July 18, 2008 Friday of Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time (A)

Catechesis on Sanctus

We heard the term, ‘oldie but goodie.’ My mom still owns GE Iron that still works very well that she bought from an American surplus store in Korea 38 years ago. Now there are irons that have steam, automatic shutoff, and other bells and whistles. But you have to admit, irons these days don’t last as long as those made long ago like ones my mom owns.

What I’m wearing today is an ‘oldie but goodie’ too. It’s called a gothic chasuble. It’s design is traditional with X-shaped cross. It’s called St. Andrew’s cross; it’s by tradition that St. Andrew was crucified on an X-form of cross. Wearing of the chasuble in the church goes back before the 6th Century. Over the years, styles have changed, but the basic meaning has stayed the same. Spiritually, the chasuble reminds the priest of the charity of Christ: "Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect" (Col 3:14). The former vesting prayer was "O Lord, Who hast said, ‘My yoke is sweet and My burden light,’ grant that I may so carry it as to merit Thy grace."

I’ll give you another example of an “oldie but goodie.” During daily mass at the point of Holy Holy Holy, instead of saying out loud in English form of “Holy Holy Holy,” I have been chanting, “Sanctus ,Sanctus, Sanctus.” I’ve been doing that for two reasons. First, by chanting or singing, we are praying twice. Secondly, the moment of “Holy, Holy, Holy” is a moment of profound supernatural mystery, and the Latin chant enables us to enter into that indescribable mystery.

The mystery is described in our gospel today. Jesus says to the Pharisees, “I say to you, something greater than the temple is here… For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.” (Matt 12:7-8) Who is this man who is greater than the temple? The first part of the Sanctus (Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.) is adapted from Isaiah 6:3, which describes the prophet Isaiah's vision of the throne of God surrounded by six-winged, ministering seraphim. A similar representation may be found in Revelation 4:8. “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!"

The text of the second part, beginning with the words, ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis’, is taken from Matthew 21:9, describing Jesus' Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The Latin chant is trying to capture the mystery of all of us transported to heaven where seraphim, angels, and saints are bowing down before the Lamb of God whom we will be bowing before very shortly after ‘Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus’ is sung.