Illuminations
A Fast for
the Feast
Anthony Esolen on Pope Gregory the Great's Audi, benigne Conditor
We are a Resurrection People," say the bishops of the Catholic Church in Canada, and therefore we will keep kneeling at Mass to the barest minimum. "We are a Resurrection People," said the priests and theologians in my youth, and therefore we will not have priests wear black for funerals, and we will replace the crucifix above the sanctuary with the risen Christ free-floating from the Cross behind. When I was a small boy, we were required to fast from the previous midnight before we received Communion. Now, we Catholics are required to "fast" one hour before, and since one hour is about what it takes to get in the car, drive to church, get settled there, and hear Mass before Communion, all that it means, practically, is that we aren't to be munching on cookies in the pews. I suppose that that, too, is because "We are a Resurrection People," so, although we may not be a Grammar People or a Scripture People or an Obedience People, we can indulge the body as we please. It's only the body, after all.
The answer to this is that Jesus himself has given us the example, in his forty days of fast and prayer; and there are some demons so persistent, he says, that they come out only by that discipline. If we cannot deny ourselves a mere snack, why should we believe that we will have the discipline and the perseverance to deny ourselves the tastier and more habit-forming morsels of pride and envy, avarice and lust? The road to Jordan leads through the desert.
Pope Gregory the Great understood the bonds between the body and the soul, and how we must bring both into subjection. Hence, his remarkable hymn Audi, benigne Conditor is a prayer to the Lord for healing by means of the Lenten fast. I'll provide the pretty fair translation in the 1940 Episcopal hymnal:
Kind Maker of the world, O hear
The fervent prayer, with many a tear
Poured forth by all the penitent
Who keep this holy fast of Lent!
And my own attempt, which I completed before I found the former:
Kindly Creator, bend Thine ear
Unto these sorrowing prayers we raise;
We pour them forth with many a tear,
This holy fast of forty days.
The image of pouring is in the original Latin. For there is nothing dry about this hymn. It is characterized, rather, by the energetic action of God, who makes up for our weakness and illness. Both versions, as above:
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Each heart is manifest to Thee;
Thou knowest our infirmity;
Now we repent, and seek Thy face;
Grant unto us Thy pardoning grace.
. . .
Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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