At long last (we've been waiting for forty years), the revised Roman Missal has arrived (in most of our parishes) and began being used today. The language of this new translation necessitates a careful read, and will indeed sound strange for quite some time, but that's not a bad thing. Proclaimers and listeners alike will notice a far more regal verbage, and dignified phrasing that allows mortals to speak with God.
Today's homily (available in podcast and text format) speaks to the fact that this change (like all change in our lives) is not easy. It will take some time and lots of patience before we are familiar with it. It's a good thing that God is infinitely patient with us too.
Be watchful, be alert
My earliest recollection of a home security system was not of the electronic variety. Long before names such as ADT and others like them became well known to us, there was a man who used to be paid to sit outside the neighbour’s house and supposedly kept guard while we slept. I say supposedly because even as a very young child, I was convinced that this man, who we referred to as a watchman, slept more during the quiet darkened hours than he actually was on the alert for possible robbers. The reason for his apparent lack of vigilance might have had something to do with the fact that there was really not a high incidence of crime in the neighbourhood, but a more likely reason was that he may very well have been too assured of his position to really worry about whether he would lose his job for not doing it right.
Advent is upon us. With the liturgies of this weekend, God’s people gather to begin a new liturgical year. Today we also introduce the long awaited revised Roman Missal. Over the past number of weeks, we in this parish have been introduced to some of these revisions. In some parishes throughout our country, today is the first day that people are seeing any of these changes, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that over the next couple of weeks and months, visitors to this and other parishes might wonder about why the changes are taking place. This is a time of change, and change is never easy. It takes patience and dedication. It also takes great understanding because for every person who might willingly accept the changes, there is another who will question them and even resist them.
Some people may find it difficult to pray during this time of change, because we are trying our best to follow new rules, to speak new words, to sing hymns and responses that are not yet second nature. Even though we may at times feel like Isaiah who spoke of hardened hearts and wandering ways that separated his people from their God, we have a choice to make. We can either react to the changes set out before us or we can see them as an invitation to understand and appreciate afresh, the fact that all liturgy, and in particular the Eucharist, is first and foremost the action of Christ, to which he associates his Body, the Church (cf SC7).
Forty years ago, when the first English translation of the Mass was published, many people resisted the change. Then as now, words spoken and postures assumed had become habitual, and when things are done out of habit, we don’t have to pay any attention to them. We say that they are second nature to us, but sometimes such familiarity is not good. Remember the slumbering watchman?
At the beginning of this Advent season, the gospel challenges us: Be watchful! Be alert! In a particular way, we are being invited this year to a wonderful opportunity to put this advice into practice. New translations of the words spoken during the celebration of the Eucharist are cause for all of us to pay attention. We need to slow down just a bit so that we can hear these words with new ears. We need to pay attention in a way that perhaps we have not paid attention for quite some time. The language of the liturgy is beautiful. It is regal. It is stately. It is fitting of an action of praise and thanksgiving spoken by a people who know deep in our hearts that the grace of God has been bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus, and in him we have been enriched in every way.
In the pews today, there are copies of a new publication entitled Celebrate in Song! This little book contains the musical notation for three beautiful Mass settings based on the revised language of the liturgy, as well as music for various chants and even a number of new songs and hymns for use at the Mass. All of these are opportunities for us to deepen our understanding that every time God’s people gather for the celebration of the Eucharist we should celebrate fervently, as though it were our first Eucharist. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we should strive to be like vigilant watchmen, filled with gratitude to God for his goodness to us.
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