Liturgical Cogitations

Details: 23 April 2010

Changeless Changed

The recitation of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed at Mass, which is done currently in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Liturgy on Sundays and on Solemnities, consists, of course, of affirming the unchanging dogmas of our Catholic Faith given to us by God’s revelation and infallibly taught and proclaimed by the Catholic Church down the ages, from Christ and the Apostles to our own time and place. The contents of that Creed are what Saint Vincent of Lerins said are doctrines held “by all Catholics everywhere and always” (“quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus”). When we recite that Creed, we devoutly should remember what rubrically is said in some of our present day sacramental celebrations: “This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As the General Instruction of the Roman Missal says, “By means of the Creed or Profession of Faith ( said or sung during Mass), the whole gathered People of God respond to the word of God proclaimed in the Sacred Scriptures and expounded in the homily, recalling and confessing the great mysteries of the faith by means of a formula approved for liturgical use.”

The Creed we recite at Mass is a compilation, summarizing the beliefs authoritatively taught by the Ecumenical Councils of Nicea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381 A.D.). The actual formula and precise words that we use in its recitation date from the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.). Father Josef Jungmann notes, “The character of this symbol (creedal formula) is distinguished by one trait, namely its theological clarity.” The original language of this Creed was Greek, and then it was translated into Latin, at the time when Latin became the normal and official language of the Roman Liturgy. Now, since the permitted vernacularization introduced into the liturgy by the Second Vatican Council, it also may be sung or recited in translation in many various languages. Because, however, some of the translations from the Latin into those languages occasionally have been imprecise, the Holy See recently has decreed (in the document “Liturgiam Authenticam”) that “The Creed is to be translated according to the precise wording that the tradition of the Latin Church has bestowed upon it....”

Therefore, sometime next year when the new Roman Missal (“Missale Romanum-editio typica tertia”) officially will begin to be used in its approved English translation, we will notice some changes in the wording of the Creed, not changing the immutable doctrines, of course, but rendering the words and meaning more exactly and thus more correctly than in our current imprecise English version.

First Person

One of the first changes we will notice is that the Creed will be recited or sung, as it always had been for previous ages in the liturgy, in the first person singular. No longer will we say “we believe”, but rather “I believe.” The Holy See says that using the first person singular “clearly makes manifest that the confession of faith handed down in the Creed is coming, as it were, from the person of the whole Church united by means of the faith.” English is the only major language that translated “credo” as “credimus” (“we believe”). This was done by the old ICEL organization of forty years ago (International Commission on English in the Liturgy) as a kind of free translation with some ideological purpose, but now this is being corrected by the modern and current ICEL group in conjunction with and in obedience to the Holy See.

The second part of the Mass, the service of Eucharist, used to be called in many places the Mass of the Faithful, in contrast with the first part, the service of the word, which was called the Mass of the Catechumens. This was because the catechumens were not allowed to remain for the second part, which was reserved only to the baptized. The bridge between the Mass of the Faithful and the Mass of the Catechumens (the two parts of the one and the same Mass) was the recitation of the Creed. It recalled the Sacrament of Baptism on the part of the faithful, and in this recollection, each of the faithful renewed his or her baptismal commitment, along with the accompanying vows and promises. In some periods of the Church’s history (the time of the so-called “disciplina arcani”) only the baptized knew the words of the Creed, which thus served as a kind of password for admission to the most sacred part of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

In the ancient Ecumenical Councils, the Fathers often signed joint creedal statements which, to be inclusive, used the first person plural. However, in the liturgy, historically there is no evidence of such usage, and there the use of the first person singular was (and is) almost universal. There may have been some arguments for the old ICEL translation which will now be discarded, but they have been overridden by modern research, solid theological reasoning, and liturgical correctness.

Other Changes

Currently, in addition to the opening words “we believe”, we repeat those words three more times while saying the Creed . In the new English Missal, only at the beginning will we say “I believe” and then the simple copulative “and” will be used in the other places. A more accurate translation in the new Missal will give us the words “ of all things visible and invisible” in place of “all that is seen and unseen”. The words “only Son” will be replaced by “the Only-Begotten Son”. “Eternally begotten of the Father” will become “born of the Father before all ages”.

One of the most important words in the Creed, which is historically and theologically essential and vital, is the Greek word “omoousios”, which is currently translated “one in Being with”, but which will be translated in the future closer to the Latin “consubstantialis” by rendering it in English as “consubstantial with the Father”. To make the English conform better to the Latin, the central incarnational words also are changed. We will say “...and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary...” and we will say “...He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Regarding the Holy Spirit instead of “With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken, etc.”, we will say ..”Who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, Who has spoken, etc.” Instead of saying, as we do now “We acknowledge one Baptism...” we will say “I confess one Baptism, etc.” Also, instead of saying “We look for the resurrection...” we will say “...and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, etc.”

There can be little doubt that the introduction of the better English translation of the new edition of the Roman Missal will cause some initial discomfort and perhaps perplexity to some people. However, there will be widespread catechetical efforts through the English-speaking world to explain the newer translations for all our Catholic people. After doing and using something for forty years, change will not be easy for many people, but in a reasonably short time, we should be able to become accustomed to the new words and expressions and learn to love and appreciate them.