David Ancell / Friday January 08, 2010
Despite not getting to blog much, I haven’t lived under a cave when it comes to following what is happening in the Church. With that being said, I just can’t wait for the new translation of the Mass and wish they would implement it right away. The language is just so much better than what we have now.
Unfortunately, I am well aware that not everyone shares my enthusiasm. There’s a campaign going on named What If We Just Said Wait that is gathering signatures on a petition. It makes no sense to me; we have been waiting for years. By the way, you can sign a counter-petition here. The donation is optional; your signature will have been recorded as soon as you leave the petition page.
Truthfully, there probably will be some kind of backlash of varying degrees when this is promulgated. One argument, which I believe to be a very poor one, is that the new translation doesn’t reflect the way we normally speak. My own view on this argument can be found on this post from 2005. And to think, the waiting had been going on for years at the time of this post.
However, the real problem that we are likely to encounter is simply ignorance of what the Mass really is and, for that matter, an ignorance of worship in general. In his last encyclical, Pope John Paul II mentioned that abuses occurred in which the Eucharist is celebrated as though it were merely a “fraternal banquet” (see paragraph 10 in this link).Vatican II called for liturgical instruction (see paragraphs 14 and 19 on this link) to enable the faithful to participate fully in the Mass, but this has never been realized. I have found that it is more difficult to find solid cathechetical material on liturgy than on any other topic. I recommend Jeffrey Pinyan’s Praying the Mass.
Our worship is not a matter of our own expression. It is a response to the command of Christ to “Do this in memory of me.” There is something in particular that we are a part of when we are at Mass. This must be brought forth in the words we use. If we do not convey the proper, accurate meaning to what we are doing, then we are not doing what Christ commanded but are doing something else. Unfortunately, in our world today, the “Dictatorship of Relativism,” spoken by Cardinal Ratzinger not long before he became Pope Benedict XVI, has taken hold of our worship just as it has morality. By providing us with a more literal translation, the Church is helping us to better understand what we are doing. The reason it may be shocking to people is because we never were taught the truth about what we were doing in the first place.
In fact, where is the needed catechesis now? The backlash regarding the new translation could easily be lessened by solid catechesis by people whose hearts and minds are with the Church. I hope we are seeing it soon.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
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Comments:
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Hi David. I hope you’re having a blessed Lent. I was searching the internet for mentions of my book, and your blog post came up. I’m glad you found my book helpful in the area of liturgical catechesis. (If it failed there, it failed completely!)
Would you mind letting me know your thoughts about the book, perhaps writing a short review for it? The more good press the book can get, the better!
Benedicaris!