Whereas there are introductory settings for the Epistle, there is only one for the Gospel: In illo tempore or “At that time.” There is an Epistle setting, In diebus illis or “In those days,” that is similar but more vague. “In those days” can suggest something like “In olden times”—the events in question happened a long time ago, but we are not exactly certain when, or perhaps it is not that important. It does suggest, however, that the events did happen, unlike the ubiquitous introduction to fairy tales. “Once upon a time,” of course, is code for “Never did this happen in time.”
In illo tempore also attests to the historical reality of the story that is to follow it, but it has a specific and unique epoch in mind: the thirty-three years when the Son of God walked (or as an infant, crawled) upon the face of the earth. Each word is significant. The Christ-event happened in time: the Word who is the Beginning (Principium) entered into the middle of the human story and dwelt among us. The historicity of Jesus Church is essential to the Christian faith; if the Gospels are stories about a mythical figure, our faith is a fraud. Consequently, the Gospels emphasize their own historical reality. Consider Luke 3, 1-2:Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert.
The pains that Luke takes to date the moment when St. John the Baptist was called by God to preach the coming of the Kingdom is a far cry from “Once upon a time.”
Bartolomeo Veneto, St. John the Baptist, 16th century
The adjective ille is also important. Jesus Christ entered into our historical condition, but there is a difference between living during Jesus’ public ministry and living after, just as there is a difference between “B.C.” and “A.D.” As both the Bible and Church Fathers attest, there are several distinct periods of sacred history. These periods arise, are given their own set of dispensations, and then come to an end. The age before the Law was replaced by the age under it, and that age, in turn, was closed when Jesus Christ established the New Covenant. Likewise, the age of divine revelation (which ended at the death of the last Apostle) gave way to a different era, the era immediately preceding the Second Coming. It is that era in which we now find ourselves. Despite the expanse of two thousand years and the plethora of cultural and technological changes that separate us from the Christians who outlived the Beloved Disciple, we are still living in the same age as they, the last age of mankind before the Parousia.
To say, then, that certain events happened “at that time” is to acknowledge that they did not happen “at this time,” in this current age.
As we mentioned two weeks ago, In illo tempore was retained in the new Roman Missal and appears in the official translations of several languages except English. The decree announcing the new lectionary states that the new rite will be keeping the customary verba introductoria, but individual languages, pending permission from the competent authority, can change them or omit them altogether. [1] One wonders why these venerable settings were made optional, and why ICEL took advantage of that option. The Novus Ordo has been accused of being influenced by Gnosticism; [2] removing these affirmations of historical concreteness does not help the case of those wishing to refute this accusation.
From the 2015 Lectionary for Spain
Notes
[1] Pro singulis linguis popularibus, tales formulae mutari vel omitti possunt ex decreto Auctoritatum competentium. From the Instructio de editionibus apparandis et de usu novi ordinis lectionum missae, 20 (Prot. N. 838/69) in Notitiae 47 (July-August 1969), 254.
[2] See Peter Kwasniewski, “Gnosticism, Liturgical Change, and Catholic Life,” in Tradition and Sanity (Angelico Press, 2018).
