In his commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, St Jerome writes as follows about the parable of the two sons who are ordered by their father to go and work in the vineyard (21, 28-32). “These are the two sons who are described in Luke’s parable, the frugal (or ‘virtuous’) and the immoderate (or ‘wanton’).” He then connects these two sons with the following parable of the landowner who sends his servants, and at last his son, to collect the fruits of his vineyard from the tenants (verses 33-46).
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| The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667-70, by the Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-82). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. ~ This painting is now in the National Gallery in Washington DC; Murillo also did a series of six episodes of this Gospel, which are shown below; these are now in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. |
This commentary by so influential a Doctor of the Church may well explain why the Roman lectionary follows the parable of the landowner on the Friday of the second week of Lent with the Gospel known in English as that of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15, 11-32. The former, which tells of the killing of the son and heir, is read on the day of the Lord’s death, and note that he is taken “outside the vineyard” before he is killed, as Christ was taken outside the Holy City. The latter is read on a Saturday, the Jewish holy day, a placement which may be read as a warning against the jealousy of the older brother. And indeed, jealousy among brothers is also the theme of the lengthy readings from Genesis which are assigned to these two days, the stories of the selling of Joseph on Friday (37, 6-22), and of the blessing of Isaac on Saturday (22, 6-40).
The Prodigal Son Receives His Inheritance, and The Prodigal Son Departs: notice how Murillo calls the viewers’ attention to the older son by making him the brightest figure in both pictures.
This arrangement may also be the result of influence from the Eastern churches, but this is by no means certain. In the ancient liturgy of Jerusalem, known as the Hagiopolite Rite (from the Greek “hagia polis – the holy city”), the Gospel of the Prodigal Son was read on the second Sunday of Lent, and in a later elaboration of that tradition, the parable of the landowner was read at Matins of the Fourth Sunday. What makes me suspect Eastern influence here is that in that rite, the Gospel of the fifth Sunday is Luke 16, 19-31, the story of Lazarus and Dives. The Roman Rite originally read this passage at the beginning of the season after Pentecost, but it was moved in the early 8th century to the Thursday of the second week, giving us three Hagiopolite Lenten Gospels in a row.
Furthermore, as I noted in an article on Thursday, some of the chants for this newly instituted Mass are taken from the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, on which is read the Gospel of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10, 25-37, which is the Hagiopolite Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Lent. The pope who instituted this Mass, St Gregory II (715-31), had spent a year in Constantinople, which borrowed many things from the rite of Jerusalem, including the hymns for the Divine Office pertaining to these Gospels, and he might very well have learned of this tradition by attending services there. His successor and seven predecessors were all Greeks or Syrians, and so it is likewise possible that aspects of the Jerusalem tradition were already known in Rome before his time. However, the aforementioned Matins Gospel (Matt. 21, 33-46) is first attested in a manuscript of the 860s, whereas it was already in its place in the Roman Rite at least two centuries earlier, likely rather more, so this all may be no more than a tantalizing coincidence. (See Fr Gabriel Bertonière OCSO, The Sundays of Lent in the Triodion: The Sundays without a Commemoration, p. 46; Orientalia Analecta Christiana, 253; Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Rome, 1997.)
The Prodigal Son Feasting, and the Prodigal Son Driven Out After Wasting All His Substance.
I have previously described how the introit of today’s Mass refers to the traditional interpretation of the epistle, the episode in which Jacob deceives his father Isaac to obtain his blessing. Likewise, the gradual, which begins with the words, “It is good to confess (confiteri) to the Lord,” refers to the prodigal son’s confession, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” The verb “confiteri” and its derivative noun “confessio” occur nearly 80 times in the Psalter, but this verse was certainly chosen for this Mass in particular because of the Psalm’s title, “a song for the day of the sabbath.”
As St Ambrose explains in his commentary on the Gospel, “This is the first confession before the author of nature, the leader in mercy, the judge of fault. But even though God knows all things, nevertheless He awaits your confession, for ‘with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.’ (Rom. 10, 10) … without fear bring forth what you know is already known. Confess, that Christ may intervene for you, He whom we have as an advocate before the Father… He has reason to intervene for you, lest He should have died for you in vain. The Father has cause to forgive, because He wants what the Son wants.”
For Ambrose, as for other commentators, this passage speaks of course of God’s limitless mercy, and in Lent, tells the catechumens of the remission of their sins which they will receive in baptism at the Easter vigil in four weeks’ time. Right before the passage just cited, he says, commenting on the first word which the son says upon his return, “How merciful, how holy is he, who is not offended and does not disdain to hear the name of father.”
But the story is also a warning against the vice of envy, which is why it is paired in this Mass with the story of the blessing of Isaac, the event which gives rise to the hatred between Jacob and his brother Esau. Commenting on the fact that the prodigal son “went abroad into a far-off region”, Ambrose says, “… we who were afar have been made near in the blood of Christ. (Eph. 2, 13) Let us not envy those who return from a far-off region, because we were also in a far-off region, as Isaiah teaches, saying (9, 2), ‘a light hath risen upon them that sat in the region of the shadow of death.’ ”
The Repentance of the Prodigal Son, and The Prodigal Son Returns to His Father.
On the ferias of Lent, the Communion antiphons are each taken from a different Psalm in sequential order, starting on Ash Wednesday with Psalm 1. The days which were formerly aliturgical do not form part of this series, namely, the six Thursdays, and also the first and last Saturday; the ferias of Holy Week are also not included. (See the table below; click for larger view.)
The series is also interrupted on six days when particularly important passages of the Gospels are read, and the Communion is taken from them instead. The second of these is the very end of Gospel of the Prodigal Son, the father’s gentle rebuke of his elder son’s envy. Note, however, the interesting way in which the chant slightly alters the Gospel text. The original says “gaudere oportebat – it was necessary to rejoice”, in the imperfect, and without a personal subject. But the Communion puts the verb at the fore and in the present tense, while adding the word “thou”, turning it into a personal admonition to all who hear it: “Oportet te, fili, gaudere, quia frater tuus mortuus fuerat, et revixit; perierat, et inventus est. – It is necessary that thou rejoice, son, because thy brother was dead and is come to life again; he was lost, and is found.”
This is also one of only three Gospels in Lent which provides the text of a responsory in the Divine Office on its day. [note]
℟. Pater, peccávi in caelum, et coram te: jam non sum dignus vocári filius tuus: * Fac me sicut unum ex mercenariis tuis. ℣. Quanti mercenarii in domo patris mei abundant pánibus, ego autem hic fame péreo! Surgam, et ibo ad patrem meum, et dicam ei. Fac me…
℟. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son: * Make me as one of thine hired servants. ℣. How many hired servants in my father’s house have bread enough and to spare, but here I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him. Make me…
There are nearly thirty settings of this text as a polyphonic motet; one of the most splendid is this piece in two parts by the Franco-Flemish composer Thomas Créquillon (1505 ca. – 1557).
[note] On the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, the first responsory of Matins is taken from the Gospel, Matthew 8, 5-13. On the Tuesday of the fourth week, the beginning of the first responsory comes from the day’s Gospel, John 7, 14-31, but the rest of it is centonized from other parts of the same Gospel. Many of the Tenebrae responsories are centonized from the Passion readings, but none is taken directly from the Gospel reading of its day.
