Farewell to Alleluia

[Yes, as Fr. John will likely remind me, the hymn and the occasion properly belong at the end of this week, but here we bid farewell to the Alleluia at the Sunday liturgy prior to Septuagesima]

From the sainted O.P. Kretzmann:

The last Hallelujah dies away in chapel and cathedral, and while the echo still lingers among the rafters, the violet paraments of sorrow are placed upon the altar... It will be Easter morning before the Hallelujah is heard again...

There is wisdom in this... It is another and profound difference between the Church and the world... The world never willingly abandons joy... Her votaries hang on to happiness with all the strength they have - until, inevitably, it is taken away from them... They have forgotten that the line of life must sometimes go down into the darkness of sorrow... It is never easy, but it is better to go down willingly than to be driven down like a slave... To give up joy by the strength of Him who gave up heaven is a part of the way by which joy and heaven will return... Easter can come only to the heart that has known Lent...

The shadow which clings to all earthly good when it is seen in the light of faith is inevitable... Because of this the Christian view of life *appears* so much darker than the pagan - checkered with a darkness more intense the brighter the light of faith shines upon it... But the farewell to Hallelujah, though necessary, is only temporary... It springs from the strong compulsions of the dust from which we came and the stronger compulsions of the everlasting mercy which has lifted us from that dust... When all is said and done, Christianity is a religion of deeper gladness just because it is a religion of deeper fear and greater sorrow... The Cross remains the world climax of divine and human sorrow, ineffably distant and ineffably close, the sorrow of sin and the pain of man's long and lonely separation from God...

So it is good that our Hallelujahs are silent for a little time... In their stead appear the crown of thorns, the drops the blood, the way of mourning, the five wounds, and the sound of our hands driving nails... And on Eastern Morn our returning Hallelujahs will say that our Lord arose and ascended into heaven, that He is now the King of Glory, who has given us a share in both His suffering and His victory, in His passion and His power, in His former pain and in His present peace... (*The Pilgrim*)

Alleluia, song of gladness,
Voice of joy that cannot die,
Alleluia is the anthem
Ever raised by choirs on high.
In the house of God abiding
Thus they sing eternally.

Alleluia, thou resoundest,
True Jerusalem and free;
Alleluia, joyful Mother,
All thy children sing with thee,
But by Babylon's sad waters
Mourning exiles now are we.

Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia our transgressions
Make us for a while forego;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.

Therefore in our hymns, we pray Thee,
Grant us, Blessed Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter
With Thy faithful saints on high;
There to Thee forever singing
Alleluia joyfully! (LSB 417)

NOTE: the question has been raised why, when Lent is several weeks off, this devotion now? If a Church is using the LSB One Year Series, today was Transfiguration and next Sunday will be the first of the Gesimatide Sundays, preparing us to enter Holy Lent and already during the Gesimas the Alleluia is replaced by the Tract (Psalm verses). There is a progressive "dropping off" in the liturgy in the weeks ahead. Come Ash Wednesday, the Gloria in Excelsis will be silenced; come Judica, the Gloria Patri as well; the Church more and more assembles in solemn silence before majesty and mystery of the Holy Cross until at the Great Vigil of Easter these all come roaring back to greet us.