Second Sunday of Lent: One Example of Use of Bible in Celebration of Liturgy

Abstract

The liturgy of the Catholic Church adopts and reframes passages from Scripture in manifold ways. At times a passage is proclaimed or sung in the liturgy exactly as it appears in the Bible; at other times, a prayer or antiphon draws from one or more verses of the Scripture for inspiration. In order to demonstrate this twofold practice, this article presents a single example of a random day on the liturgical calendar, the Second Sunday of Lent. It will explore the uses of Scripture in the revised entrance and communion antiphons, the restoration of long-neglected ancient presidential prayers, the composition of a new collect and preface, the three-year cycle of readings, and the intersection of biblical references between the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours. By examining a single example, the reader will come to a deeper appreciation of the depth of the interplay between the Bible and liturgy on every day of the calendar. This article will cite the present and previous Roman Missals, the Roman Gradual, the context for the structure of the Lectionary for Mass on this day as the revisers conceived it, and unique features from the Liturgy of the Hours. It will also show how particular biblical references on one day reappear in other liturgical celebrations, expanding the reader’s appreciation of the specific application of biblical texts to a variety of liturgical events.

1. Introduction

The late twentieth-century reforms to Catholic worship introduced a greater coherence between the contents of the Bible and the texts applied to the celebration of the liturgy. The Catholic Church has a long tradition of drawing from the Scriptures to form liturgical texts, and the revised missal expanded these further. The connection between the Bible and liturgical texts exists on any day of the liturgical year. To demonstrate the point, this article takes a single, random example, the Second Sunday of Lent, to explore the biblical foundations of liturgical texts.

Studies have been made on the revised Order of Mass (for example, Barba 2008), the collects (for example, McCarthy 2009; Johnson 1996; Pristas 2013), and prefaces (Ward and Johnson 1989). However, as such background information to parts of the Mass is found in a variety of books, there remains a need to see how these sources intersect on a particular day of the liturgical year (for one study, see Johnson and Ward 2000).

This article will demonstrate how significantly the liturgical texts rely on biblical sources. It will also help the reader discern to what degree certain texts relate to the specificities of the liturgical day. The postconciliar reform introduced wider applications between biblical and liturgical texts primarily through its Lectionary for Mass. At times the readings have inspired the choice of antiphons and presidential prayers for the same day, whether in direct quotation or allusion; at other times, they make no such impact. The Lectionary’s readings have influenced the celebration of parish liturgy through preaching, song, and art, but they are not the only source for the texts of the day and open other possible connections that may otherwise be ignored. This article aims to examine a single day’s liturgical texts in the postconciliar missal and identify their biblical foundations to gain a deeper insight into the sources. Much of this information is available in other studies, but collated, detailed commentaries on individual days remain incomplete, largely because of the breadth of days in the liturgical year and other occasions for which the missal supplies texts. This article aims to contribute to such a study for one day. Its purpose is exploratory: to show one model for further study in a complex field.

The Bible is not the only source of inspiration for liturgical prayer. The Church’s doctrines and traditions also apply, as do the structures governing the missal’s prose elements, such as collects and antiphons, which create a framework for receiving biblical and doctrinal allusions and citations.

After the bishops of the Second Vatican Council published their Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) (Sacrosanctum Concilium 1974), Pope Paul VI appointed specialists to implement its directives (Bugnini 1983). These experts increased the connections between the Bible and liturgy through individual elements and their arrangements on each day throughout the liturgical year.

They drew inspiration from two lines of the Constitution. Concerning worship in general, “In order that rite and word be more intimately joined in the liturgy, a more abundant, more varied, and more appropriate reading of sacred scripture may be restored in sacred celebrations” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 1974, p. 21, para. 35). Concerning the Mass in particular, “The biblical treasures may be more widely opened, by which the table of the word of God may be more richly revealed to the faithful, so that, within the span of an established number of years, the more important part of the Sacred Scriptures may be read to the people” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 1974, p. 29, para. 51).

