Quasimodo

It is no surprise to most of you, that I like to track the historic church year. I guess I am an amateur liturgist; a "closet high churchman." Still, I rarely get into the arcane aspects of the church calendar. Round about this time, I generally remind readers of Knowing the Score that Easter is not a day, but a season, which begins on Resurrection Sunday and ends at Pentecost. We are fond of saying that every Sunday is a reminder of the resurrection. But when we look at the biblical historical facts, we track a period of actual days that we call "Easter." These are the days from the Resurrection until Jesus' ascension into heaven (40 days later), and then the arrival of the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost (10 days later, or 50 days after Easter).

In the more ancient and developed church calendars, each of the Sundays following Easter have a special name. (No, I don't know them all; but I can find them quickly.) These names come from the scripture that is featured in that day's reading, and bear the Latin form of that reading. Which is why the Sunday immediately following Easter can go by the rather mundane "Second Sunday of Easter" or ... Quasimodo.

Most of us know the word from the Victor Hugo novel. (Well, probably actually not from the novel itself, but from one or another of its film versions!) The Hunchback of Notre Dame was named "Quasimodo" by the priest who raised him, because he was found abandoned, on the Sunday following Easter, Quasimodo.

Quasimodo elides the first two words of the Latin scripture: Quasi modo geniti infantes, "Like newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up to salvation - if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:2-3) That scripture continues: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house ..."

Well, I am thinking of these things as the choir will be preparing one of my favorite Easter hymn/anthems. We don't intentionally prolong Easter in our services (except that, as noted above, we see every Sunday as a tribute to the resurrection). But I always think we must come back on Quasimodo prepared to sing more Easter-specifically! And it is, after all, also called "the Octave of Easter" - that is, the 8th day of the season. There's your musical/etymological argument for keeping Easter going at least one more week.

Joy to the Heart
Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes
resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Good Jesus Christ inside his pain
looked down Golgotha's stony slope
and let the blood flow from his flesh
to fill the springs of living hope.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Good Jesus Christ, our Brother, died
in darkest hurt upon the tree
to offer us the worlds of light
that live inside the Trinity.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes
resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!

John Bennett, 1920-1991

(c) 1980, John Bennett

As we are in fact the Easter People,

Sing on!