The

Mary Michael Machabee

Institute

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February 9th, 2024

In this prelude to Lent – the season of Septuagesima – we are hosting a contest for our readers. Scriptural exegesis (interpretation) has undergone a transformation with many Catholics’ acceptance of the evolutionary worldview. When the literal interpretation of Holy Writ is corrupted, the spiritual interpretation follows with its own distortion. In this warmup to Lent, let us look at two spiritual interpretations (written before the corruption of the Church’s teaching on Genesis), covering the important numbers of 70 and 7 represented in the Septuagesima season.

To the first one who is able to identify the authorship of the two passages below, we will send a brand new copy of the second-most-read book of all time, along with two other prizes. All you need to do is enter your answers in the field on the Home page of our website!

The only rule? No entering the quotes in search engines (honor system!).

Enjoy! We look forward to your answers.

1) Who wrote the following?

Interpretation One with a focus on 70:

We have already seen how the holy Church came to introduce the season of Septuagesima into her calendar. Let us now meditate on the doctrine hidden under the symbols of her liturgy. And first, let us listen to St. Augustine, who thus gives us the clue to the whole of our season's mysteries. ' There are two times,' says the holy Doctor: ‘one which is now, and is spent in the temptations and tribulations of this life ; the other which shall be then, and shall be spent in eternal security and joy. In figure of these, we celebrate two periods : the time before Easter, and the time after Easter. That which is before Easter signifies the sorrow of this present life ; that which is after Easter, the blessedness of our future state. . . . Hence it is that we spend the first in fasting and prayer ; and in the second we give up our fasting, and give ourselves to praise.'…

The Church, the interpreter of the sacred Scriptures, often speaks to us of two places, which correspond with these two times of St. Augustine. These two places are Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is the image of this world of sin, in the midst whereof the Christian has to spend his years of probation ; Jerusalem is the heavenly country, where he is to repose after all his trials. The people of Israel, whose whole history is but one great type of the human race, was banished from Jerusalem and kept in bondage in Babylon.

Now, this captivity, which kept the Israelites exiles from Sion, lasted seventy years ; and it is to express this mystery, as Alcuin, Amalarius, Ivo of Chartres, and all the great liturgists tell us, that the Church fixed the number of seventy for the days of expiation. It is true, there are but sixty-three days between Septuagesima and Easter ; but the Church, according to the style so continually used in the sacred Scriptures, uses the round number instead of the literal and precise one.

2) Who wrote the following?

Interpretation Two with a focus on 7:

The duration of the world itself, according to the ancient Christian tradition, is divided into seven ages. The human race must pass through seven ages before the dawning of the day of eternal life. The first age included the time from the creation of Adam to Noah ; the second begins with Noah and the renovation of the earth by the deluge, and ends with the vocation of Abraham; the third opens with this first formation of God's chosen people, and continues as far as Moses, through whom God gave the Law ; the fourth consists of the period between Moses and David, in whom the house of Juda received the kingly power ; the fifth is formed of the years which passed between David's reign and the captivity of Babylon, inclusively ; the sixth dates from the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, and takes us on as far as the birth of our Saviour. Then, finally, comes the seventh age ; it starts with the rising of this merciful Redeemer, the Sun of justice, and is to continue till the dread coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. These are the seven great divisions of time; after which, eternity.

In order to console us in the midst of the combats, which so thickly beset our path, the Church, like a beacon shining amidst the darkness of this our earthly abode, shows us another seven, which is to succeed the one we are now preparing to pass through. After the Septuagesima of mourning, we shall have the bright Easter with its seven weeks of gladness, foreshadowing the happiness and bliss of heaven. After having fasted with our Jesus, and suffered with Him, the day will come when we shall rise together with Him, and our hearts shall follow Him to the highest heavens; and then after a brief interval, we shall feel the Holy Ghost descending upon us, with His seven Gifts. The celebration of all these wondrous joys will take us seven weeks, as the great liturgists observe in their interpretation of the rites of the Church.

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