De sexagesima
The Meaning and Origin of Sexagesima
This section explains the historical, liturgical, and symbolic reasons for the institution of the Sexagesima season.
Sexagesima begins on the Sunday when the antiphon 'Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord' is sung, and it ends on the Wednesday after Easter. It was established for the sake of redemption, for the sake of its meaning, and for the sake of its representation. For the sake of... Redemption, because Pope Melchiades and blessed Sylvester decreed that people should eat twice every Saturday, so that their nature would not be weakened by the abstinence they observed on Fridays, when fasting is always required. Therefore, for the redemption of the Saturdays of that time, they added one week of forty days and called it Sexagesima. Another reason concerns its meaning, since Sexagesima signifies the time of the Church's widowhood and her mourning for the absence of the Bridegroom, because the sixtieth fruit is owed to widows. For the consolation of the Church, however, in the absence of the Bridegroom who was taken up to heaven, she is given two wings: the practice of the six works of mercy and the fulfillment of the Decalogue; hence, Sexagesima sounds like 'six times ten,' so that by the six, the six works of mercy are understood, and by the ten, the Decalogue is understood. The third reason is for the sake of redemption, for Sexagesima not only signifies the time of widowhood but also represents the mystery of our redemption; for by the ten, man is understood—who is the tenth drachma—because he was made to restore the ruin of the nine orders of angels.
The Mystery of Redemption and the Church's Cry
This section explores the deeper redemptive mysteries represented by the season and the Church's prayerful response to tribulation.
Alternatively, the number ten is understood as the sum of the four bodily humors, while the soul possesses three powers—memory, intelligence, and will—created to serve the most blessed Trinity, so that we might faithfully believe in it, fervently love it, and always keep it in our memory. The number six represents the six mysteries through which man, as the tenth, is redeemed: the Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, descent into hell, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven. Sexagesima extends until the Wednesday after Easter, when we sing: 'Come, you blessed of my Father.' This is because those who practice works of mercy will hear this 'Come, you blessed' (as Christ himself testifies), when the bride's door is opened and she enjoys the embrace of the Bridegroom. In Paul's Epistle, we're admonished to bear the tribulation of the Bridegroom's absence patiently, just as Paul did; in the Gospel, we're urged to persist in sowing good works and to cry out, as if in despair: 'They have surrounded me,' and so on. Now, returning to itself, the Church also asks in its office to be helped in its tribulations and delivered from them, saying: 'Arise, O Lord,' and so on. It includes a threefold 'Arise.' For there are some in the Church who are pressed by adversities but aren't cast down; some who are pressed and are cast down; and some who are neither pressed nor cast down, yet because they don't tolerate adversities, there's a danger that prosperity might break them. Therefore, the Church cries out for Him to arise: as for the first group, by comforting them when they seem to be asleep, and not by delivering them from their trials, it cries out for Him to arise; as for the second group, by converting them when He seems to have turned His face away from them, and by repelling them in a certain way, it cries out for Him to arise; as for the third group, by helping and delivering them in their prosperity.
Read the original Latin
Sexagesima inchoatur in dominica, in qua cantalur: exsurge, quare obdormis domine, et terminatur in quarta feria post pascha. Instituta est autem propter redemtionem et propter significationem et propter repraesentationem. Propter . redemtionem, quoniam, Melchiades papa et beatus Silvester statuerunt, ut bis in omni sabbato comederetur, ne propter abstinentiam, quam homines sustinuerunt, in sexta feria, in qua omni tempore jejunandum est, natura debiliAaretur. In redemtionem ergo sabbatorum illius temporis unam septimanam XL addiderunt et sexagesimam vocaverunt. Alia ratio est propter significationem, quoniam sexagesima significat tempus viduitatis ecclesiae et moerorem illius pro abstinentia sponsi, quoniam fructus sexagesimus debetur viduis. In consolationem autem illius pro absentia sponsi, qui ad coclos raptus est, dantur ecclesiae duae alae, scilicet sex operum misericordiae exercitatio et decalogi impletio, unde sexagesima sonat sexies decem, ut per sex intelligantur sex opera misericordiae, per decem decalogus intelligatur. Tertia ratio est propter redemtionem, nam sexagesima non solum significat tempus viduitatis, sed etiam misterium nostrae redemtionis repraesentat, nam per decem intelligitur homo, qui est decima dragma, eo quod factus sit, ut ruinam novem ordinum repararet.
Vel intelligitur per decem, eo quod coustat ex quattuor humoribus quantum ad corpus, et habet tres potentias in anima, scilicet memoriam, intelligentiam et voluntatem , quae factae sunt, ut serviant beatissimae trinitati, ut in ipsam fideliter credamus, ipsam ferventer diligamus et semper in memoria teneamus. Per sex intelliguntur sex misteria, per quae homo decimus est redemtus, quae sunt incarnatio, nativitas, passio, descensio ad inferos, resurrectio et in coelum ascensio, et protenditur sexagesima usque ad quartam feriam post pascha, in qua cantatur: venite benedicti patris mei, quia illi, qui in operibus misericordiae se exercent, audient istud : venite benedicti (nt ipse Ghristus testatur), ubi tunc sponsae janua aperietur et amplexu sponsi fruetur. In epistola Pauli admonetur, ut instar Pauli tribnlationem de absentia sponsi patienter tolleret, in evangelio, ut seminationi bonorum operum semperinsistat, et quae quasi desperans clamaverat: circumdederunt me etc. , nunc quoque ad se rediens petit in officio in tribulationibus adjuvari et ab ipsis eripi dicens: exsurge domine etc. et ponit ibi triplex exsurge, Quidam enim sunt in ecclesia, qui ab adversis premuntur, sed non dejiciuntur; quidam, qui premuntur, et dejiciuntur, quidam qui nec premuntur, nec dejiciuntur, tamen quia adversa non tolerant, perieulum est, ne prospera ipsos frangant. Clamat ergo ecclesia, ut exsurgat: quantum ad primos, ipsos confortando , cum dormire videantur, ipsos non eripiendo clamat, ut exsurgat; quantum ad seeundos, ipsos convertendo, a quibus videtur faciem avertisse, ipsos quadammodo repellendo clamat, ut exsurgat; quantum ad tertios in prosperis adjuvando et liberando.
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