"Counting Sundays"

Well, given what is wrong with the world, should we at least take comfort in the fact that we will probably get a chance to put these words following to the test?

God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world — right up to this moment.

Anywho, back to my nonsense: the fact that, in the old cycle, Advent came at the end, after the post-Pentecostal series, meant that its readings were only more lately distinguished. Furthermore, we have the additional issues I dub "condensation" and "displacement."

First, condensation. The six weeks of Advent were, at some point, reduced to four. Salisbury and Rome choose different solutions to this problem:

WUERZBURG

• First Sunday = Romans 13:11-14: The Day Is Near
  First Sunday = John 6:5-14: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
• Second Sunday = Jeremiah 23:5-8: The Righteous Branch
  Second Sunday = Matthew 21:1-9: Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
• Third Sunday = Romans 15:4-13: The Weak and the Strong
  Third Sunday = Luke 21:25-33: The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
• Fourth Sunday = 1 Corinthians 4:1-5: The Nature of True Apostleship
  Fourth Sunday = Matthew 11:2-10: Jesus and John the Baptist
• Fifth Sunday = Philippians 4:4-7: Final Exhortations
  Fifth Sunday = John 1:19-28: The Word Became Flesh
• Ember Saturday = 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8: The Man of Lawlessness
  Ember Saturday = Luke 3:1-6: John the Baptist Prepares the Way
• Sixth Sunday = Vacat

SARUM

• LSAT:Second Sunday = Jeremiah 23:5-8: The Righteous Branch
  First Sunday = John 6:5-14: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
• A1: First Sunday = Romans 13:11-14: The Day Is Near
  Second Sunday = Matthew 21:1-9: Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
• A2: Third Sunday = Romans 15:4-13: The Weak and the Strong
  Third Sunday = Luke 21:25-33: The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
• A3:Fourth Sunday = 1 Corinthians 4:1-5: The Nature of True Apostleship
  Fourth Sunday = Matthew 11:2-10: Jesus and John the Baptist
• A4:Fifth Sunday = Philippians 4:4-7: Final Exhortations
  Fifth Sunday = John 1:19-28: The Word Became Flesh

Here elements of the former Advent are retained as the "Last Sunday after Trinity" (first entry above).

TRENT

• A1:First Sunday = Romans 13:11-14: The Day Is Near
  Third Sunday = Luke 21:25-33: The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
• A2:Third Sunday = Romans 15:4-13: The Weak and the Strong
  Fourth Sunday = Matthew 11:2-10: Jesus and John the Baptist
• A3:Fifth Sunday = Philippians 4:4-7: Final Exhortations
  Fifth Sunday = John 1:19-28: The Word Became Flesh
• A4:Fourth Sunday = 1 Corinthians 4:1-5: The Nature of True Apostleship
  Ember Saturday = Luke 3:1-6: John the Baptist Prepares the Way

It isn't clear to me that one of these "solutions" is superior to the other. They both give evidence of adhering to the same theology for underpinning their selections:

Stripped of most of its eschatological content, shorn of its title Adventus Domini with its New Testament evocations, reduced from six Sundays to four, placed immediately before the Nativity of the Lord, and assigned purple vestments, tempus Adventus in the Roman Rite, until the postconciliar reforms, was partially penitential and aimed only at preparing the faithful to celebrate Christmas. So it remains in the extraordinary form.

Now, the more interesting issue: displacement. Here I refer to the topic of eschatological content. This is the near total disappearance of the following series of readings, which once intervened (in the Medieval Lectionary):

After Trinity 25

• 1 Thess 4:13-18: Believers Who Have Died [in adventum Domini]
• Mat 24:15-28: The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times [adventus Filii hominis]

After Trinity 26

• 2 Pet 3:3-14: The Day of the Lord [aut adventus eius; in adventum Dei]
• Mat 25:31-46: The Sheep and the Goats

After Trinity 27

• 1 Thess 5:1-11: The Day of the Lord
• Mat 25:1-13: The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Much to my chagrin, all of this missing material returns in Sundays of Years A and B of the RCL. So, score one for them. Update: not true. I can't find these pericopes -- for Sundays after Trinity XXV, XXVI & XXVII -- in any list of lections except for here.

It appears these Sundays are prominent in German books. Here is a different series: XXV: Matthew 24, XXVI: Matthew 25, & XXVII: Matthew 17.

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.