The following excerpts are taken from book VI, chapter 70 of William Durandus’ commentary on the liturgy, the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum. Greatly as we reverence his work, our friend is, like many medieval authors, an incorrigible digresser; furthermore, some of the features of the Mass of Spy Wednesday, one of the most beautiful of the entire year, were arranged a bit differently in the missal he knew. I have therefore reordered and paraphrased the text in various places, to make the train of his thought clearer, and to correspond to the Missal of St Pius V. The reader may also find useful this article from two years ago which explains the text of this Mass in detail, especially in regard to the reading from Isaiah 62 and 63 as a prophecy of the Incarnation.
Wednesday is the day on which the Lord was sold by Judas, because He willed not only to suffer for us, but also to be sold, so that He might deliver us from the selling by which our first parent sold us to the devil through the eating of the forbidden fruit, whence Isaiah says (52, 3), “You were sold for free, and you shall be redeemed without money.” Likewise, many sell themselves to the devil for momentary pleasure, just as Adam sold himself for the eating of the forbidden fruit. Therefore, the Sun of justice was sold for our salvation on Wednesday, the day on which the visible sun was formed for the light of the world. (Gen. 1, 14-19)
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| The Betrayal of Judas, as depicted by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, 1304-06. |
There follows, “and let every tongue confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” This is taken from the Apostle (Phil. 2, 11) …
Introitus In nómine Jesu omne genu flectátur, caelestium, terrestrium et infernórum: quia Dóminus factus est oboediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis: ideo Dóminus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris. Psalmus Dómine, exaudi oratiónem meam: et clamor meus ad te veniat. In nómine Jesu…
Introit (Phil. 2, 10; 8 and 11) In the name of Jesus let every knee bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: because the Lord hath become obedient unto death, but the death of the Cross. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Psalm 101, 2 O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee. In the name of Jesus…
It can also be said that two things are necessary for us, namely, prayer and patience, according to that which the Lord says, “Pray for those who persecute and slander you.” (Matt. 5, 44) We are invited to these two things in the introit: to prayer, when it says, “in the name of Jesus let every knee be bent”; and to patience, by the Savior’s example, regarding whom it is added, “Christ has become for us obedient unto death,” etc. For one is not obedient in tribulation if he does not willingly tolerate it.
Two lessons are read, because on this day the Lord was betrayed for two peoples and by two peoples; and in some churches, they kneel at both of them, because He is adored by both people … and because the first Man incurred two deaths, namely of the flesh and of the soul, and Christ has delivered us from both.
In the first reading (Isa. 62, 11; 63, 1-7), “Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, thy savior cometh,” … The Angels said (for the incarnation remained hidden from some of them), “Who is this who cometh from Edom?”, that is, from the earth, “with stained garments”, that is, with the members of the body, which are the garments of divinity, “stained purple with blood from Bosra.”
Bosra is a city in Moab, whose name means “strong” or “fortified”, … but its name is transferred to Jerusalem, which once the Lord strengthened by His help, but the inhabitants having become Moabites… they tainted the garments of the king with the purple of blood. He answered, “I who speak justice, and fight forth unto salvation.” And they said, “Why then is thy garment red?”, as if to say, Why have you been bloodied by the pressing of the Cross, if you speak justice? But he answers, “I have trodden the wine press alone”, that is, for all, so that all may be delivered, “and from the nations there is no other man with me.”
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| The Risen Christ and the Mystical Winepress, by Marco dal Pino, often called Marco da Siena, 1525-1588 ca. Both of the figures of Christ in this painting show very markedly the influence of Michelangelo’sLast Judgment. |
And just as the Savior laid down His soul for the redemption of our souls, so also He subjected his body (to death) for the redemption of our bodies; for which reason the first lesson treats of His body, reddened by his own blood, where it says, “Who is this who comes from Edom?”, etc. And because solely from His mercy the Lord suffered for us, therefore the prophet in the person of the Church concludes that reading by saying, “I will remember the mercies of the Lord, the praise of the Lord for all things which the Lord hath rendered unto us.”
