Today is the feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist; by a nice coincidence, I happened to consult the part of William Durandus’ Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, the Summa Theologica of medieval liturgical commentaries, which discusses the rites of Mass (book 4), and thus discover his interesting explanation of the subdeacon’s singing of the Epistle, which he sees as a symbol of St John and his role in the life of Christ.
The Epistle should be read, according to Master William of Auxerre, on the right side of the Church, because Christ came first to the Jews, who are said to be on the right (i.e. the place of honor); nonetheless, it is better that it be done in the middle of the church, since John was in the middle between the Apostles and the Prophets. ... (This also refers to the opening words of the Introit of St John the Evangelist, ‘In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth’, Sir. 15, 5, also used in several other places in the liturgy.)
But the Epistle is put before the Gospel, for it designates the office which John exercised before Christ, since he ‘went before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, as he himself bear witness, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the desert” prepare ye the way of the Lord.’ John is therefore like the subdeacon, the minister under Him who said about Himself, ‘The Son of man came not to be served.’ Wherefore, just as the preaching of John went before the preaching of Christ, so the Epistle goes before the Gospel. The Epistle also bears the figure of the Law and Prophecy, which preceded the coming of Christ, just as it precedes the Gospel; for the Law preceded the Gospel, as shadow goes before light, as fear before charity, and a beginning before perfection.John the Baptist Preaching Before Herod, by the Dutch painter Pieter de Grebbe (1600 ca. - 1652/3; public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
St John the Baptist (lower right) at the head of the “praiseworthy number of the prophets”; fresco on the ceiling of the San Brizio chapel of the cathedral of Orvieto, Italy, by Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Sailko, CC BY 3.0) |