Tantum Ergo (Eucharistic Adoration) – Saint Thomas Aquinas
Therefore so great a Sacrament
Let us venerate with bowed heads,
And let the ancient document
Give way to the new rite;
Let faith provide a supplement
To the defect of the senses.
To the Begetter and the Begotten
Be praise and jubilation,
Salvation, honor, power also
And blessing be:
To the One proceeding from both
Be equal praise.
Amen.
The Tantum Ergo represents one of the highest peaks of Christian liturgical poetry and theological reflection on the Eucharist. Historically, this text is nothing more than the conclusion, or the final two stanzas, of a much larger hymn composed in the 13th century by the Doctor Angelicus, Saint Thomas Aquinas: the Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium. Pope Urban IV commissioned Thomas to compose the entire office and mass for the newly created solemnity of Corpus Christi, established in 1264 to give solemn public expression to the Catholic faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, especially following alleged Eucharistic miracles such as that of Bolsena.
From a theological point of view, the Tantum Ergo condenses the heart of the transubstantiated mystery into very few verses. In the first stanza, Thomas invites us to venerate such a great Sacrament with bowed heads («Tantum ergo Sacramentum veneremur cernui»), underlining the epochal passage between the Old Testament and the New («Et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui»). The Dominican theologian then addresses the limit of human perception: since the senses fail in the face of the species of bread and wine that remain unchanged, it is faith that must bridge this gap («Præstet fides supplementum sensuum defectui»), grasping the true and substantial presence of the incarnate Word.
The second stanza, also known as the doxology (the formula of praise to the Trinity), lifts praise to the Father (Genitor) and the begotten Son (Genitus), and then mentions the Holy Spirit who proceeds from both (Procedenti ab utroque). This trinitarian structure indissolubly connects the Eucharistic mystery to the intimate life of God, closing with the Amen that seals the adoration of the ecclesial community. Curiously, in subsequent centuries, these two stanzas have acquired extraordinary liturgical autonomy with respect to the Pange Lingua, becoming the official and exclusive chant for Eucharistic Benediction and solemn adoration throughout the Roman rite of the Catholic Church, inspiring musical masterpieces signed by composers of the caliber of Mozart, Fauré, Duruflé, and Bruckner.
