“Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth” : A Curious Feature in the Reformed Lectionary

This last Sunday in the Ordinary Form, which was the 21st Sunday per annum in Year C, Catholics will have heard the following passage from the Gospel of Luke read at Mass:

[At that time: Jesus] went on his way through towns and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. And some one said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!’ There you will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (cap. 13:22-30, RSV2CE)

This passage contains a number of memorable phrases: the last shall be first and the first last, the necessity of entering by the narrow door, and weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is the last of these, however, that we might not associate so strongly with Luke’s Gospel. Only once does the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Gk. ekei estai ho klauthmos kai ho brygmos tōn odontōn) occur in Luke, at 13:28. It is really more of a Matthean phrase, where it occurs a total of six times (8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).

The Gospel of the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Matthew 8, 1-13, in a Roman lectionary of the last quarter of the 9th century (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits Latin 9453, folio 11r). The words “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (fletus et stridor dentium) are seen in the last line of the page.

It may surprise readers of NLM to know, then, that last Sunday was the only time in the three-year cycle of the reformed lectionary that Catholics who attend the Ordinary Form are guaranteed to hear this phrase. Put another way: a very Matthean phrase does not ever have to be read on Sundays in Year A, the year of Matthew, but does have to be read once in Year C, the year of Luke.

This is thanks to the “short forms” of readings generously scattered throughout the Ordo lectionum Missae. Out of the six times the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” appears in Matthew, two (8:12 and 24:51) are not included in the OF Sunday lectionary cycle, [1] and the other four are omitted in the short forms of the Gospel readings for the following Sundays in Year A:

• 16th Sunday per annum (13:24-43 → 13:24-30)
• 17th Sunday per annum (13:44-52 → 13:44-46)
• 28th Sunday per annum (22:1-14 → 22:1-10)
• 33rd Sunday per annum (25:14-30 → 25:14-15, 19-21) [2]

To me, this all seems rather odd. Part of the idea of the three-year cycle is that at least some of the unique features of each of the synoptic Gospels can be more easily utilised by homilists. [3] This includes obvious things like the structure of each Gospel - for example, the readings of Year A are structured around the five “great sermons” in Matthew (chs. 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 24-25), whereas those of Year C are built around Luke’s “travel narrative” (Nazareth → Galilee → Jerusalem → Passion). But it also includes more subtle literary features, such as the different uses of grammar and vocabulary in each Gospel. Indeed, the General Introduction to the Lectionary itself says that the Gospel readings for Sundays per annum “are arranged in such a way that, as the Lord’s life and preaching unfold, the teaching proper to each of these Gospels is presented” (GIL 105), and provides various tables outlining the arrangement of the per annum Sunday readings for each of the three years.

Do the short forms of readings impair this aim of the post-Vatican II Ordo lectionum Missae? Well, when we are faced with an order of readings that allows clergy, through ad libitum use of these short forms, [4] to entirely omit a Matthean phrase considered important enough to be included four times in Year A, but requires it to be read on the one occasion it occurs in Year C, this would seem to be a legitimate question. Quite aside from the issue of whether or not the reformed lectionary minimises certain “difficult” aspects of Catholic teaching, [5] there are doubts about whether it is entirely consistent with its own aims and desires. The short forms of readings are in my opinion a significant problem that, for a number of different reasons, need to be examined during any work towards a future third edition of the Ordo lectionum Missae.

NOTES

[1] Though they do occur on weekdays, and Matt. 8:12 is paralleled in Luke 13:28.

[2] This last short form is especially egregious, and I have commented on it previously in my article Lectio brevior and the Parable of the Talents.

[3] Whether the reformed lectionary actually achieves this aim is a separate question.

[4] Typically, the “pastoral criterion” of GIL 80 as to when short forms of readings ought to be used is very vague. In my experience, most clergy use them principally to make the liturgy shorter so as to get people out of church ‘on time’. I am not sure this is what Coetus XI had in mind as a suitable “pastoral criterion”!

[5] For comparison with the above, in the usus antiquior on Sundays, the faithful will hear the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” twice every year, on the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany (Matt. 8:1-13) and the 19th Sunday after Pentecost (Matt. 22:1-14). Dr Peter Kwasniewski also touches on this wider subject of “difficult” texts in his foreword to my book Index Lectionum: A Comparative Table of Readings for the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite (Amazon USA, UK).

