An Old Testament Companion to the Propers

Whitsunday — the Feast of Pentecost

The wonderful works of God — the magnalia Dei, promised of old and poured upon all flesh

When the multitude heard the Apostles speak the wonderful works of God — the megaleia — they heard the oldest song of Israel loosed from one tongue and given to all flesh. Saint Peter grounds the day not in novelty but in the prophet Joel, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and behind Joel stands Moses' wish that all the Lord's people were prophets. The fire upon the Apostles fulfils the live coal that purged Isaiah's lips and loosed them to speak; the rushing wind fulfils the breath that moved upon the waters and breathed upon Ezekiel's slain; and the scattered tongues of Babel are not abolished but gathered into one understanding.

The doxological key is the psalm appointed for the day's own Evensong. Psalm cxlv is the rehearsal of the marvellous acts of God, and the Spirit gives the Church no new song but the oldest song and a new tongue to sing it in — let all flesh give thanks unto his holy Name. And Psalm lxviii, thou hast ascended on high… received gifts for men, which Saint Paul applies to this very giving, shows Whitsunday as the purpose of the Ascension disclosed: the gifts received on high are the gifts poured out below.

Monday in Whitsun Week

To all that are afar off — the gift carried to the Gentile, the law written on the heart

The octave does not repeat the feast; it unfolds it. Monday turns the gift outward. Saint Peter, in the house of a Roman centurion, perceives that God is no respecter of persons, and the Gentiles too are heard to magnify God; and the Gospel gives the breadth from above, God so loved the world. The reach was always intended: in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

The interior promise is Jeremiah's, the charter of the new covenant: I will write it in their hearts… they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest. This is the Collect's own petition that God would teach the hearts of thy faithful people, and it carries the same levelling reach as no respecter of persons. Psalm cxxxix is the morning's warrant — whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? — for the God who fills all places may pour his Spirit upon all peoples.

Tuesday in Whitsun Week

A new heart and a new spirit — the heart remade, and the many made one

The third day gathers what the first two have given: renewal and unity. When the apostolic hands are laid upon the Samaritans, what they receive is named at Mattins — a new heart… and a new spirit will I put within you… and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. The Gospel's door and shepherd take up Ezekiel's promise of one shepherd… even my servant David, and the oldest schism in Israel, between Jew and Samaritan, is healed in one fold.

Saint Paul gives the doctrine of which Samaria is the instance: by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. The unifying type is the valley of dry bones, drawn together until they stand up one army. And Psalm cxlviii widens the renewal to the whole creation — fire and wind and storm fulfilling his word — while at Evensong Moses among the seventy and Psalm cxlv return to close the day in the wish that all the Lord's people might prophesy.

The Ember Wednesday in Whitsun Week

The Spirit of understanding — for those who would minister

The first of the three Ember Days set within Whitsuntide; the Church now prays the Spirit for those who would minister. The eucharistic Gospel is the Lord himself, anointed by the Spirit, preaching at Nazareth; the Epistle, that office continued, until the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. But no man can publish the deep things of God who has not first been given to understand them: the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

The day's first lessons draw the portrait of such a man — the scribe who resorts early to the Lord and is filled with the spirit of understanding, and Solomon's prayer, send thy Holy Spirit from above. These are read from the Apocrypha, with the Sixth Article, for example of life and not to establish doctrine; their canonical anchor is Isaiah's sevenfold Spirit of wisdom, resting upon the Branch and upon those he sends.

Thursday in Whitsun Week

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed — the feast continued in rain and in fruit

Thursday keeps the propers of the Feast and turns them forward, from the Spirit's coming to his continuing. Isaiah gives the outpouring in a gentler figure than fire: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty… I will pour my spirit upon thy seed — the same gift Acts proclaims as wind, now soaking the dry ground, and bound to pardon, for I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.

The proof of the gift is the morning's second lesson: not a remembered wind but a present fruit, love, joy, peace, the harvest the Comforter works in those who keep the Lord's word. Wisdom widens it — thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things — and the psalms make the poured water both quickening and saving, drawing a man out of many waters. If Whitsunday was the rushing wind, Thursday is the slow and patient rain.