After the reading is sung the gradual, “Turn not thy face”, in which He himself prays that through the passion He may come to glory. But because He prayed for a long time in agony, as is said in the Gospel (22, 43), therefore the Offertory and the Communio are taken from the Psalm (101) which is entitled “the prayer of the poor man while he was in anguish”…
Graduale Ne avertas faciem tuam a púero tuo, quoniam tríbulor: velóciter exaudi me. V. Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intravérunt aquae usque ad ánimam meam: infixus sum in limo profundi, et non est substantia.
Gradual, Ps 68, 18; 2-3 Turn not thy face away from thy servant: for I am in trouble, swiftly hear me. V. Save me, o God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no sure standing.
The epistle is also from Isaiah (53, 1-12), “O Lord, who hath believed”, in which He is described in the same fashion in which He is represented by the evangelist in the passion…
After the epistle there follows the tract, and in an unusual way (i.e. without a gradual preceding it), because the Church mourns and weeps more deeply than usual… the tract signifies weeping, and therefore on Good Friday only tracts are said. The gradual signifies penance, and because the Lord was not crucified on this day, but only sold, therefore a gradual is also said (i.e. after the first reading).
This tract is sung according to an Old Latin text which reads uses the word “frixorium – a frier”, where St Jerome’s version has “cremium – brushwood.” Below, Durandus interprets the image of bones in a frier to signify the refinement of man’s interior strengths.
Tractus Dómine, exaudi oratiónem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat. ℣. Ne avertas faciem tuam a me: in quacumque die tríbulor, inclína ad me aurem tuam. ℣. In quacumque die invocávero te, velóciter exaudi me. ℣. Quia defecérunt sicut fumus dies mei, et ossa mea sicut in frixorio confrixa sunt. ℣. Percussus sum sicut faenum, et aruit cor meum, quia oblítus sum manducáre panem meum. ℣. Tu exsurgens, Dómine, miseréberis Sion, quia venit tempus miserendi eius.
Ps. 101, 2-5; 14 O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee. ℣. Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am troubled, incline thine ear to me. ℣. In whatsoever day I call upon thee, hear me speedily. ℣. For my days are vanished like smoke, and my bones have been fried as in a frier.
℣. I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered, because I forgot to eat my bread. ℣. Thou shalt arise, o Lord, and have mercy on Sion: for the time hath come to have mercy on it.
Since we have sinned according to the five senses of the body, the tract has five verses, because of the five wounds of Christ, or because He shed His blood five times: first, in the circumcision; second, at the prayer (in the garden); third, at the scourging; fourth, in the crucifixion; fifth, when He was pierced by the spear. In the same tract, the human race asks for help and confesses the failing which it incurred from the sin of the first parent, saying, “because my days have failed like smoke.” For the life of man is but a day, and the night thereof is death, but this life is cut short and fails because of the pride of the first parent, which is symbolized by the smoke. There follow the words, “My bones were fried in a fryer.” Bones are the interior strengths… and the frier is threefold, namely, the recalling of sins, compassion for one’s neighbor, and meditation on the future judgment; in these the good man is fried. The tract closes, like the lesson, with the mercy of the Lord; whence the last verse is, “Thou arising, o Lord, shall have mercy.”
The Communion is “I was mixing my drink with weeping,” which is to say, the drink of the passion, when His sweat became like drops of blood running down onto the earth. (Luke 22, 44; this is also taken from an Old Latin text of the Psalms.)
Communio, Ps 101 Potum meum cum fletu temperábam, quia élevans allisisti me: et ego sicut foenum arui: tu autem, Dómine, in aeternum pérmanes: tu exsurgens miseréberis Sion, quia venit tempus miseréndi eius. (I tempered my drink with weeping, for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, remainest forever; thou shalt arise, and have mercy on Sion, for the time is come to have mercy on it.
