Saturday, March 7, 2009

"die innere Bereitmachung der Kirche—notfalls auch für das Blutzeugnis"

Source
"the inner making-ready of the Churchfor even martyrdom if necessary"

     Ignaz Zangerle (1905-1987), "Zur Situation der Kirche," Der Brenner 14 (1933-1934): 67-68. Inner, i.e. mystical, supra-juridical: that getting ready, that girding-up so consistent with what the Church is at heart and out of sight, i.e. to the eyes of faith alone. Note the place (Austria) and time.

Pseudo-Epiphanius on Holy Saturday

"Arise, O work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image.  Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person . . . now I myself am united to you, I who am [the] life."

Ἀνάστα, πλάσμα τὸ ἐμὸν, ἀνάστα, μορφὴ ἡ ἐμὴ, καὶ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἐμὴν γεγενημένη.  Ἔγειρε, ἄγωμεν ἐντεῦθεν·  σὺ γὰρ ἐν ἐμοὶ, κἀγὼ ἐν σοὶ, ἓν καὶ ἀδιαίρετον ὑπάρχοεμν πρόσωπον· . . . ἀλλ᾿ ἰδοὺ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ ἡνώθην σοι ἡ ζωή.

     Dindorf, p. 27, ll. 12, ff. =PG 43, col. 461B-C =Pseudo-Epiphanius, Homilia in diuini corporis sepulturam (In Sabbato magno, Homily for the Great and Holy Saturday, Ancient homily on Holy Saturday, The Lord's descent into Hades, On the burial of the divine body, Homily on the burial of Jesus, etc.), as quoted out of the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday by Jean-Pierre Batut, "Praying to the Father through the Son in the Spirit: reflections on the specificity of Christian prayer," trans. Michelle K. Borras, Communio: the international Catholic review 36, no. 4 (Winter 2009): 642 (623-642).  This is CPG 3768 (vol. 2 (1974), pp. 333-334) =BHGn 808e =PG 43, cols. 440-464.  See also here.  CPG 3768 lists no complete English translation (ditto Adam C. McCollum), though there there is a French translation of the Versio palaeo-slauica in A. Vaillant, L’homélie d’Épiphane sur l’ensevelissement du Christ:  Texte vieux-slave, texte grec et traductionfrançaise (Zagreb:  1958), which has been placed online.  But see The Lamentations of matins of Holy and Great Saturday; and also An homily on the burial of the Divine Body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on Joseph of Arimathaea, and on the Lord's descent into Hades which, after his saving passion, wondrously ensued on the Holy and Great Saturday (Boston:  Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Brookline, MA), 1981).  See also the English-language excerpts in de Lubac's Catholicism (New York: Sheed and Ward Inc., 1958)), pp. 251 ff.  According to Vaillant (p. 8), writing in 1958, the best modern edition is that ed. Wilhelm Dindorf (who did not think that the labor associated with the creation of a truly critical edition would be worth the while, but nevertheless emended the text reproduced in PG 43 at some points):  Epiphanii episcopi Constantiae opera (Leipzig, 1859-1862), vol. IV, pt. 2, Pseudo-Epiphanii homiliae, pp. 9-29, and Annotationes, pp. 90-101.

"[Dindorf, p. 9, l. 16:] Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and . . . has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with himHe who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . . [Dindorf, p. 27, l. 5:] 'I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . . [Dindorf, p. 27, l. 9:] I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell [(σοὶ δὲ διακελεύομαι, ἔγειρε ὁ καθεύδων·  οὐ γάρ διὰ τοῦτό σε πεποίηκα, ἵνα ἐν Ἅδῃ κατέκῃ δέσμιος)]. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.  Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.  Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. . . . Rise, let us leave this place.  The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise.  I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.  I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. . . .'"

     Ancient homily for Holy Saturday, as quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church #635 (PG 43, 440A, 452C, 461B-C, 464A (440-464)). This homily appears also in the Office of readings for Holy Saturday, Liturgy of the hours, vol. 2, pp. 496-498, and Christian prayer, pp. 1987-1988. Quasten (vol. 3, p. 395) lists it among the spurious works of St. Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 315-403), and de Lubac (Catholicism (New York: Sheed and Ward Inc., 1958), pp. 251 ff.) provides excerpts under the heading Pseudo-Epiphanius.