Every decade or so the church makes a change to the Sacred Liturgy and to certain rites (e.g., the anointing of the sick, the marriage rite). And this has been going on since Second Vatican Council passed Sacrosanctum Concilium, the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” on December 4, 1963, with the aim for greater participation by lay people.
For almost 60 years now, in the hallowed halls of the Vatican and from all quarters of the world, there has been a fierce battle between liturgical reformists and anti-reformists. A fundamental question has been, “Who is authorized to make changes to the Mass?” The Council wanted national conferences of bishops to approve the translation of the Mass and the sacraments. However, the Vatican congregation with the responsibility for the liturgy began to insist that it had the right to both approve and confirm such translations. The end result was that the fine contemporary English translation of the Mass approved by the English-speaking conferences of bishops was rejected and the Roman congregation insisted that a very literal translation of the Latin that we have now be used instead.
Our own beloved former pastor, Monsignor Alan Detscher, a renown liturgist, who served for 11 years as the associate and executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Liturgy, had to navigate through the midst of all this.
Accordingly, in 2010 the Church in the English-speaking world was required to adopt substantial changes in the translation of the Mass, e.g., adding “and with your spirit”; “consubstantial with the Father”; “incarnate of the Virgin Mary”; “oblation of our service”; “send down your Spirit like the dewfall”; “He took the precious chalice”; “serene and kindly countenance”. Some quickly embraced the changes, while more than a few were upset with them. Every parish raced to get printed Mass aids in the pews to help the laity adopt these changes.
Time moved on and the resistance to the translation of the Mass subsided.
From a nostalgic perspective, I miss certain sentences in the prior Eucharistic Prayer III, such as: “From age to age you gather a people to yourself, so that from East to West a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.” Why? Because we are the people of this age whom God is calling to Himself. And what are the perfect offerings being made to the glory of God’s name? When we feed the hungry, heal the sick and suffering, befriend the lonely, visit the imprisoned, give drink to the thirsty and doing so much more in God’s name.
Even in the midst of a brutal, oppressive and unforgiving pandemic, with new creativity, energy and focus we can see the visible closeness to God by so many in our own parish who are making “perfect offerings” like the Paperback Book Collection for prisoners (paused due to the increase of new COVID cases); the four-part series titled, “The Ancient Near East: Land of Babel,” expertly presented by Deacon Robert Henrey; the Food & Essentials Drive for Neighbor to Neighbor; reimagining the Faith Formation Program; the ongoing work of St. Catherine’s Support Circle; the Student Cares Team, the New Day Bereavement Program; wearing masks and maintaining social distancing; the volunteers signing people into Mass for contact-tracing purposes; the regular baptisms and weddings, among so many other perfect offerings serving the common good.
When we look around – and we should – we can plainly observe God’s closeness to us.
And it is good to see.
