In Te Christe - A hymn from the Irish Church

Congregational singing was an important part in the spiritual life of the early Irish Church, as it was in Christendom as a whole. The Psalter was the hymn book par excellence. The Psalter was the most studied book in the monastery and most would have memorized it, sometimes singing all 150 psalms in a day. The typical format of worship in the early years of the Christian church in Ireland would have been simple yet powerful chanting. There is a story of a young Kerryman from the 6th century, Mochuda, who was herding swine in the hills when he heard a group of monks chanting the psalms. Amazed at the beauty of the melody he stayed out all night just to listen to the chanting of the vespers. Needless to say the pigs did a runner. Adomnán (d. 704), records that when Columba and his fellow monks entered the wilds of northern Scotland to evangelise the Picts, they stood outside a Pictish fort (because the king refused to see them), and chanted Psalm 45, (I address my verses to the king...). Apparently the Picts were afraid of the voices which they compared to roaring thunder. What that says about the Irish missionaries singing abilities is open to interpretation.

A more refined polyphonic chanting developed in the Irish church over time. Columbanus (d. 615) allegedly wrote some rules for singing in his monastery. It included singing antiphonally, with one monk intoning the opening line and the others responding. In 1228 Stephen of Lexington was sent by the abbot of Clairvaux in France to check Cistercian houses in Ireland. Letters from his visit survive and give the impression that he wasn’t overly impressed with the exuberant worship services. He passed a new directive that no one was to sing with duplicated tones under pain of flogging and a diet of bread and water! So much for polyphonic chanting!

Besides the Psalms, the Irish also wrote many personal hymns of praise in both Irish and Latin. Collections of these hymns are found in various manuscripts in Ireland and also the continent. A large collection of Irish hymns were discovered in Vienna at the famous Irish monastery Schottenstift. They date from the twelfth century and many include musical notation.

The famous 11th century Irish manuscript Liber Hymnorum (the Book of Hymns) contains hundreds of hymns from the early Irish Church. One hymn is entitled In Te Christe. It was supposedly written by Columba (d. 597), but it probably dates later than him. Here is an excerpt.

In thee O Christ, have mercy upon all believers
You are God, forever and ever in glory
God maker of all, the judge of the judges
God is the prince over princes, of all the elements
The God of eternal light, the God indescribable

God highly beloved, God incomparable
Generous God slow to anger, teacher of the teachable
The God who made all things, everything, both new and old

Christ, the breastplate of soldiers, the creator of all
Christ the salvation of the living, and the life of the dying
He has crowned our army with a crowd of martyrs
Christ has redeemed us, Christ has suffered for us
Christ ascended to the cross, Christ has saved the world

Trinitarian Worship

Brian Edgar makes the following points in his book The Message of the Trinity.

A common attitude is that worship is best understood simply as something that people do for God. When understood in that way the responsibility of worshippers is to offer praise, thanksgiving, prayers and the thoughts and desires of one's heart to God in gratitude for his grace. Worship is, therefore, what we do before God. But this is insufficiently Trinitarian and is even human-centred to the point that worship becomes a work rather than a grace. It is unitarian because pastor, worship-leader and people are on one side, offering worship to God who is on the other side, hearing the prayer and receiving the worship.

Trinitarian worship is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the Incarnate Son’s communion with the Father. Trinitarian worship is fellowship (or participating or sharing) in the life of God. The Trinity provides a participatory understanding of worship and prayer. Worship therefore, is properly centred upon God not only as the object of worship but also as the leader and the inspirer of worship.

This takes nothing away from the act of offering praise and thanksgiving, but rather than focusing on what we can do for God the emphasis falls on the work of Christ and the life of the blessed Trinity. That is, on the Son who takes us into the Father’s presence through his sacrifice and intercession and on the Spirit who is the enabler and the inspiration of worship. In this way worship becomes an act of grace, rather than a work that we do.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!” Galatians 4.6

Adam's Covering

When Adam decided that he would become like God through exalting his will above the divine decree, he took and ate. Bitter was the taste, and ashamed to stand before God in his nakedness he tried to provide a covering for himself and Eve. This covering of leaves took nothing of the consequence of sin away and he hid from the face of God. Summoned by the Voice he stood condemned in his sin. But oh the mercy of the Holy One. God provides a covering for Adam, innocent blood is split and man is covered. It has always been God’s provision, only God can provide the covering of man’s sin.

