The Ember Days are an ancient and venerable institution of the Roman liturgy, dating back to the first centuries of the Church, with roots that tradition associates with the Apostles themselves, destined to sanctify the four seasons of the year through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. The Lenten Ember Days, celebrated in the first week of this penitential season, have a dual character: they are inserted into the initial ascetic effort of preparation for Easter and serve as days of intense supplication for the ordinands, since Ember Saturdays were the traditional times for conferring Holy Orders. Friday, a day which by its very nature already recalls the Passion of the Lord, is marked by a strict fast. The stational Church in Rome for this Friday was the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles, a profoundly symbolic choice so that the future priests, deacons, and subdeacons might be spiritually presented to the foundations of the Church, in order to absorb their apostolic zeal. Historically, the liturgy of this day was also directed towards the catechumens preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil, which is why the texts make constant allusions to water, to the purification of sins, and to the number thirty-eight, which, besides referring to the sick man in the Gospel, marked exactly the thirty-eight days of fasting remaining until the glorious morning of the Resurrection.
🙏 Introit (Ps 24, 17-18; 1-2)
De necessitátibus meis éripe me, Dómine: vide humilitátem meam et labórem meum, et dimítte ómnia peccáta mea. Ps. Ad te, Dómine, levávi ánimam meam: Deus meus, in te confído, non erubéscam.
O Lord, deliver me from my distress, see my misery and my suffering, and forgive all my sins. Ps. To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust: let me not be put to shame.
📜 Epistle (Ez 18, 20-28)
Hæc dicit Dóminus Deus: Anima, quae peccáverit, ipsa moriétur: fílius non portábit iniquitátem patris, et pater non portábit iniquitátem fílii: justítia justi super eum erit, et impíetas ímpii erit super eum. Si autem ímpius égerit pæniténtiam ab ómnibus peccátis suis, quæ operátus est, et custodíerit ómnia præcépta mea, et fécerit judícium et justítiam: vita vivet, et non moriétur. Omnium iniquitátum ejus, quas operátus est, non recordábor: in justítia sua, quam operátus est, vivet. Numquid voluntátis meæ est mors ímpii, dicit Dóminus Deus, et non ut convertátur a viis suis, et vivat? Si autem avértent se justus a justítia sua, et fécerit iniquitátem secúndum omnes abominatiónes, quas operári solet ímpius, numquid vivet? omnes justítiæ ejus, quas fécerat, non recordabúntur: in prævaricatióne, qua prævaricátus est, et in peccáto suo, quod peccávit, in ipsis moriétur. Et dixístis: Non est æqua via Dómini. Audíte ergo, domus Israël: Numquid via mea non est æqua, et non magis viæ vestræ pravæ sunt? Cum enim avértent se justus a justítia sua, et fecerit iniquitátem, moriétur in eis: in injustítia, quam operátus est, moriétur. Et cum avértent se ímpius ab impietáte sua, quam operátus est, et fécerit judícium et justítiam: ipse ánimam suam vivificábit. Consíderans enim, et avértens se ab ómnibus iniquitátibus suis, quas operátus est, vita vivet, et non moriétur, ait Dóminus omnípotens.
This is what the Lord God says: The soul that sins, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son; the justice of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall fall upon him. But if the wicked does penance for all the sins he has committed, if he keeps all my precepts and acts according to equity and justice, he shall certainly live and shall not die. I will no longer remember any of the iniquities he has done, and he shall live because of the justice he has practiced. Is it by any chance my will that the wicked should die? says the Lord God. And do I not rather want him to withdraw from his evil ways and live? But if the just turns away from his justice and commits iniquity, following all the abominations that the wicked customarily practices, shall he live? All the works of justice he has practiced shall be forgotten; because of the prevarication into which he has fallen and the sin he has committed, because of this he shall die. And you said: The way of the Lord is not just! Hear, then, O house of Israel: Is it my way that is not just, and are not yours rather the ones that are corrupt? Because when the just turns away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die in that state; he shall die in the unjust works he has committed. And when the wicked turns away from the wickedness he has committed and acts according to equity and justice, he shall make his soul live, because, considering the state in which he finds himself, and turning away from all the iniquities he has practiced, he shall certainly live and not die, thus says the Lord almighty.