These permissions pertained specifically to the readings taken directly from the Bible. However, they justified the retention of other scriptural elements not related to the readings, and they inspired a broader development of newly desirable parts of the Mass, such as additional prefaces, for which they turned to the Bible as one source.

Examples can be found in all areas of liturgical prayer. An analysis of the Second Sunday of Lent alone will show the application of biblical sources to various parts of the Mass and even the Liturgy of the Hours.

2. The Entrance Antiphon

The Roman Missal assigns an entrance antiphon to every day of the liturgical year, as well as to special celebrations such as those pertaining to the rituals of the sacraments, and to Masses for Various Needs and Occasions. These antiphons usually, though not exclusively, come from the Bible or are derived from a biblical verse.

At the same time, the General Instruction on the Roman Missal permits the substitution of another antiphon, psalm, or chant (Missale Romanum 2008, no. 48). In practice, many parish musicians lead the Sunday assembly in a hymn selected from a collection approved by the conference of bishops. Inspired by the liturgy’s meaningful connections to the Bible, they often paradigmatically choose this hymn because of a perceived relationship between its lyrics and the gospel of the day, even though the missal, rife with antiphons that do not pertain to the day’s gospel, never specifically recommends this connection. Instead, it preserves a suite of antiphons from the 1962 missal (Missale Romanum 1962), as can be discerned throughout Ordinary Time, or it supplies new ones apparently judged to have better content or pertinence.

On the Second Sunday of Lent, the missal offers two options for the entrance antiphon, an uncommon though not unique practice. The second of these copies the antiphon from the 1962 missal, referencing Psalm 25, verses 6, 2, and 22—in that order. It calls upon God to exercise his storied compassion and bring relief from the distress emergent from the pressing of enemies.

The 1962 missal attached versicles to each entrance antiphon, followed by the repetition of the antiphon. The 2008 missal does not contain such versicles, but they are found in the Graduale Romanum, which also supplies musical notation for the Latin chants (Abbatia Sancti Petri de Solesmis 1974).

For the Second Sunday of Lent, the 1962 missal selected verses 1 and 2 of the same Psalm 25 as the versicles for this antiphon. The Graduale retains them. To locate the complete chant, the Graduale refers the user to Wednesday of the First Week of Lent, where the same antiphon first appears, as it does in the 2008 missal. The 1962 missal similarly assigned the same antiphon and versicle on that Wednesday. Therefore, tradition, not the current lectionary, influenced the choice of this biblical passage as the second option for the entrance antiphon of this Mass.

The revised missal added a new antiphon as the first option. It adopts verses 8 and 9 of Psalm 27, which, as will be seen, is the source of one choice for the responsorial psalm on the same day. The Graduale Romanum adds the first verse of the same psalm as the versicle.

Here one observes the impact of the day’s gospel, the account of the transfiguration of Jesus, taken from one of the synoptic gospels in all three years of the lectionary cycle. In these two verses, Psalm 27 refers to the “face” of the Lord three times, acknowledging one’s search for the face of God and praying that the Lord not hide his face. The three gospel accounts all note the change to Jesus’ face. Thus, in the very first words of the Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent, the missal offers a direct quotation from the Book of Psalms, verses that foreshadow the moment recorded in the gospel of the same day.

On August 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Roman Missal has a different antiphon inspired by Matthew’s account of the transfiguration (17:5). However, on that day, the Graduale Romanum refers the user to the Second Sunday of Lent to find the proper entrance antiphon. At times the missal and the Graduale have different antiphons on the same day. The decision, in this case, probably aids the mastering of the musical repertoire, besides making the obvious link between the Bible and the liturgy of the day.

The Graduale Simplex supplies yet another entrance antiphon (Editio Typica Altera 1975). As the title suggests, the music for the chants in this collection is simpler than that of the Graduale Romanum for the benefit of less skilled singers. Perhaps to contain the extensive repertoire of the Graduale Romanum on the Second Sunday of Lent, the Graduale Simplex refers the user to the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord to find the entrance antiphon. Its words abbreviate and conflate the synoptic accounts of the event without citing specific biblical verses: “Jesus took his disciples and went up a mountain and was transfigured before them.”