Behold the man. The Second Adam. God the Son becomes a man, exalting the Father’s will above His own. Empowered by the Spirit he offers himself as the sacrifice to take away the punishment due to sinful men. He is stripped of his clothes and led to death so that he might take away the shame and punishment of Adam’s sons and daughters. It is always God who provides the covering, and we have received the covering of the second Adam’s righteousness. His death is our death, his victory is our victory, his resurrection is our resurrection, his life is our life, his righteousness is our righteous, and his stripping is our covering.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32.1

βαπτίζω - Death, Burial and Resurrection

I had the joy and privilege to participate in the baptism of Eimear Murphy on Sunday the second of January. Baptism is always such a joyous occasion. Being buried with Christ and raised up with Him to the newness of life. A visible demonstration of a spiritual reality.

The place for the baptism was at small river by the Inniscarra cemetery in Co. Cork. Cemeteries are a most appropriate location for baptisms, since baptism is a picture of death, burial and resurrection in Christ.

Gregory of Nazianzus (d. A.D. 390) delivered a famous festive oration on the Baptism of Christ wherein he makes mention of the uniqueness of Christ’s baptism and how John the Baptist struggled to allow it. Using Paul’s analogy of Christ as the second Adam, Gregory explained how Christ’s baptism figuratively presents to us the failure of Adam turned into the victory of resurrection which reunites the faithful into communion with God.
"As yet [as] John is baptizing, Jesus approaches, perhaps also to sanctify the baptizer, and certainly to bury the old Adam in the water, but [John] the Baptizer does not accept it; Jesus debates with him. ‘I need to be baptized by you’, the lamp says to the Sun, the voice to the Word, the friend to the Bridegroom, the one above all born to women to the First Born of all creation, the one who leaped in the womb to the One worshipped in the womb... But Jesus [is baptized and] comes up again out of the water. For he carries up with himself the world and ‘sees the heavens opened’ which Adam closed for himself and for those after him, as he also closed paradise by the flaming sword."

The Book of Armagh - A Bible from the Early Irish Church

The Book of Armagh is the earliest surviving complete NT manuscript produced in Ireland. It dates from the beginning of the 9th century, offering a fascinating glimpse into the early Irish Church. The Manuscript contains the entire NT (plus the pseudepigraphical Epistle to the Laodiceans), the Confession of St. Patrick, several early histories (Vitae) concerning St. Patrick, the Life of St. Martin, and Jerome’s letter to Pope Damasus (concerning his revision of the Vetus Latina). Like modern study Bibles, the Book of Armagh has introductions to the Biblical books, and a cross reference system (the Eusebian Canons).

As with all Irish Bibles (prior to the 17th century) it is written in Latin. The Biblical text itself reflects predominately the Vulgate, with Vetus Latina influences. This conflated textual basis is typical in Irish manuscripts. In terms of textual criticism the textual variants are largely insignificant. It contains the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) and omits the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7). The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:13 does not contain the addition, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. The account of the angel stirring the water in John 5:4 is absent. Colossians 1:14 omits the clause through his blood. 1 Timothy 3:16 reads he who was manifest. It includes the longer ending to Mark.

The main scribe of this important manuscript was a scholar named Ferdomnach (d. AD 845), who was described in the Annals of Ulster as Sapiens et scriba optimus, i.e. a wise and excellent scribe. His penmanship is careful yet beautiful. At the foot of folio 79r he proudly wrote in the margin that he had completed the two preceding columns dipping his quill only three times. Several other scribes helped with the writing, with some adding Irish commentary in the margins to help explain the Latin text. For example in Acts the Latin phrase, contra stimulum, is explained in the margin with an old Irish gloss, frisin tomaltid, i.e. against the goads.

Over time the book itself was venerated as supposedly written by St. Patrick himself. An official keeper (in old Irish Maor) was entrusted with safekeeping the manuscript on behalf of the church of Armagh. This guardianship was passed down on a hereditary basis. The MacMaor clan (literally, son of the Keeper) guarded this manuscript until the 17th century when they pawned it for £5! It then passed into private ownership and eventually the possession of Trinity College Dublin, where it can be seen today.

