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Today's
Question
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Why the new translation of the Mass?
(Part 9)
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Sunday
December 25,
2011 |
Why change the translation of the Mass?
Part 9
(Letter to Verne A. Kiular, continued)
We
are coming into the home stretch. You will notice that “Let us proclaim
the mystery of faith is now just “the mystery of faith.” And there is
one whole Memorial Acclamation missing!
Perhaps this is an
opportune moment to discuss the idea of “mystery.” In modern
English, mystery is, according to Webster (the dictionary, not the
short, strange comedian from television)
1) a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand, and
2)
something not understood or beyond understanding, a piece of fiction
dealing usually with the solution of a mysterious crime.
3) secretive quality or character as in “the mystery of her smile.”
When
I was a little boy of six years, every time the beleaguered nun would
try to explain a great truth of the faith, our fresh little faces would
register all the understanding of medium sized blocks of wood. She
would end the lesson by saying “It’s a mystery!” By this she meant
“Trust me you little cretins. It’s an important truth of the faith but
no one, including me, understands it.” After the Vatican Council,
that particular nun ran off with the circus (as it were) and eventually
ended up working in a juvenile detention center, having found her niche.
In ancient Greek (you knew this was coming, didn’t you?) the word is “mysterion.”
It means a secret, or a secret ritual. It has to do with the word
“mys,” a thing whispered. Webster also mentions that a mystery can
refer to “a secret religious rite believed (as in Eleusinian and
Mithraic cults) to impart enduring bliss to the initiate.”
In
the ancient world, the public religion was a pretty silly affair. There
were gods who chased around with mortals, had great wars and were
sometimes part animal, but the public officials kept the gods happy
with sacrifices and used the gods to insure the status quo. The gods
were immoral by our standards and morality, in most cases, had nothing
to do with religion. In fact, if you offered the right sacrifice and
said the right incantation, the gods might just help you lie, cheat,
steal, murder and seduce your neighbor’s wife. After all, they were
adept at it themselves. It is questionable how many of the well
educated believed that such beings existed.
Philosophers like
Socrates were occasionally executed for publicly saying the whole thing
was a bunch of hooey, and other philosophers tried to mythologize the
gods saying they were symbolic of philosophical truths. Others, like
Lucretius, were materialist atheists who said that what you see is what
you get. In this climate the essential religious questions were not
getting answered, questions like “What happens when we die?” and
“What’s the purpose of life, anyway?”and “Where did all this stuff come
from?” and “Why is there evil and sadness?” And the really big
one: “If god or the gods are so perfect, why is the world they created
such a wreck?”
Enter the mystery religions, which claimed to
have a secret revelation (usually some weird speculation by some odd
guru who claimed to have had the revelation). The mystery religions
tried to answer these questions with a kind of philosophy dressed up in
ritual; they developed a complicated theology that people were
gradually let in on and those people who were initiated into the
secrets of the group swore a solemn oath never to reveal what they had
heard. It was all very cozy and gave the initiates a feeling that they
knew something no one else knew and that they were somehow better and
part of the “in crowd” philosophically. Sounds a little like the
Freemasons or Star Trek fans.
Enter Christianity, which as I
have already explained, didn’t let everybody in to the Mass. It isn’t
that they were trying to keep it all secret. They were an evangelistic
religion. They wanted everyone to hear what they had to say. Jesus told
them “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the rooftops!” (Matt. 10:27) The theological content was no more secret than that of Judaism.
The
rituals were secret for very practical reasons. The first
Christians didn’t want their most cherished beliefs held up to
derision, and they didn’t want everyone knowing who the Christians
were. Everybody knew who the clergy and leaders were, but the rank and
file Christian had a certain anonymity. That’s because
Christianity was illegal and every once in a while, the Romans would
decide to exterminate the Church. Best not to let everyone know your
name and address.
This element of secrecy led the ancients to
believe that Christianity was just another wacky mystery religion. Not
so! Members of mystery religions didn’t produce a lot of martyrs and
they had nothing against putting a pinch of incense on the sacrificial
fire in front of the emperor’s statue. (The emperors were considered
gods, that is until the army killed the divine emperor and got a new
divine, immortal emperor.)
A good way to understand the
Christian meaning of “mystery” is to understand the so-called mysteries
of the Rosary. In the events of the life of our Lord and His blessed
Mother, we see the invisible realities of heaven made visible. There’s
nothing much to understand something like the second Joyful Mystery,
“Our blessed Mother visits St. Elizabeth.” We see something more. John
the Baptist in his mother’s room acknowledges the Messiah in the
Blessed Mother’s womb, something unseen, yet wonderfully near and
human. Christianity was a mystery religion that didn’t hide the nature
of its secrets, but revealed them to anyone who was interested.
Jesus said to the disciples that “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you.” (Mark 4:11) And what is the mystery, the secret of the kingdom?
Once Jesus said,
“Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John
the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he.” (Matt. 11:11) As a Catholic, I believe that by
my baptism I am born into the kingdom of God. In what possible way am I
greater than John the Baptist? Simple! I know something that John
didn’t know. John didn’t remain in this world long enough to see the
cross! That’s the mystery, the secret of the kingdom that has been
given to me and you, if you will have it: “God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son!”
The greatness of God was hidden
in the meekness of Christ, hidden in the baby in Mary’s arms, hidden in
the carpenter of Nazareth, hidden in the crucified rabbi from Galilee,
hidden in what looks like bread and wine held up by the priest. All the
love that ever was, all the truth that ever was, all the power that
ever was became vulnerable in Jesus of Nazareth and is placed in the
care of sinners like me in the form of a wafer of bread and a sip of
wine. The invisible becomes visible, the infinite can be embraced God
can be held in the palm of your hand!!! This is the secret of the
kingdom of God, and it can only be received by trust in Him, and of
course, trust is what faith really means.
After the Holy Spirit,
the very breath of God, transforms bread and wine into the flesh
and blood of God, the priest says “The Mystery of Faith!” We were
saying, “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.” Now we are going to say
what the text originally said, simply “the Mystery of Faith.” We are
not proclaiming it. We are defining it. In other words, if Jesus
is the visible image of the invisible God, all the questions the
gnostics and the ancient mystery cultists asked are answered in Him.
The Christian gospel is that you can get to know the Creator of the
universe by getting to know a Jewish carpenter who died 2000 years ago,
but who came back from the dead and is accessible in the form of bread
and wine we have just seen. The memorial acclamation defines the
mystery. Mass, if entered into with trust, can answer all the questions
we ask because Jesus is still the visible image of the invisible God. I
see Him every time I hold up the consecrated host at Mass. What
wondrous love is this, oh my soul?
PS:
We
old fellows were absolutely mystified by this introduction into the
Mass. It was added after the council was well over and no one explained
why, if I recall the times, it probably had something to do with the
ecumenism of the time. The Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians all
have the memorial acclamations right after the words of the Last Supper
in their communion services. In fact, the first acclamation “Christ has
died, etc. was lifted pretty directly from the Episcopalians. It was
only part of the liturgy in America and, not being part of the Church
universal, it has disappeared altogether. (Though one hears that Rome
is thinking about it.)
Rev. Know-It-All
The
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Why the new translation of the Mass?
(Part 9) |
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