That antiphon pairs with the complete text of Psalm 84, a pilgrimage psalm that expresses contentment in the house of the Lord and asks the Lord to look upon the face of his anointed, or the face of his “Christ”. As with the first option from the missal, the choice of biblical texts for this antiphon directly foreshadows the gospel of the day.

3. The Collect

The introductory rites of the Mass conclude as the priest invites the people to pray, supplies a moment of silence for them to place themselves in God’s presence and to recall their intentions, and then offers the words of the collect, which expresses the character of the celebration (Missale Romanum 2008, no. 54). The revised missal expanded the range of collects. While retaining many prayers from the 1962 missal, it gathered selections from other sources, such as the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites; restored neglected options from previously mined collections, such as the Verona, Gelasian, and Gregorian Sacramentaries; inserted more recently discovered ancient prayers, such as those in the Rotulus of Ravenna; and created new compositions suited to the times.

For the Second Sunday of Lent, the collect from the 1962 missal asked God to preserve the faithful’s heart and mind, which are otherwise subject to adversities and wicked thoughts. The revisers completely set this prayer aside and replaced it with one of their own compositions.1 The new prayer makes multiple allusions to the transfiguration: the command to listen to the beloved Son, the appeal for pure spiritual sight, and the desire to behold God’s glory. No other collect in Lent so connects the lectionary’s gospel to a newly composed prayer in order to unite the Bible and liturgy.

4. The Readings

The lectionary’s overall scheme throughout the Sundays of Lent provides the framework for its selection of readings on the Second Sunday. The first readings on these Sundays survey the history of salvation, a traditional theme associated with catechesis during Lent. The second readings connect either to the first reading or the gospel. The gospels on the First and Second Sundays retain the tradition that associates these days with the temptation and transfiguration of Jesus, respectively. The gospels on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays pertain to Christian initiation in Year A, Christ’s coming passion and resurrection in Year B, and the call to conversion in Year C (Ordo Lectionum Missæ 1981, no. 97).

The same paragraph from the Introduction to the Lectionary says that Luke supplies Year C’s gospels on these Sundays. However, the one on the Fifth Sunday is from John. In the development of the lectionary, the final draft had assigned the Year A gospels of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays to all three years of the cycle, but the first edition diversified the gospels in Years B and C. Perhaps at some point the plan was to hear from Luke on all three Sundays of Year C, but the revisers ultimately listened to an appeal to include the account of the forgiveness of the adulterous woman from John 8 on a Sunday in Lent (Turner 2022, p. 68).

The Second Sunday fits into this pattern. Its gospel connects more to the First Sunday than to the subsequent three. Its first reading takes part in the arc of passages transversing the history of salvation. Its second reading serves one of the other two. Its psalm accents some part of this arrangement.

Surprising to many, the three readings on any of the first five Sundays of Lent do not unify around a single theme. They serve the lectionary’s overall scheme.

5. The First Reading

The history of salvation stretches from Adam and Eve through the patriarchs to the monarchy and the prophets. In all three years of the cycle, the first reading on the Second Sunday of Lent concerns one key figure: Abraham. Year A presents his call (Gen 12:1–4a), Year B his preparation for the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22:1–2, 9a, 10–13, 15–18), and Year C the establishment of the covenant (Gen 15:5–12, 17–18). All three episodes are inarguably significant turning points in the life of Abraham.

At times the lectionary extends a single thought across the three years of the cycle. For example, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time presents John’s account of Jesus’ early ministry: 1:29–34 in Year A, 1:35–42 in Year B, and 2:1–11 in Year C. The sequence pushes the traditional epiphany-time reading of the miracle at Cana into Year C. Similarly, the Fourth Sunday of Easter supplies a series of passages from John 10, all exploring the image of the Good Shepherd: verses 1–10 in Year A, 11–18 in Year B, and 27–30 in Year C. In both of these examples, the readings flow in biblical order across the three years of the cycle.

