Rituale Romanum: Fulfilling the Jots and Tittles

Rituale Romanum: Fulfilling the Jots and Tittles Michael P. Foley What other nation is there so renowned that hath ceremonies and just judgments, and all the law? — Dt 4:81 Blessings have long held a cherished position in Catholic life for the specific benefits they bestow on body and soul, but they also serve additional, corollary functions that are conducive to the good of the Church. In this essay I would like to view some of the blessings found in the 1614/1952 Rituale Romanum2 through the prism of Christ’s statement in the Sermon on the Mount that He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it in even its minutest details – that is, to fulfill even its “jots” and “tittles” (Mt 5:17-18).3 Specifically, I will argue that many of the blessings in the Rituale serve as a fitting replacement or fulfillment of the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law without falling into the heresies of “judaizing” the Gospel or of a Pelagian or semi-Pelagian “works righteousness.” This replacement enriches the communal life of the Church and contributes to her understanding of the New Covenant according to which she lives. To make this argument, I will first examine St Thomas Aquinas’ teaching on ceremony in the Summa theologiae and then turn to several blessings in the Rituale Romanum. 1 All biblical translations are taken from Challoner’s edition of the Douay-Rheims (New York: John Murphy Co., 1886). In the citation of Matthew 5:17-18 below, I have slightly changed the word order to make it more readily intelligible. 2 All citations of the 1952 Rituale Romanum (the last of the pre-Vatican II “typical” editions) are from Rituale Romanum Pauli V Pontificis Maximi jussu editum aliorumque pontificum cura recognitum atque ad normam Codicis Juris Canonici accommodatum Ss.mi D. N. Pii Papae XII auctoritate ordinatum et auctum: editio prima post typicam (Vatican City: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1957) [henceforth : RR 1952]. 3 “Jot” is the English term for iota, the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet (i), while “tittle” designates a tiny, diacritic point over a Hebrew letter or the dot over the letter i. Antiphon 15.1 (2011): 78-91 79 Rituale Romanum: Fulfilling the Jots and Tittles St Thomas Aquinas The meaning of Mt 5:17-18 Strictly speaking, it is not accurate to think of ritual or ceremony in connection with Matthew 5:17-18, in which our Lord states, “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For Amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.” As St Thomas notes, this remark, as well as the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount in which it is found, concerns the moral precepts of the Old Law such as the Ten Commandments rather than the ceremonial precepts, which regulate Israel’s external worship of the Lord God. Christ’s statement does not apply to the ceremonial precepts, for by fulfilling them He did abolish them.4 The ceremonial precepts, such as the rubrics for Temple liturgy and the rules governing ritual purity, were designed by God to foreshadow the coming of the Messiah. Once the Messiah has come, these precepts are automatically nullified: indeed, Aquinas goes so far as to state that observing the ceremonies of the Old Law after the time of Christ’s Passion is a mortal sin.5 The reason for this is that unlike the moral precepts, which are reflected in the natural law and are therefore perennially valid, the ceremonial precepts have the character of a promise, and once a promise is fulfilled, it no longer exists.6 Persisting in the practice of the old Hebrew rites is therefore tantamount to denying that God has kept His promise to Abraham and the fathers in the person of Jesus Christ. It also smacks of that “works righteousness” to which St Paul was so adamantly opposed.7 Further, Aquinas is equally clear about the salvific value of certain Christian ceremonies. God himself, in the...