📖 Gospel (Jn 5, 1-15)
In illo témpore: Erat dies festus Judæórum, et ascéndit Jesus Jerosólymam. Est autem Jerosólymis Probática piscína, quæ cognominátur hebráice Bethsáida, quinque pórticus habens. In his jacébat multitúdo magna languéntium, cæcórum, claudórum, aridórum exspectántium aquæ motum. Angelus autem Dómini descendébat secúndum tempus in piscínam, et movebátur aqua. Et, qui prior descendísset in piscínam post motiónem aquæ, sanus fiébat, a quacúmque detinebátur infirmitáte. Erat autem quidam homo ibi, trigínta et octo annos habens in infirmitáte sua. Hunc cum vidísset Jesus jacéntem, et cognovisset, quia jam multum tempus habéret, dicit ei: Vis sanus fíeri? Respóndit ei lánguidus: Dómine, hóminem non hábeo, ut, cum turbáta fúerit aqua, mittat me in piscínam: dum vénio enim ego, álius ante me descéndit. Dicit ei Jesus: Surge, tolle grabátum tuum, et ámbula. Et statim sanus factus est homo ille: et sústulit grabátum suum, et ambulábat. Erat autem sábbatum in die illo. Dicébant ergo Judǽi illi, qui sanátus fúerat: Sábbatum est, non licet tibi tóllere grabátum tuum. Respóndit eis: Qui me sanum fecit, ille mihi dixit: Tolle grabátum tuum, et ámbula. Interrogavérunt ergo eum: Quis est ille homo, qui dixit tibi: Tolle grabátum tuum et ámbula? Is autem, qui sanus fúerat efféctus, nesciébat, quis esset. Jesus enim declinávit a turba constitúta in loco. Póstea invénit eum Jesus in templo, et dixit illi: Ecce, sanus factus es: jam noli peccáre, ne detérius tibi áliquid contíngat. Abiit ille homo, et nuntiávit Judǽis, quia Jesus esset, qui fecit eum sanum.
At that time, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there is in Jerusalem a Probatica pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethsaida, which has five porticoes. In these lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed, who waited for the movement of the water. For an Angel of the Lord descended at a certain time into the pool, and the water was agitated. And the first to go down into the pool after the movement of the water was cured of whatever disease he had. Now, there was a man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus, seeing him lying there, and knowing that he had been like this for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered Him: Lord, I have no man to help me go down to the pool when the water is agitated; while I am going, another goes down before me. Jesus said to him: Arise, take up your bed and walk. And instantly that man was healed, and he took up his bed, and began to walk. Now, that day was a sabbath. Therefore the Jews said to the one who had been healed: Today is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. He answered them: He who healed me said to me: Take up your bed and walk. They then asked him: Who is this man who said to you: Take up your bed and walk? He who had been healed did not know who He was. For Jesus had avoided the multitude that was in that place. After this, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him: Behold, you are healed: sin no more, lest something worse happen to you. That man went to announce to the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
💧 The cry of the penitent and the healing in the waters of grace
The initial supplication of the Introit, "O Lord, deliver me from my distress, see my misery and my suffering", resonates profoundly in the figure of the paralyzed man who lay by the pool of Bethsaida, paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Saint Augustine, reflecting on this miracle (Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 17), teaches that the five porticoes of the pool represent the Old Law, the five books of Moses, which served to evidence the sickness of man, sheltering the sick, but being powerless to heal them. Humanity, bound by the weight of sin, awaited the movement of grace. The thirty-eight years of illness, a number which in the context of this liturgy also points to the days remaining until the Easter Vigil, symbolize the condition of man without redeeming grace, incapable of achieving salvation by himself. When Christ, the Divine Physician, approaches, He dispenses with the symbolism of the pool and acts with the authority of His own word, anticipating the power of the baptismal waters that heal not only the body, but free the soul from its spiritual inertia, responding perfectly to the cry of the penitent who seeks the forgiveness of all his sins.
This forgiveness, begged for in the Introit, finds its theological foundation in the sublime promise of the Epistle of the prophet Ezekiel. Divine justice does not aim at the destruction of the soul, but yearns for its restoration: "Is it by any chance my will that the wicked should die?". Saint Gregory the Great (Homilies on Ezekiel, Book I, Homily 9) highlights that true conversion requires the abandonment of past abominations and a firm resolution in favor of equity. The "misery and suffering" that the sinner presents to God must not be a reason for despair, but the starting point for sincere repentance. God guarantees that the past iniquities of the wicked will not be remembered if he turns to righteousness. However, this same justice warns the just about the danger of presumption; salvation is a path of perseverance. The true life of the soul does not consist merely in avoiding punishment, but in living in continuous union with the Creator, understanding that God's judgment is, in its essence, the triumph of mercy over human misery, provided there is a truly contrite heart willing to repair its ways.
Thus, the liturgical movement of these Lenten Ember Days leads the soul from the realization of its own sickness to glorious restoration. The cry of the psalmist in the Introit expresses the sorrow of one who, through the voice of the prophet Ezekiel, perceives that iniquity generates spiritual death and requires a drastic change of direction. However, the strength for this conversion does not come from man himself, who finds himself as helpless as the paralytic of Bethsaida. It is Christ who approaches the bed of our moral paralysis and, with His life-giving power, grants the healing that the simple observance of the law could not offer. Jesus' final warning to the healed man - "sin no more, lest something worse happen to you" - synthesizes the prophetic exhortation of the Epistle: baptismal grace and the forgiveness of sins demand of us a journey of holiness, raising us from our prostration to walk towards the eternal promises, strengthened by the love of a God who does not forget our humility and erases all our faults.