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Last Sunday, you may have noticed a slight enhancement and augmentation of the Liturgy, notably during the Gospel Acclamation. We elaborated upon our normal formula of singing the Alleluia and additionally closed each Mass with that word in song. Why? It is the last time we will use it. Not to worry! It is not another one of the liturgical “changes,” but rather a strong way of differentiating the season of Lent from the rest of our liturgical calendar.
The word Alleluia is a combination of the Hebrew words “Hallel,” a great expression of praise, and “Jah,” a form of the name for God. Thus, we get a word that effectively means “Praise to Him Who is!” It is a word used in the Bible most notably at the beginning of psalms of praise, as a kind of inviting acclamation, or at the end, as a glory-giving ovation. It is used at only one point in the New Testament, during the revelation of the Divine service of praise in Heaven in the book of Revelation.
Just as every Sunday is a celebration of the day Jesus rose from the dead, the Alleluia is proclaimed every Sunday as the Christian cry of victory over sin and death. It is this feeling of joy that inspired composers of plainsong or Gregorian chant to add a jubilus, or a long and elaborate string of notes at the end of the Alleluia chant, just to augment it and heighten the celebratory nature of their song. The Church uses the word Alleluia wherever joy, triumph or thanksgiving is to be emphatically expressed. Thus, the season of Lent is left void of our joyful Alleluia, only to give way to inclusion of the Alleluia at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday in anticipation of Christ’s rising on Easter Sunday.
The Eastern Church uses the word Alleluia all year. However, our Western Church, since St. Gregory, has used the word at virtually all liturgies from Easter until Septuagesima (seventy days before Easter). This is not the case any more, as we only exclude its use during the forty days of Lent. Previously, there was approximately a thirty-day period to prepare for Lent, that is, to prepare for the season of preparation for Easter! This seventy-day period was to commemorate the Israelites’ seventy years of the Babylonian Exile. As it is stated in Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat mourning and weeping
when we remembered Zion. …
There our captors asked us for the words of a song; …
“Sing for us a song of Zion!”
But how could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?
In the same manner our Alleluia song is put away until the return from our Lenten exile, our time of trial. This is sometimes done in an elaborate ceremony with procession with and solemn burial (or sometimes burning) of a banner bearing the word “Alleluia.” During this ceremony on the day before Septuagesima Sunday, the hymn Alleluia, dulce carmen (“Alleluia, sweet song”) would customarily be sung. An excerpt of the text follows:
We do not now deserve
To sing the Alleluia forever;
Guilt forces us
To dismiss you, O Alleluia.
For the time approaches in which
We must weep for our sins.
This procedure is not as common as it once was, but still a poignant way to usher in our penitential season of waiting for the reason for our joyful song. At the Gospel Acclamation of every Mass until our glorious Easter, remember why we sing Alleluia. Then call to mind the reason we do not sing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ during Lent. Finally, remember that we will sing it again – here in our spiritual home in Lakewood, and again in our glorious, everlasting home foretold in the book of Revelation.
In memory of Fr. Norm Smith (1944-2004), Pastor of Divine Word Catholic Church, Kirtland, Ohio.
Requiescat in pace.
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