However, on the Second Sunday of Lent, the sequence is out of order. The accounts of Abraham draw from chapters 12, 22, and 15 of Genesis, respectively. This resulted from the process that the revisers used to arrange the readings of Lent. In the original drafts, they planned to place the early chapters of Genesis within the first five Sundays of Year A, the history of Israel from the Exodus to the entrance into the Promised Land on the same Sundays of Year B, and prophecies on those Sundays of Year C (Turner 2022, p. 69). Eventually, they turned this outline sideways and incorporated these three historical categories across the first readings of each year. That explains why the first reading on the Fifth Sunday of Lent always comes from one of the prophets.

The passages about Abraham in Years A and B were already in the original drafts, but by redrawing the outline, the revisers required a third episode. They added a significant one for Year C, even though it was out of sequence with the other two years of the cycle. Something similar happened on the First Sunday of Lent when a new first reading in Year C joined the others late in the process. That selection from Deuteronomy concerns Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land, which took place out of sequence, long after the episode about Abraham on the Second Sunday. Even when plugging holes, the lectionary shows how the Bible influences the liturgy.

6. The Responsorial Psalm

Responsorial Psalms almost always meditate on the first reading, even at daily Mass. That happens on this Sunday in Years A and B.

In Year A, following the passage about the call of Abraham, the lectionary offers Psalm 33:4–5, 18–29, 20 and 22, celebrating the merciful love of God. In Year B, the responsorial is Psalm 116:10 and 11, 16–17, 18–19, with a refrain from verse 9 about walking in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living. It follows the account of the near death of Isaac.

However, in Year C, the responsorial is Psalm 27:1, 7–8, 9abc, 13–14. This follows the late addition of the first reading for this Sunday, the covenant with Abraham. In that passage, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch pass between the split animal carcasses that Abraham had arranged at God’s request. The psalm’s refrain declares that the Lord is light and salvation. At first, it seems to align with the fiery images of the first reading, but even more, it looks forward to the gospel of the day. This is the psalm that supplies the missal’s new optional entrance antiphon, which clearly anticipates the transfiguration of Jesus.

Something similar happens with Year C’s psalm on the First Sunday of Lent. Instead of answering a theme from the belatedly added first reading from Deuteronomy, it offers verses from Psalm 91, which the devil cites in Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus. It is rare that the responsorial psalm prepares for the gospel in the way that the first reading does throughout the Sundays in Ordinary Time, but both the First and Second Sundays of Lent in Year C offer examples of this.

Following the first reading on any given Sunday, the Graduale Romanum typically provides a single chant gradual, in place of the lectionary’s three-year cycle of responsorial psalms. In the gradual for the Second Sunday of Lent (Ps 83:19, 14), the words implore God that the nations come to know his name, the most high over all the earth and that he scatters enemies like chaff in the wind.

This gradual comes from the 1962 missal’s Sexagesima Sunday, one of three Sundays before Ash Wednesday that the revised calendar removed. The 1962 missal’s gradual for the Second Sunday of Lent cites Psalm 25:17–18. Those verses called upon God to relieve the anguish of one’s heart and to free the psalmist from distress and sin. The 2008 missal offers that gradual on Wednesday of the First Week of Lent, where it also appeared in the 1962 missal. Coincidentally, as noted above, the entrance antiphon on that Wednesday matches the second option in the 2008 missal’s Second Sunday of Lent.

As a result, the 2008 missal preserved two graduals from the chant repertoire. It moved one from a now suppressed Sunday onto a day where the 1962 missal repeated a chant from the foregoing Wednesday. It kept the other on that Wednesday. The decision preserved passages from the Bible in association with the liturgy. However, the choices had more to do with the traditional connection between these passages and Lent and with the preservation of historical chants than with a particular biblical theme associated with the Second Sunday of Lent.