What this manuscript contains is the early influences on Christianity in Ireland. The British certainly influenced Ireland; men like Patrick (and countless others) introduced the Christian faith to the pagan Irish. Roman culture and theology also played a major role in shaping early Christian Ireland. Men like St. Jerome were seen as authoritative voices in matters of theological dispute. The language of Rome, Latin, permeates the manuscript, from Patrick’s Confession to the NT text itself, and it was the language of the early Irish Church. By no means least, we must remember the profound influence the Bible itself had on Irish Christianity. The Irish studied it, memorized it, copied it, and illuminated it. It became the focal point of Irish artistic and theological expression.

However, as time passed some of these influences became stumbling blocks. Men like Patrick, who called the Irish to faith in Christ, became the object of veneration and worship. Men like Muirchú (fl. 697) wrote that Patrick was given the right to save the Irish on the day of judgement, the book of Armagh preserves his Vita Patricii. Prayer to Patrick and the saints became the norm. The Latin Bible gradually became irrelevant and incomprehensible to the Irish as Latin learning waned. No attempt was made to translate the Bible into Irish. The Bible became venerated as an object while its message became suffused with extra-Biblical tradition. Today the average Irishman probably knows less about the Bible than in the early medieval period. We need once more to open the Scriptures to the Irish. Patrick is sometimes disparagingly called by scholars, homo unius libri (a man of one book), because his writings were packed with extensive Biblical quotations and little else. That’s the kind of teaching we need, that is the correct use of the Bible. We must like Philip, open our mouths, and beginning with this Scripture tell the good news about Jesus (cf. Acts 8.35).

Beati Pauperes Spiritu

Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are you David son of Jesse, for you saw that you were the poor man who thirsted for the living God, as in a dry and weary land. Surely you found streams of living water.
Blessed are you Simon Peter, you recognised that you were a sinful man, you confessed but then denied your Lord, your boasts turned to tears, you were restored to him who prayed for you, to Christ the good shepherd.
Blessed are you blind men of Capernaum, you sit in darkness, you know there is no light in you, you called out to the Son of David, and he had mercy on you, and your eyes beheld the light of the world.
Blessed are you wise men, you have come from the east to bow before the Wisdom of God. You have seen the star come out of Jacob, the sceptre rise out of Israel. You rejoiced greatly, because you fell down and worshipped the One who is for us Wisdom righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
Blessed are you sinful woman of the city, you owed much, but you have been redeemed. You bid the Saviours call and came unto him with a broken heart, you kissed the feet of him who brought you good news of forgiveness. You anointed the Anointed One, your faith saved you, and you went in peace.
Blessed are you Paul, so zealous for your own righteousness you persecuted the Righteous One, blind to your need of a saviour. Happy was the day when in blindness you saw. You saw the wretched man you were, poor, naked and blind, and saw Him who is Lord over all. For by grace were you saved not through your own doing, you could boast in nothing but Christ.
Blessed are you thief condemned to die. You who stole to become rich, reaped the laws condemnation. Yet when others saw a man forsaken your eyes beheld the inexpressible gift of God, when the mocking voices called on the Saviour to save himself you called upon him to remember you. Casting yourself on him who justifies the ungodly, yours is the kingdom of God this very day.
Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Augustine on seeking the Word made Flesh

"I sought, therefore, some way to acquire the strength sufficient to enjoy thee; but I did not find it until I embraced that "Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," "who is over all, God blessed forever,” who came calling and saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and mingling with our fleshly humanity the heavenly food I was unable to receive. For "the Word was made flesh" in order that thy wisdom, by which thou didst create all things, might become milk for our infancy. And, as yet, I was not humble enough to hold the humble Jesus; nor did I understand what lesson his weakness was meant to teach us. For thy Word, the eternal Truth, far exalted above even the higher parts of thy creation, lifts his subjects up toward himself. But in this lower world, he built for himself a humble habitation of our own clay, so that he might pull down from themselves and win over to himself those whom he is to bring subject to him; lowering their pride and heightening their love, to the end that they might go on no farther in self-confidence--but rather should become weak, seeing at their feet the Deity made weak by sharing our coats of skin--so that they might cast themselves, exhausted, upon him and be uplifted by his rising." Augustine, Confessions 7.XVIII.xxiv