The Ember Friday in Whitsun Week

This day is this scripture fulfilled — the anointing to preach good tidings

This day asks the least construction of any in the octave, for Office and Eucharist read the same scripture upon the same day. At Mattins the First Lesson is Isaiah's, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings; and at the altar the Gospel is the Lord at Nazareth, who reads that very scroll, closes the book, and says, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

There is one anointing, the Spirit upon the Christ to preach; the ordained are not given a second but admitted to the first. The Apostle names them ministers… not of the letter, but of the spirit, changed from glory to glory; and the Evening lesson sends the herald with beautiful feet to the nations, as the Epistle turns to the Gentiles. The Office lays the scroll in the morning that the Eucharist may show it fulfilled.

The Ember Saturday in Whitsun Week, and the Vigil of Trinity

Full of power by the Spirit — the gift conferred, and the turn to the Triune Name

The last of the Ember Days, and by ancient custom the eve of ordinations. Micah sets the true minister against the false: not the prophet who flatters and cries Peace, but one full of power by the spirit of the Lord… to declare unto Jacob his transgression. The gift is conferred by hands — stir up the gift… by the putting on of my hands… the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind — as Moses laid his hand upon Joshua, a man in whom is the spirit.

And as the day closes the Church keeps the First Evensong of Trinity, setting the threefold blessing of Aaron beside the apostolic grace, the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. The Spirit who descended at Pentecost and equipped the Church's ministers does not call attention to himself; he leads her to adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Whitsuntide does not merely end. It opens upon the Trinity.

Trinity Sunday — the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Holy, holy, holy — the eternal Three before whom Isaiah and the Apostle alike fell down

The wonder of the day is that its Office is itself the doctrine, laid out in Scripture before any catechism speaks a word. The morning lesson appointed for the Communion is the prophet's vision in the temple: I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, the seraphim crying Holy, holy, holy, the posts of the door moved and the house filled with smoke. And the eucharistic Epistle is that same vision reopened in heaven, the four living creatures rendering the same thrice-holy day and night before the throne, and the elders casting their crowns. What Isaiah saw, the Apostle sees fulfilled. The Sanctus the Church sings at every altar joins our voice to the seraphim's and the elders' — the threefold Name borne up by the threefold cry.

The Office's evening readings widen the picture from worship to making. Job hears the Father's voice from the whirlwind — Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? — and St John, in the prologue read with it, gives the answer: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him. Father and Word together at the foundation; and the Spirit, the morning's alternate reading adds, moved upon the face of the waters. Let us make man in our image: the Cappadocian fathers and Augustine heard the plural and were unembarrassed. The Three were never not Three.

The Gospel makes the doctrine personal. Nicodemus comes by night to a teacher who turns out to be God Incarnate, and at once the Three are pressed upon him: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The Spirit who regenerates; the Son who must be lifted up — as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness — and the Father whose kingdom is entered. The Trinity is not a speculation. It is the only doctrine sufficient to the question Nicodemus asks. How can a man be born when he is old? By the Father's love that gave the Son, the Son's lifting up that drew the venom from the serpent's bite, and the Spirit's water that makes us new. Three Persons; one salvation.

The First Sunday after Trinity

God is love — and the great gulf fixed when love is refused

The long green season opens with a hard pairing. The Epistle declares the shortest creed in Scripture — God is love — and the Gospel sets beside it the most sobering parable in St Luke: Dives in purple and fine linen, Lazarus at his gate, and at the end the great gulf fixed. The Sunday is not the gentle catechetical introit one might expect after Trinity. It is the love of the Triune God set down beside the eternal cost of love unreceived. Perfect love casteth out fear, writes the Apostle; the Gospel shows what becomes of the soul that has not let love do its work.

The Office gives the Old Testament behind both. At Mattins in the second option Genesis 3 is read, and after it Romans 5 — St Paul's own pairing of the first Adam and the Last. The Fall is the original failure of love, and the original gulf: cherubim with the flaming sword set east of Eden, that fallen man should not return. The great gulf fixed in Luke 16 is the eternal continuation of that Edenic exclusion, and Romans 5 is the news that one Man has crossed it: as by one man sin entered into the world… even so by one Man's obedience shall many be made righteous. The whole green season unfolds within the space that crossing opens.

The appointed psalms and the second Evensong make the convergence sharper still. Psalm lxxiii is the Old Testament's principal meditation on the wicked who prosper — Asaph's confession that my feet were almost gone, when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity — until I went into the sanctuary of God: then understood I the end of these men. That end is what the Gospel will show: the rich man lifting up his eyes in torment. And the second Evensong reads Luke 16:19–31 itself as its appointed New Testament lesson, with Job 21's lament against the prosperous wicked beside it. The lectionary is not here pointing toward the propers but repeating them, that nothing be missed.