Lectio brevior and the Parable of the Talents

The General Introduction to the Lectionary (GIL) has this to say about lectio brevior, or short forms of readings:

In the case of certain rather long texts, longer and shorter versions are provided to suit different situations. The editing of the shorter version has been carried out with great caution. (GIL 75)

This would seem to imply that short forms of readings are a rarity in the reformed lectionary, as there are not that many “rather long texts”. The Gospel readings for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays of Lent in Year A spring to mind, as do the Passion narratives for each year in the Sunday cycle on Palm Sunday. [1] To take the Gospel reading on the 3rd Sunday of Lent in Year A as an example (Jn. 4:5-42), the short form of the reading (Jn. 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42) does preserve the main elements of the narrative.

However, across the three-year cycle, there are a total of 49 occasions where at least one short form of a reading exists. [2] In general, between 20-28% of Masses on Sundays and Solemnities in any given liturgical year will have optional short forms. (The range exists primarily because certain Sundays year to year will be supplanted by Trinity Sunday, Pentecost, etc.). On the majority of these occasions (over two-thirds), it is the Gospel reading that can be shortened, and the rest of the time it is nearly always the second reading from the NT; outside of the Easter Vigil, there is only one short form of a first OT reading (3rd Sunday of Lent [B]).

Given what the GIL says, this figure is a lot more than one would expect, and is not consistent with the magna cautela (“great caution”) claimed by the GIL. Indeed, it is true to say that in the case of certain rather short readings, even shorter forms are provided. The Gospel for the 17th Sunday per annum in Year A (Mt. 13:44-52) is not exactly long, yet a shorter form (vv. 44-46) is provided by the reformed lectionary! And, on occasion, the shortening of the reading has compromised the pericope to such an extent that one wonders how on earth the short form wasn’t eliminated by the 1981 second typical edition of the lectionary, let alone nearly 50 years later.

At the time of writing, one such occasion is coming up this Sunday, the 33rd per annum in Year A. The Gospel reading is the Parable of the Talents (Mt. 25:14-30). It is a little longer than average, but the first and second readings are fairly short, and the Parable itself surely couldn’t be shortened without doing damage to it. Could it? Well, inexplicably there is an optional short form (Mt. 25:14-15, 19-21). Here is the pericope, with the verses that can be omitted in bold:

At that time: Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: “A man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ” (RSV2CE)

The above ought to speak for itself, but I will point out a couple of things.

First, whereas other short forms of the Gospel readings in Year A omit other parables, or the explanation of parables, [3] this short form omits large parts of the parable itself. We have previously seen this happen a few weeks ago, on the 28th Sunday per annum (A), where the end of the Parable of the Marriage Feast can be omitted, but not quite to this extent. If the short form of the Parable of the Talents is used, the parable itself barely makes any sense! It is emptied of a huge portion of its meaning, and the violence done to this text in its short form is almost without precedent in the reformed lectionary. [4]

Secondly, thanks to the generosity of Blackfriars Library in Oxford, UK, and Rev Fr Luke Melcher at the ICEL Secretariat in Washington, DC, I have been able to establish that there was no short form of this Gospel pericope on this Sunday in any of the Consilium’s draft lectionaries before the final version submitted to Pope Paul VI in May 1969. Indeed, if one compares Group XI’s 1967 draft Ordo lectionum pro dominicis, feriis, et festis sanctorum [5] with the promulgated 1969 Ordo lectionum Missae, there are far fewer short forms in the draft: in tempus per annum, for example, there is only one short form, on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost in Year A (Mt. 15:1, 7-20 à 15:1, 7-11, 15-20). Something happened between 1967 and 1969 that resulted in an immense multiplication of optional short forms. I would submit that, if there is to be a third edition of the Ordo lectionum Missae in the future, any rationale for these lectiones breviores needs to be examined in detail, and preferably eliminated in line with the desire of the Council Fathers for the “treasures of the Bible to be opened up more lavishly” to the faithful (SC 51).

* * * * *

I end with a plea to Bishops and Priests celebrating Ordinary Form Masses this weekend. Fathers, please ensure the long form of this Gospel is read! Do not rob the faithful of the words and teaching of Our Lord in order to save barely a minute of time! There can “be no justification for depriving the faithful of the spiritual riches of certain texts on the grounds of difficulty if its source is the inadequacy either of the religious education that every Christian should have or of the biblical formation that every pastor should have” (GIL 76).