The Graduale Simplex refers the user to the Feast of the Transfiguration to find its responsorial psalm for this day. Psalm 21 opens with praise of the greatness of God’s glory, a theme that will recur in the preface.

7. The Second Reading

The second readings of Lent Sundays form a bridge either to the first reading or to the gospel. On the Second Sunday of Lent in Year A, Paul explains to Timothy that the grace bestowed on believers has been made manifest through the appearance of the Lord Jesus (2 Tim 1:8b–10). This pairs naturally with the gospel of the transfiguration rather than the first reading about the call of Abraham.

In Year B, Paul reminds the Romans that God did not spare his own son (8:31b-34). This looks back to the first reading about Abraham’s preparation to slay his own son, rather than forward to the gospel of the transfiguration.

In Year C, Paul declares to the Philippians that the Lord Jesus will change the lowly human body to conform with his own glorified body (3:17—4:1, or 3:20—4:1). This passage clearly prepares the community to hear about the transfiguration in the gospel.

Throughout Lent the pairings of the second reading with one of the other two can be discerned case by case. Again, the three readings and psalm do not all share a common theme. The first reading is intent on presenting highlights from salvation history as part of the catechesis of Lent. The gospel follows its own pattern, partly based on preserving tradition (the first two Sundays) and partly on exploring themes of Lent (the next three Sundays).

8. The Verse Before the Gospel

The verse before the gospel on all three years of the cycle is the same, a practice also observed on the First Sunday and on Palm Sunday, two other days when the gospel accounts each year of the cycle are similar. On the Second Sunday the verse directly prepares for the proclamation of the transfiguration. The words, which recall the Father’s voice resounding from a shining cloud, do not come precisely from any one of the three synoptic versions. The Father’s command to listen to the Son perfectly prepares the community to open its ears to hear the words of Christ in the gospel.

This verse resembles the one for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in Year A, which cites Mark 9:6 as its source. It reappears on the weekday, January 6, in regions and years where the Epiphany is celebrated on Sunday, January 7 or 8. It is also suggested for Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, which uses Mark’s account of the transfiguration as its gospel.

The Graduale Romanum offers a tract in place of a verse before the gospel on the Sundays of Lent. The tract sets to an elaborate chant of several verses from a psalm without any antiphon or acclamation. The ones for the First Sunday and Palm Sunday are quite extensive. The tract remains the same in all three years of the lectionary cycle.

On the Second Sunday the words come from Psalm 60, verses 4 and 6, which asks God to repair what was shattered after an earthquake and acknowledges that God gave those who fear him the signal to flee from an enemy’s weapons. In the 1962 missal, that was the tract for Sexagesima Sunday.

Also, in the 1962 missal, the tract for the Second Sunday chanted the opening four verses of Psalm 106. The Graduale Romanum has moved that chant from the Second Sunday to the Chrism Mass and taken both the gradual and tract from Sexagesima Sunday into the Second Sunday of Lent. This rescued and repositioned two chants from a Sunday that the current liturgical calendar has suppressed, apparently more for historical preservation than for its alignment with the readings of the day.

The Graduale Simplex refers the user to the Feast of the Transfiguration to find the chants of the day. However, it adds another option after the second reading: singing Psalm 123 as a responsorial. Although this psalm depicts the singer lifting eyes to the heavens, it is also assigned to the Third Sunday of Lent and may not imply a direct allusion to the gospel. Alternatively, the Graduale Simplex permits singing the acclamation antiphon from the Third Sunday, which refers to the gospel of the First Sunday—declaring that one lives not on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In these examples, the revised liturgy honors certain biblical elements that have a place in history apart from those that the lectionary assigns to the day.

9. The Gospel

In the preconciliar missal, Matthew’s account of the transfiguration was read each year on the Second Sunday. Now, over the three-year cycle, Matthew appears only in the first year (17:1–9), while the parallel accounts of Mark (9:2–10) and Luke (9:28b–36) resound in Years B and C, respectively. This gospel anchors the entire liturgy, providing a source for many of its prayers and antiphons.

