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Sunday, June 25, 2006
Sunstar essay: I believe, we believe
By Erma M. Cuizon
Sun.star essay
Very few among the younger generations today remember how it was to hear Mass with the priest’s back towards the worshippers. We can’t imagine now to be “taking part” in a celebration that only the priest understood.
He would face the faithful when he blessed the congregation. Some 99 percent of the time, he faced the altar in adoration.
Everything was so exotic--–the priest’s habit and the language. He’d mumble messages in strange Latin while the mind wandered off to follow the thought of taking a Sunday dip at the beach or licking cotton candy sold just outside the church door, after Mass.
In the early ‘60s, there was a change. The priest turned around, spoke in English or the language understood by the people, finally to connect, as formulated by the Second Vatican Council (or Vatican II). The Church authorities also allowed use of the dialect.
“The Lord be with you,” he said.
“And with your spirit,” the parishioners answered.
Before we knew it, the correct answer from the congregation became “And also with you,” then you wondered who changed it?
But now the US Conference of Catholic Bishops would have the language back to the original translation from Latin because it retained much of tone (and significance) in Latin from where the prayers originated.
The shifts do look like a see-saw--–from Latin to one English translation and then to another, and back. The dialect translation from English in countries whose citizens understand English would have to follow suit.
But no, it has been over 30 years since the translations, they say. It hasn’t been a swing here, a swing there….
Still, this is precisely the hitch, say those opposing the US bishops. We will be changing things in the celebratory event and come to a danger of shaking the people’s faith.
Still another thinking would be that when people get so used to the language, say for decades, the meaning would be lost to the speaker, would then become like a memorized bit of some meaningless poetry.
And so on, and so forth--–goes the arguments for and against the new changes championed by the US bishops. Of course, it would take time for it to become a Church law, so they say.
We personally always preferred the prayer before Communion that says in the very first English translation in the 60s, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof." This surely sounds like a translation from Latin, with figures of speech that makes one stop and think and feel. The Lord comes to an unworthy one “…say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Along the way, it became “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.”
Now they want it back to the first translation.
One American bishop said that a closer translation from Latin would carry with it “a deeper language that’s more expressive and more poetic.” And poetic here could be taken as a position where the reader is moved, swept off his feet.
Listen to the line voted for in the penance rite: “I have sinned greatly...through my fault, through my grievous fault” instead of “I have sinned through my own fault.”
In the Nicene Creed, I think there’s an emotional catch to “I believe” instead of “We believe.” There’s resonance and sincerity to the single word that packs a wallop, “I.”
Although the final vote on this would come from the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI, the American bishops already voted 173 for and only 29 against a “closer” translation from Latin.
But not that close, some say. During the bishops’ discussions, a proposal was on the floor regarding a term in the Nicene Creed, “one in being.” Shouldn’t it be translated close to Latin as “consubstantial?” and this was turned down, or else the matter would be like sending a message way above the head of the faithful.
Twelve out of 19 texts spoken during Mass would be translated a bit more faithfully from Latin. This includes some lines in the Nicene Creed, the Gloria, the Penitential Rite, the Sanctus and Communion.
It’s still good to hear yourself say, using the close translation, “We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you, we give thanks for your great glory.” |
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