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CHANGES IN THE ROMAN MISSAL, PART 15: "Ecce Agnus Dei"
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is part of an ongoing series written by Father Daniel Merz highlighting many of the historical and theological bases of the upcoming publication of a revised English translation of the Roman Missal. Father Merz is the chairman of the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo. — BH]
Ecce Agnus Dei
PRESENT TEXT
Priest:
This is the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sins of the world.
Happy are those who are called to his supper.
All:
Lord, I am not worthy
to receive you,
but only say the word
and I shall be healed.
NEW TEXT
Priest:
Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away
the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called
to the supper of the Lamb.
All:
Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.
The last translation change which affects the assembly in the Mass is the “Lamb of God.” First, the priest-celebrant’s introduction is slightly different. It begins with the more evocative and poetic “Behold” instead of the prosaic “This is . . .” One of the goals in the new translation has been to create through language use a greater sense of the sacred, thus “Blessed” replaces “Happy.” The last phrase of the priest’s introduction is a quote from Rev 19:9: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” The new translation brings out more faithfully and clearly the connection between our Eucharist and the heavenly banquet for which we long.
In the original prayer of the church, the assembly’s response is a quote from Lk 7:6-7. The new translation is more faithful to the Scripture which underlies this prayer, calling to mind the faith, humility and reverence of the centurion in Luke’s Gospel who sought the healing power of Jesus, but felt unworthy to have Jesus come under the roof of his house. The Christian who approaches the altar should have the same faith, humility and reverence in preparing to receive the holy Eucharist under the “roof” of our body. Just as the roof is the external shelter for what is most important, so too is our body the “roof” or external shelter for that which is most precious — our soul.
It is important for Catholics to realize how thoroughly scriptural are the prayers and actions of the Mass and indeed all of Catholic liturgy. The new translation does well to allow the underlying scriptural texts to stand forth more strongly, even at the cost of a slightly odd turn of phrase.
Unfortunately, some Catholics — laity and priest alike — will be upset by the upcoming changes. The reasons for their upset may well range from the deeply theological (“I disagree with the vocabulary choice or style”) to the deeply personal (“I have been hurt in the past by church leaders and their choices, and do not trust their judgments”), or even to the deeply immature (“I don’t like the new translations and I won’t say them!”). I hope that others will be patient with their brothers and sisters who may struggle with these changes.
Change is often not easy, and particularly change that affects the way we worship. Worship is such an intensely personal (and communitarian) act, and it stirs up strong emotions. This is OK. It is alright for someone to be upset with the church. The church must respond with patience and love and understanding. Are the new translations perfect? By no means. But then, neither is the church perfect. She has been promised the eternal protection of the One who is all holy and perfect, but in this life, she will always be on pilgrimage — ecclesia semper reformanda (“the church is always in need of reform”).
The new translations will bring a different linguistic style and there will be some new vocabulary, and it will take some time to accustom ourselves to it. But perhaps that is also an important lesson in conversion: we should not demand the faith to conform to us, but rather be willing to conform ourselves to the faith.
When these new translations are approved by the Holy Father and published for our use, we will be asked by the church to conform our faith to this particular expression of it, admittedly an imperfect and even stumbling expression of the person of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Trinity. But then, even Latin and Greek stumble to express those divine and mighty mysteries.
I hope we can give the new translations a chance to raise and deepen our faith and our understanding of it. They are filled with beautiful images and metaphors from Scripture and our tradition. We should give that Scripture and tradition a chance to work on and in us.
[NEXT COLUMN: We cover a few miscellaneous — though important — matters referring to liturgical vocabulary for the new Roman Missal.]
(This article was reprinted with permission from The Catholic Missourian, the newspaper of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo.)
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