The same passages repeat each year on the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6). Mark’s account reappears on Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, in semicontinuous sequence of the daily proclamation of his gospel early in the liturgical year. For the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, when Matthew’s account of the transfiguration would fall in sequence, the lectionary skips over it when advancing from Friday’s gospel (Matt 16:24–28) to Saturday’s (Matt 17:14–20). The same practice recurs during the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time when Luke’s account is omitted between the gospels of Friday (Luke 8:18–22) and Saturday (9:43b–45). The daily Mass readings present Mark almost in its entirety and then omit parallel passages from Matthew and Luke that would seem repetitious (Ordo Lectionum Missæ 1981, no. 109).

The liturgy pays particular homage to this biblical event. The gospel is proclaimed every year on a Sunday, a weekday, and a feast day. It appropriately influenced the selection of antiphons and prayers.

10. The Offertory Antiphon

Because the offertory antiphon does not appear in the missal, many people are unaware of its content. Its omission from that book stems from its optional nature and the impossibility of a priest, for whom the missal is primarily designed, to recite it while he executes other words and actions. Still, the Graduale Romanum offers singers an offertory antiphon for Mass on occasions throughout the year.

On the Second Sunday of Lent the Graduale preserves the antiphon from the 1962 missal, a chant setting of Psalm 119:47, 48. In these verses the psalmist reaches out to the commands of the Lord, which are so filled with delight. The same antiphon is repeated on multiple occasions throughout the year, notably on Wednesday of the First Week of Lent. As noted above, the 1962 missal also repeated the gradual of that day on the Second Sunday of Lent. Once again, the linking of the Bible and liturgy sometimes pertained more to the preservation of the chant repertoire than to the alignment of passages with the gospel of the day.

Nonetheless, the Graduale Simplex does refer back to the gospel. Its offertory antiphon repeats the words of Peter, suggesting the construction of three tabernacles. It is paired with Psalm 133, a declaration of goodness and joy when brothers and sisters dwell as one. Perhaps this psalm aims to capture Peter’s own delight at the transfiguration, not wishing to leave the mountain.

11. The Prayer over the Offerings

To conclude the preparation of the gifts at each Mass, the priest offers a prayer anticipating the thanksgiving and offering embedded within the eucharistic prayer. On the Second Sunday of Lent, he prays that this sacrifice may cleanse the faults of all those present, including himself, and sanctify the faithful in body and mind as preparation for the celebration of Easter.

This prayer originated in the ninth-century Hadrian Supplement of the Gregorian Sacramentary, where it served the Third Sunday of Lent. The 2008 missal has recovered here a prayer that the 1962 missal had omitted. It replaces one in which the priest asked the Lord to be pleased with the sacrifices so that they might benefit the devotion and salvation of the people. The recovered prayer has more theological depth, historical value, and thematic pertinence to Lent. However, this prayer adds a different kind of intersection of the Bible and liturgy on this Sunday. It seems to allude to Romans 12:1–2 and Hebrews 9:14 by echoing sacrificial themes from those passages. By preserving another element from the treasures of the past, the 2008 missal shows another value at work.

12. The Preface

The extensive library of prefaces in the revised missal indicates one of the greatest enrichments over its predecessor, which by comparison preserved only a very few. Lent provides one example of the contrast: The 1962 missal had a single preface for Lent, offered daily throughout the first four weeks, and a preface of the Holy Cross, prayed at Lent’s final Masses before the triduum.

In the revised missal, the previous preface for the first four weeks has become the last of four options for Lent, and the preface of the Holy Cross has moved to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14); it may also be used in a Votive Mass of the Holy Cross. The revised missal offers no fewer than thirteen prefaces for Lent—some for specific Sundays and two in the Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of Reconciliation.

