The Christian Soul before the Coronavirus: Part 2 - A Meditation on the Rorate Caeli 1

As a young Seminarian and Religious I would chant these words each Advent during the Offeratory of the Holy Mass. It is a Hymn of repentance and humble prayer but not despair. Each of the strophes or after each chorus the Heart continues to advance in Hope ultimately in a Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a hymn to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child. Something we do similarly in the season of Lent. Below is a reflection on that hymn which I sang from the time I was a teenager. I continue singing and reflecting on it to this day finding new meaning in particular in this time of darkness.

The Chorus:

Roráte caéli désuper,et núbes plúant jústum.

Rain down upon us, O Heavens, and may the clouds rain down the just.

Traditionally, the beginning of Advent marks the end of the Harvest season. Depending on the year the Harvest may be good or bad. The Harvest in and of itself is determined often by factors beyond the work of the Laborer. The Latin word for "to Rain" is different. In the above line it is "Rorare" which is translated as "dewfall" in the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer. Water that comes symbolically from the ground through condensation yet literally as precipitation from the Heavens. Rorare denotes a meaning closer to "sprinkle" or "dew" but also "renew" or "revive". 

The second of the two "Rains" is not a mystery. "pluere" means simply to "rain" but what has always been central to the Christian mystery is not the action of "raining" down but rather what is rained down upon us. "Justum", the just. The just what? What just thing or person or word is rained down upon us? As Advent denotes an ending of a Harvest period it brings to mind the fact that through our thoughts, words, and actions, we sow our own seed. Is it worthy? Does our seed produce good fruit? Fruit that will last (cf. John 15)? 

Often the hardest lessons are caused by oneself. We reap what we sow and when we sow bad seed we reap bad fruit. Simply put even when we reap evil fruit it is just. God is simply allowing for us to reap an evil fruit when we have been wrongful by sowing evil seed.

Jesus, Lord, renew and revive us through your effervescent dewfall. Allow us to encounter you through renewed hearts. We pray with humble hearts, minds and lips. Amen. 

Strophe 1: 

Ne irascáris Dómine,ne ultra memíneris iniquitátis:ecce cívitas Sáncti fácta est desérta:Síon desérta fácta est, Jerúsalem desoláta est:dómus sanctificatiónis túæ et glóriæ túæ,ubi laudavérunt te pátres nóstri. 

Do not be angry with us, Lord, do not continue to remember our iniquity: The house of your holiness and glory where our Fathers praised you. Behold your the City of your Holy One is made desolate. Zion is deserted, Jerusalem is desolate.

 "Angry like Jesus" is the title of a relatively new book on how learning that Jesus wasn't always just a "nice guy". It was written to bring each Christian to incite his or her moral courage in an age of rampant Relativism. And Jesus is right in his Anger. It is a Just Anger. And as it rains "the Just" we are rained upon with Justice full of Wrath. We have no where to go. On March 27th, 2020, Pope Francis prayed in an empty St. Peter's Square. "Zion desolate". In the same place where Peter and Christian Martyrs were executed in the droves there we find the Barque of Peter empty. What happened? 

Bangkok Post - March 28, 2020

Jesus, have you abandoned us to our "just" iniquity which we deserve? Have we been unworthy of your patient love? Why do we feel that you are sleeping while the waves are coming down upon us?

Strophe 2: 

Peccávimus, et fácti súmus tamquam immúndus nos, et cecídimus quasi fólium univérsi:et iniquitátes nóstræ quasi véntus abstulérunt nos:abscondísti faciem túam a nóbis,et allisísti nos in mánu iniquitátis nóstræ. 

We sinned, and we were made unclean and we fell as the leaf of the world: and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away: you have hidden your face from us, and you have crushed us in the hand of our iniquity.

Would you allow us to suffer on cause of our own sins? Wouldn't that sound as an evil God unworthy of our worship? Is not God abandoning us when He said that He would "be with us until the End of Age"? Before we accuse Jesus Christ as we will all do on Good Friday should we not first accept that we are made unclean by our devices? Have we not truly fallen as the "leaf of the world" past Harvest time? What is the "leaf of the world" but money? Have we not worshiped it and fallen for its allures? It is not that God hid His Face. He looked for us in the Garden when we fell in disobedience (cf. Gen 3). We hid from Him! Our own sins have acted as a crushing hand of our own artificial non-supernatural characters. Furthermore how poignant to read that our iniquities "drive us away as the wind" while we are besieged by a respiratory disease...

To be continued.