Illuminations
Light of Light
by Anthony Esolen
In these essays I have been like someone who wanders about a great mansion that has fallen into disrepair because for a long time no one has taken care of it, though many a wise and blessed squatter has come to visit once in a while and has saved from rain and rust, from moth and mouse and worm, some precious vessel or silken robe, some work of piety and beauty that past generations of Christians have bequeathed to our ungrateful, inattentive, and insipid age.
Often enough I myself do not know what I am looking at. A few weeks ago, I lectured on the imagination to a large group of Catholic schoolteachers, and we began with a streamlined version of Morning Prayer. The teachers didn't know what that was, so they had to be instructed by my host, as we all followed along from some printed pages. I couldn't blame them, because although I have been a Catholic all my life, it has been only very recently that I have learned to pray the hours, from the Roman Breviary. Mine is published by Baronius Press, and the only reason I have it at all is that I was asked to translate for it some hundred of the psalms.
I don't have the space here to describe what is involved in praying the hours—the psalms, the hymns, the Little Chapters, the Canticle of Zachary ("Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel"), the Canticle of Mary ("My soul magnifies the Lord"), readings from the Old and New Testaments, and so much more. I'll focus on the one feature of the hours that I find most moving, and artful in a subtle and profound way: the antiphonal verses that follow the readings.
They are not distinguished by authorial cleverness, by poetic imagery, or by dramatic effusions. The art comes by selection, juxtaposition, progression, and repetition. Let me explain by providing examples, from matins for the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6).
Transfiguration Verses
The first of the nine lessons of matins for this day follows three psalms, the third of which, Psalm 45, is the great hymn to the king of Israel, who is a foreshadowing of Christ: "You are fairer in beauty than the sons of men." The lesson itself comes from the Second Epistle of Peter, that witness of the transfigured Lord, ending at 1:14:
"I think it right to arouse you by a reminder, knowing as I do that the putting off of my tabernacle is at hand, just as our Lord Jesus Christ signified to me."
What verse follows? It isn't from the psalm, and it isn't from Peter's epistle, but it has to do with both, and the connections are more powerful for being left implicit. It is a beautiful rendering of Isaiah 60:1–3.
Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem; for your light has come.
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
And the Gentiles shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your glory.
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Palestrina composed an astonishing motet for the Latin (Surge, illuminare, Jerusalem), with voices rising like larks in sound and like eagles in might. For Christ is the light that shines into the shadows of the Old Testament, the flesh upon its suggestions and specters.
The second lesson continues with 2 Peter, ending with verse 17, the words of the Father from the cloud, as Peter, James, and John saw Christ transfigured upon the mountain. The verses repeat but also, by subtle and significant variation, interpret the words of Peter and of the Gospel:
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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