Some of these prefaces come from ancient sources, but the specific one assigned to the Second Sunday of Lent is a new composition. The extensive repertoire of prefaces from the past inspired the revisers to draw from something old and freed them to create something new.

The preface for the Second Sunday draws inspiration from the synoptic accounts of the transfiguration. It acknowledges the context of this vision—following shortly after Jesus’ prediction of his passion in all three gospels. The appearance of Moses and Elijah represents the law and the prophets, which the preface says provide testimony that the passion leads to the glory of the resurrection. The Second Letter of Peter 1:18 appears to give personal testimony of the transfiguration. It declares that the author and unnamed others heard the voice from heaven when they were with Jesus on what that letter calls the “holy mountain”—a description not found in the synoptics but that the preface adopts.

A number of other biblical passages lie in the background of these words. None of the biblical accounts of the transfiguration directly calls the event a revelation of the “glory” of Christ, but the preface does. It relies on passages such as John 17:22, where Jesus prays that the glory he received from the Father may be given to his disciples; 2 Corinthians 4:6, which says that God, who created light, has shone light into the hearts of believers to give them knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ; Philippians 3:31, which promises that Christ has power to remake the human body after his own glorious body; and Hebrews 2:9, which acknowledges that, through suffering and death, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor. This new composition for the liturgy relied heavily on biblical sources.

13. The Communion Antiphon

Drawing a verse from Matthew’s account of the transfiguration, the one long associated with this day, the missal’s communion antiphon repeats the words of the Father, identifying Jesus as his beloved Son and asking all to listen to him (Matt 17:5). The Graduale Romanum repeats this antiphon on the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) and on Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, when Mark’s account of the same event is proclaimed.

This replaces the communion antiphon of the 1962 missal, Psalm 5:2–4, though the Graduale Romanum preserves the traditional chant of those verses on Wednesday of the First Week of Lent. The 1962 missal also used that antiphon from the Second Sunday on that Wednesday, as it used the same gradual and offertory on those two days. The verses from Psalm 5 call upon the Lord to give ear to the sound of the psalmist’s cry. The 2008 missal has replaced the antiphon of that Wednesday with verse 12 of the same psalm in another instance where the missal and Graduale offer different biblical texts for the same antiphon.

The choice of Matthew 17:5 for the Second Sunday of Lent in the 2008 missal shows an occasional tendency: linking the communion antiphon to the gospel of the day. The practice can be found on many occasions throughout the year, especially during Lent, where each Sunday adopts it, as do some weekdays. As Christ is present in the proclamation of the gospel, so he is present in the reception of communion. As the gospel presents good news upon which the hearers are to act, so communion presents the sacrament that nourishes the life of the Christian. In this subtle way the communion antiphon bears powerful testimony to the unity of the Bible and liturgy and its implications.

In both the Graduale Romanum and the Graduale Simplex the communion antiphon comes from the end of the day’s gospel, in which Jesus asks his three companions to tell no one about the vision until he has risen from the dead (Matt 17:9). The verses come from Psalm 45, which opens with a determination to announce the good works of the king. The Graduale Romanum offers as an alternative Psalm 97:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, which envisions cloud and darkness surrounding the Lord and mountains melting before the face of the Lord. All these images seem to be inspired by the gospel of the day.

14. The Prayer After Communion

In this prayer the priest gives thanks to God on behalf of the people for allowing them on earth to partake of the things of heaven. This prayer came from Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent in the Gelasian Sacramentary. It went unused for many centuries, but the revised missal recovered it for this day. Perhaps its reference to the “glorious mysteries” of the sacrament of communion inspired its placement on a day when the preface proclaims the glory of Christ.

This prayer replaces the one from the 1962 missal, which asked God that those being refreshed with the sacraments worthily serve in a manner that pleases him. That communion prayer, which also appeared on Sexagesima Sunday, remains in the missal for the First Week in Ordinary Time, the weekdays following the Baptism of the Lord. Moving it there opened a spot to restore another prayer from the long tradition of Lent. In this instance, too, the missal values not only the relationship of the Bible and liturgy, but the preservation of traditional texts.

