The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
Beginning
this Ash Wednesday, there will be a slight correction to the English
translation of the Holy Mass, one that you may or may not really notice. I call
it a slight correction because it consists in the deletion of one word, but a
word that occurs again and again in our current translation. This alteration to
our translation comes at the direction of the Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments, under the authority of the Holy Father
Pope Francis.
The
adjustment will be made to the final line of the Collect, the prayer at
the beginning of the Mass which collects all of our individual prayers together
and presents them as one to the Father. The change will be made because our
current English translation of the Latin text of the Mass is – frankly –
incorrect. In fact, our current English translation adds a word that simply is
not found in the Latin. That word is the word “one.”
Presently,
we conclude the Collect with the doxology: “Through our Lord Jesus
Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” Starting this Wednesday, the doxology
will end, “…God for ever and ever. Amen.” This change will be made to prayers
not only within the Mass, but wherever else these words are found.
Now,
some of you might be wondering why this change was not made a few years ago
when the translation of the Holy Mass was revised. It was suggested at the
time, but for one reason or another the Holy See advised against it.
Others
of you might be wondering what the fuss is about. There is an ancient maxim in
the Church which says, lex orandi, lex credenda, that is, “the law of
praying is the law of believing.”
These words are not merely convenient modes of advancing the liturgical
action, placed by the Church in the liturgy to give form to our immediate
intentions of worship. They do of course achieve that purpose, but their
meaning extends far beyond their immediate use. These words are taken from and
express the faith of the Church; when they are prayed, they become formative, instructive,
and foundational for our life of faith. The words we hear and speak when we
pray in the liturgy also have the effect of forming our belief, enabling us to
understand better the faith that Christ gives us through the Church. Recited
again and again, these words obtain both place and meaning in the mind and the
heart of the believer.
This
is an important reminder that “the Church’s faith precedes the faith of the
believer who is invited to adhere to it.” The words we use in our
prayer are important – especially in our public prayer – because “the Church
believes as she prays.”
With
the insertion of the word “one,” the impression may have been given that the
words “God for ever and ever” referred generally to the Holy Trinity. However,
the phrase actually refers back to Jesus Christ who is “God for ever and ever.”
This change in our translation brings into focus “the importance of affirming
this Christological truth amid the religious pluralism of today’s world,” that
more than being a good teacher Jesus is God (cf. Luke 7:16). It is this same Jesus,
this same God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, to whom we turn in
time of trouble and who fills us with the joy of salvation (cf. Psalm 32:7).
Some
might question why the Church is worrying about this now when there are so many
other issues which need to be addressed. While this is true as far as it goes, “praying
correctly – professing accurately our belief about Christ and the Trinity – in no
way distracts from these important tasks. Rather, as our relationship with God
becomes stronger, we are better able to address the world.”
Turning
to the Gospel chosen for today’s Mass, we see this truth about Jesus wondrously
displayed. The leper approached Jesus in great humility, symbolized by his
kneeling down before him, and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean” (Mark
1:41). The leper does not tell Jesus what to do; he does not even really make a
request of Jesus. Rather, he simply declares what Jesus can do; he acknowledges
that Jesus has the power to make him clean not because he is a moral authority,
but because he knows Jesus is God (cf. Mark 1:40-41). So great is his faith
that he simply trusts in Jesus’ compassion and goodness!
Without
a doubt, Jesus could have healed the leper with just a word of command, but he
did something more: he reached out and touched him (cf. Mark 1:41).
That
gesture and those words of Christ contain the whole history of salvation, they
embody God’s will to heal us, to purify us from the illness that disfigures us
and ruins our relationships. In that contact between Jesus’ hand and the leper,
every barrier between God and human impurity, between the Sacred and its
opposite, was pulled down. This was not of course in order to deny evil and its
negative power, but to demonstrate that God’s love is stronger than all
illness, even in its most contagious and horrible form. Jesus took upon himself
our infirmities, he made himself “a leper” so that we might be cleansed.
Will
we imitate that leper and in the infirmity of our sin say to Jesus, “If you wish,
you can make me clean?” To do so we must humbly acknowledge our sinfulness to
him, to him who is not just a prophet but God. May we never lose sight that
while Christ Jesus is fully human, he is also fully God. Amen.
