elders1 Tobias and the Fishll MYSTERY.

The Ascension of Christ

[fishes The miracle of loaves and The raising of Lazarus

The Death and Resurrection

Salvation from h.e.l.l

Persecution of the Church

by the Jews and Pagans

The Healing Christ The juxtaposition of the Old Testament type and the New Testament mystery was always a favourite convention of 1 Annunciation S.V.M. The Alleluia when 2 Samuel 17.

4 2 Samuel S: 6-12. a Revelation 3: 12. 62 Kings4 '2Kings 4:8--37.

9 71..t.' , 10 Cs At o - / -- - the Feast is in Paschaltide.

s I Samuel 16: 14-23. 5 2 Kings 2: 8-13.

sJonah 1 and 2.

Christian an, as when the opposite walls of a nave would be painted with the related scenes from the two Testaments. Often they were represented side.by.side in double panels of stained gla.s.s, or worked together into the design of initial ornaments in illuminated ma.n.u.scripts.

A more general typology than this symbolism of particular events was connected with the two great Old Testament inst.i.tutions of Sacrifice and the Law-inst.i.tutions embodying the promise but not the fact of salvation. In the Old Testament the selfoffering of man to G.o.d represented in the burning of bulls and goats upon the altar was, from the Christian standpoint, an ineffectual shadow of the only offering which can restore human nature to its proper union with G.o.d. For the perverted human will cannot make a genuine surrender of itself to the divine will, so that there can be no true sacrifice unless G.o.d himself enters into man, and, as man, makes the ”full, perfect, and sufficient” sacrifice which was consummated in the death of the G.o.deman upon the Cross. Similarly, the Law given to Moses is one which the human will is in. capable of obeying. It serves only to ”convict man of sin” by setting a standard to which he fails to attain. Thus in the new covenant of the Christian dispensation the ancient sacrifices are replaced by the Crucifixion, of which the Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s is a continuing reecollection,) and the Law gives way to the mystery of Grace, the power of G.o.d which enables the human will to perform works beyond its own capacity.

Because this long, long epoch of types and shadows ems bodies the promise, and man's expectation, of a Redeemer, the liturgy of the Advent season refers again and again to ”captive Israel”, to ”the people that walked in darkness”, and their 1 Anamnesis, usually translated as ”memory”, ”memorial”, or ”recollection”, is no mere reminder of a chronologically past event. Strictly speaking, anamnesis is much more than the simple sign of a fact distant (in time) from itself; it is rather the actual ”recollection” of a truth which eternally is, so that to recollect the sacrifice of Christ is to make it really and effectively present.

gb Myth and Ritual in Christianity hope of deliverance. This is the theme of the great Advent hymn Veni Emmanuel 0 come, 0 come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel, Which mourns in lowly exile here, Until the Son of G.o.d appear.

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