15. The Prayer over the People

The Sunday Masses of Lent all conclude with a required prayer over the people. After the priest offers the communion prayer and greets the people, the deacon or priest invites all to bow their heads for a blessing. The weekdays of Lent also have this prayer, though it is optional on those days. Previous editions of the missal allowed solemn blessings during Lent, but these have been removed in favor of prayers over the people, a custom traceable to the Gregorian Sacramentary of the ninth century (Deshusses 1979, pp. 131–71).

The one for the Second Sunday is based on the secret for the Mass of the Transfiguration (August 6) from the 1738 Missale Parisiense (Johnson and Ward 1993, p. 612). It was lightly edited and added to the third edition of the Roman Missal, repositioned as a prayer over the people (Harbert 2009, p. 15).

Surely, the references to the transfiguration inspired the editors to add this prayer to the liturgy of this particular Sunday. It calls Christ the only begotten Son of God, and it refers to the glory shown in his body to the amazement of the disciples. It provides another unitive feature to the orations of the day.

16. The Liturgy of the Hours

Throughout Lent special antiphons apply to certain days in the Liturgy of the Hours (Liturgia Horarum 2000, pp. 119–29). Unique to the Second Sunday is the assignment of gospel-based antiphons to all three psalms for Evening Prayer I. These all refer to successive moments in the accounts of the transfiguration: Jesus took three apostles up the mountain to witness the event, his face shone, his clothing became white, and Moses and Elijah spoke with him.

The Magnificat canticles for both evening prayers and the Benedictus antiphon for morning prayer all cite the gospel of the day. However, that is true for every Sunday of the year, drawing a link not only between the Bible and liturgy but between the Liturgy of the Hours and the Liturgy of the Word at Mass.

In the Office of Readings for the Second Sunday, the first reading continues the series from the Book of Exodus that flows through the early weeks of Lent, unrelated to the readings at Mass. However, it is preceded by another reference to the gospel of the day, a responsory whose lines recount the voice of the Father declaring Jesus his beloved Son. On the First Sunday of Lent, the responsory at the Office of Readings also links to the gospel of the Mass of the day; otherwise, the Liturgy of the Hours does not observe this practice in Lent.

Throughout Lent the second reading at the Office of Readings often takes its theme from the gospel at Mass of the same day, even on weekdays. It is not surprising then that this happens on the Second Sunday as well. The office adopts an excerpt from a commentary on the transfiguration by Leo the Great.

If the Office of Readings is extended into Vigils, it concludes with the proclamation of Mark 8:27–38, Jesus’ prediction of his passion that immediately precedes the transfiguration, as noted in the preface for the Mass of the day. Alternatively, one of the gospel readings from Mass on the other years of the cycle may replace that passage.

17. Conclusions

This study has shown one method for exploring the reliance of liturgical texts on biblical sources. It has examined not only the lectionary readings but also the antiphons and the origins of prayers of the same liturgical day. This uncovers a richness not always apparent. Further research can be conducted on other days.

The liturgy of the Catholic Church relies heavily on biblical sources, and on some days, these connections are tightly interwoven. The Second Sunday of Lent provides one example. The relationship helps the worshipers of today connect with foundational biblical passages and with the liturgical traditions of the Church.

Catholics commonly think of the lectionary as the preferred source for a given day’s preaching, song, and art. This article has shown that other biblical sources have a significant role in the formulation of liturgical texts, as does the church’s own treasury of antiphons and prayers.

The transfiguration has been associated with this Sunday’s Mass for many centuries, and it has provided a rich source of imagery that influenced the proclamation of the Scriptures, the offering of prayers, and the singing of chants. The liturgy also preserves antiphons and chants based on passages in the Bible associated with the Second Sunday of Lent, though not specifically with its gospel. These have their own legacy and add to the richness of interplay between the Bible and liturgy.