The new Roman Missal redirects our worship toward heaven

May 25, 2011 - The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the Eucharist bringing us into the heavenly Jerusalem to worship in the company of angels and saints. The Book of Revelation starts with St. John celebrating the Eucharist on a Sunday. In the midst of this, the Spirit lifts him up to show him the eternal liturgy going on in heaven.

Yet we need to recognize that this experience of the heavenly liturgy has often been lost since Vatican II.  This loss is reflected—even perhaps abetted—by our current translation of the Mass. For the last 40 years we have erased this heavenly reference in the Communion rite with our bland translation: Happy are those who are called to his Supper.

This is a tragedy, because the words we pray matter.  And this is why the new translation of the Roman Missal, which we will begin to use this Advent, is so valuable. 

Here’s just one small example:  In one of the forms introducing the penitential rite, the priest will now pray: “You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us.” Currently, of course, we pray: “You plead for us at the right hand of the Father.”

What’s the difference, you ask?

The new translation lifts our gaze to heaven and asks us to contemplate Christ seated at the right hand of the Father and there interceding for us.  By contrast, the translation we have now aims to be didactic and efficient. It scrubs out the visual metaphor and hence the vision of our Lord in heaven. It opts instead to give us information about what Jesus is doing for us.

The original Latin — ad déxteram Patris sedes, ad interpellándum pro nobis—combines two quotations from the Letter to the Hebrews.  It was chosen quite deliberately from Hebrews’ meditation on Christ’s heavenly high priesthood.

In the New Testament, to be “seated at the right hand” describes Christ’s divine power and authority.  By removing the metaphorical reference to his being seated, our current translation weakens our prayer. This sense of weakness is reinforced by the decision to translate interpellándum by the word “plead”—which in common English usage suggests inferiority or powerlessness.

In restoring a faithful translation of the Latin, the new Missal redirects our worship toward heaven. We pray, confident in our Father’s mercy, knowing we are in contact with Jesus our High Priest—who “is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,” and “always lives to make intercession” for us.

The new translation reminds us how steeped our liturgical language is in the world of sacred Scripture. We also note that 80 percent of the prayers in the Roman Missal date from before the ninth century. Having inherited these treasures whole, we have a duty to hand them on faithfully and accurately.

Vatican II taught that every petition, prayer, hymn, liturgical sign and action draws its meaning from sacred Scripture. This is also what the Holy See intended in “Liturgiam Authenticam,” the statement of translation principles issued in 2001.  “Liturgiam Authenticam” says: “The words of the sacred Scriptures, as well as the other words spoken in liturgical celebrations … are not intended primarily to be a sort of mirror of the interior dispositions of the faithful; rather, they express truths that transcend the limits of time and space.”

This is important.  The liturgy is not only an aesthetic event, nor only about praying beautiful words. The Scriptures are the inspired word of God, in the words of human language.

In the liturgy, we pray in the very words of God. And God’s word is power, living and active. That means that the words we pray in the liturgy are “performative.” They are not words alone, but words that have the power to do great deeds. They accomplish what they speak of. 

When priests speak Christ’s words in the Eucharist—or in any of the sacraments—these words possess divine power to transfigure: “This is my body. … This is the chalice of my blood.” When priests speak these words by the power of the Spirit, bread and wine are marvelously changed.

By the words of the liturgy, believers are summoned into the stream of salvation history. We’re able to offer ourselves in sacrifice to the Father, in union with Christ’s own offering of body and blood. By these words we are transformed, along with the bread and the wine on the altar. We become more and more changed into Jesus Christ, more and more assimilated to his life.

That’s the great promise of the new translation and edition of the Roman Missal. The promise of a people transformed by the sacred mysteries they celebrate. The promise of people who are able to offer themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. A people who experience Christ living in them, as they are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.

Most Rev. James D. Conley is auxiliary bishop of the Denver Archdiocese.

This is part three of a three-part series on the new Roman Missal. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 2. Or, to read all three parts as one, click here. 

To learn more about the new translation of the Roman Missal, visit www.archden.org/newromanmissal.

Related Reading:

• www.archden.org/newromanmissal
• www.usccb.org/romanmissal