In his treatment of the Third Sunday after Epiphany (Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 6, 20), our friend William Durandus is more than a little obscure, so this excerpt is to some degree a paraphrase more than a direct translation.
The third Sunday after Epiphany exhorts us to adore the one King with the angels, saying in the introit “Adore God, all ye His angels,”; with the angels, because the Angel says to John in the Apocalypse (22, 9), “I am the fellow servant of thee and thy brothers.” There follows, “Sion (that is, the Church) heard and rejoiced.” And note that this introit refers to the feast of the Meeting (‘hypapante’, the Greek name of the Purification) … (since) the words of this introit agree with the those of the invitatory of that feast. In the introit is said “Sion heard and rejoiced”, and in that invitatory is said “Be glad and rejoice, o Sion, as thou comest to meet thy God.” The words of one of responsories of that feast also agree with this, namely, “Adorn thy bridal chamber, o Sion.”
Introitus, Ps. 96 Adoráte Deum, omnes Angeli ejus: audívit, et laetáta est Sion: et exsultavérunt filiae Judae. Ps. Dóminus regnávit, exsultet terra: laetentur ínsulae multae. Glória Patri... Adoráte Deum...
Introit Adore God, all ye His angels: Sion hath heard and rejoiced, and the daughters of Juda have exulted. Ps. The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice; let the many isles be glad. Glory be... Adore God, all ye His angels...
The Gospel (Matthew 8, 1-13) is about the healing of the leper. Where he says, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me,” behold his faith, wherefore Christ says to him, “I do so will; be thou cleansed.”
Now the Epistle (Romans 12, 16-21) seems not to agree with the Gospel, but in fact it agrees very well, in a way that is fitting for the mystical sense or understanding. For the healing of the leper signifies that God wants to heal us from the wickedness of heresy, and from every other leprosy, namely from every sin … The epistle agrees with this understanding, and removes the first leprosy when it says, “Be ye not prudent amongst yourselves.” This alone is the cause of heresy, that a man wants to rely upon his own sense in the understanding of the Scriptures. And it removes another leprosy when it says, “To no man rendering evil for evil. … But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat.”
The Centurion at Caparnaum Begs Jesus to Heal His Servant, 1651, by the Flemish painter Johannes Ykens (1613 - after 1680). The building on the right behind the centurion is clearly copied directly from the Palazzo Nuovo on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, representing the authority of the Roman Empire which here submits itself to Christ. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia Commons.)
… The gradual refers to the conversion of the Jews and the gentiles… The words “The nations shall fear Thy name” pertain to the conversion of the gentiles, and the words “because the Lord hath built Sion” to the conversion of the Jews. … The Gospel also refers to this, since it treats of the curing of the leper, who is a figure of the Jewish people, and the curing of the centurion’s servant, as a figure of the gentile nations, spiritually cured by the Lord, since it is the love of neighbor that works the cure of both people. We are therefore invited to this in the epistle, “To no man rendering evil for evil. Providing good things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men.”
Graduale Ps. 101 Timébunt gentes nomen tuum, Dómine, et omnes reges terrae gloriam tuam.
℣. Quoniam aedificávit Dóminus Sion, et vidébitur in majestáte sua. (The gentiles shall fear Thy name, o Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory.
℣. For the Lord has built up Sion, and He shall be seen in His glory.)
In the Offertory (Psalm 117), the Church, gathered together from both peoples, praises God saying, “The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength.”
A splendid polyphonic version by Palestrina
Offertorium, Ps. 117 Déxtera Dómini fecit virtutem, déxtera Dómini exaltávit me: non moriar, sed vivam, et narrábo ópera Dómini. (The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me: I shall not die, but live: and tell of the works of the Lord.)
And because until the day of judgment, Christ is always being increased, as far as His mystical body is concerned, the Communion “All were wondering” agrees very well with this, because the Jews and the gentiles seeing His wondrous deeds and hearing of His gifts, wondered and were converted.
Communio Luc. 4 Mirabantur omnes de his, quae procedébant de ore Dei. (All were wondering at the words that came from the mouth of God.)