* * * * *

NOTES

[1] Please note that, for the purposes of this article, whether such shorter forms (particularly for the Passion narratives) should exist in the first place for these “rather long texts” is an entirely separate question.

[2] This figure counts the Easter Vigil, the Vigil of Christmas, Christmas Day (Mass during the Day), 2nd Sunday after Christmas, and Palm Sunday three times (as they will occur each year); the days that have more than one optional short form (Easter Vigil, 19th Sunday per annum [B]) are counted only once. The two occasions (Holy Family [ABC], 2nd reading; 21st Sunday per annum [B], 2nd reading) where short forms of readings exist in the English language lectionaries but not in the 1981 Latin editio typica altera are not counted here.

[3] E.g. 16th Sunday per annum (Mt. 13:24-43 à 13:24-30); 17th Sunday per annum (Mt. 13:44-52 à Mt. 13:44-46).

[4] However, the short forms of the Gospel reading for the feast of the Holy Family in Year B (Lk. 2:22-40 à 2:39-40) and the second reading for the 3rd Sunday per annum in Year C (1 Cor. 12:12-30 à 12:12-14, 27) are other examples of highly egregious short forms.

[5] Schemata 233 (De Missali 39). This was published pro manuscripto and a copy sent for consultation to each Bishops’ Conference, every participant in the first Synod of Bishops (1967) and around 800 periti nominated by the conferences of Bishops: cf. A. Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 419-420. Bugnini mentions that 460 responses were received.

Short Forms of the Readings: Distorting the Gospel?

As chance would have it, this last Sunday (OF: 28th Sunday per annum, Year A; EF: 19th Sunday post Pentecosten) the Gospel reading was the same in both forms of the Roman Rite: the Parable of the Marriage Feast from Matthew 22:1-14.

Or, in some places at least, it was nearly the same. For this particular Sunday is one of the over 40 occasions in the three-year Sunday cycle of the reformed lectionary where there is the option of reading a shorter form of one of the lessons. Suffice to say, there are no conditions laid out by the reformed books for when it may or may not be suitable to use any given short form aside from “pastoral reasons”, and the (somewhat deceptive) observation that “In the case of certain rather long texts, longer and shorter versions are provided to suit different situations. The editing of the shorter version has been carried out with great caution.” (General Introduction to the Lectionary, 75; cf. GIRM 360)

In this case, the short form of the Gospel misses out the last four verses of the parable (in bold):

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’ But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the streets, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt. 22:1-14, RSV2CE)

Previous to this Sunday in Year A, the 15th, 16th and 17th Sundays per annum have also had an optional short form for the Gospel readings. Criticisms can be levelled at each of these short forms, particularly for the 17th Sunday per annum, but though it is not much of a defence, it can at least be said that one parable is preserved in toto for each Sunday. [1] Here, though, it is part of the parable itself that has been edited out of the short form, with the consequence, intentional or not, of distorting its message. It is much easier, for example, to force an heretical universalist or annihilationist viewpoint on to the short form, or to emphasise the happier aspects of the parable to the practical exclusion of anything that could be perceived as negative (as most of that material is omitted). And, given that this parable is read every year in the Extraordinary Form in its totality, [2] it is difficult to see the existence of this short form as anything but an impoverishment - liturgically, biblically and homiletically.

In future posts, I hope to explore in a little more detail the many liturgical and theological problems with both the theory and praxis of the lectio brevior in the Ordo lectionum Missae. Thankfully, any problems associated with their use can be very easily and instantly fixed, by parish priests resolving never to use them and making sure that other priests, deacons and lectors (instituted or temporary) in their parishes do not use them either. It is also to be hoped for that all short forms of readings are suppressed in any future edition of the Ordo lectionum Missae.

NOTES

[1] For the 15th Sunday per annum (A), the short form is just the Parable of the Sower, with the disciples’ question to Jesus and the explanation of the Parable omitted (Mt. 13:1-23; short form = vv. 1-9); for the 16th Sunday per annum (A), the short form is just the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, with its explanation along with the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven omitted (Mt. 13:24-43; short form = vv. 24-30); for the 17th Sunday per annum (A), the last of the three Parables of the Kingdom along with the saying about treasures new and old are omitted (Mt. 13:44-52; short form = vv. 44-46).

[2] Indeed, this Gospel lection has been part of the Church’s liturgical patrimony for some considerable time, as homilies on this passage have come down to us from St Augustine (Serm. 90) and St John Chrysostom (Hom. Matt. 69) among others.