WDTPRS – 2nd Sunday of Advent (2002MR)

From an old WDTPRS article.

These articles were the original reason why I started this blog in the first place.

[…]

Lest any “traditional” Catholics think today’s Collect is less valuable because it isn’t old enough, or wasn’t in the 1570 Missale Romanum, it is from the Gelasian Sacramentary, compiled from material in use much earlier.

COLLECT – LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
in tui occursum Filii festinantes
nulla opera terreni actus impediant,
sed sapientiae caelestis eruditio
nos faciat eius esse consortes
.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God of power and mercy,
open our hearts in welcome.
Remove the things that hinder us
 from receiving Christ with joy,
so that we may share his wisdom
and become one with him
when he comes in glory,…

What does the Latin prayer really say? 

We now consult that sure stock of Latin lemmas the Lewis & Short Dictionary for actus which means, “an act or action” but also, “the moving or driving of an object, impulse.”  Impedio (built from the word pes, pedis, “foot”) is “to snare or tangle the feet”.

Sapientia means “wisdom”.  In Christian contexts, especially of the Early Church, Wisdom is simply loaded with different overtones from theology and philosophy (philosophia, “love of wisdom”).   The Bible has a group of writings called “Wisdom literature” which were, according to the Fathers of the Church, filled with foreshadowings of Christ who is identified with Wisdom.    

The phrase faciat eius esse consortes calls to mind both the Collect prayer in Mass for Christmas Day and also the priest’s prayer when preparing the chalice at the offertory.  A consors is someone with (con) whom you share your lot (sors).   This is at the heart of today’s Collect prayer.  Remember: Deus, “God”, is declined irregularly and in solemn discourse the nominative is used as the vocative form (e.g. cf. Livy 1, 24, 7).  Do not, like ICEL did, fall into the trap of thinking that Deus is the subject of the verbs.  The subjects are plural opera and singular eruditio

SLAVISHLY LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty and merciful God,
let no works of worldly impulse impede
those hurrying to the meeting of Your Son,
but rather let the learning of heavenly wisdom
make us to be His partakers
.

Last week we were rushing to meet the Lord who is coming and meriting our reward through good works, meritorious for heaven because they are made so in Christ. 

In Advent, as the Baptist warns us, we are to make smooth the path for the coming of the Lord. 

This week we are again rushing, but, perhaps we are wiser this week after the first rush of excitement: now are now also wary of obstacles on that path which could impede us, snare our feet. 

These would be our merely human, simply worldly, works. 

These “works of worldly impulse” are not meritorious since they are not performed in Christ. 

There is a sharp contrast between heavenly Wisdom which liberates and worldly “wisdom” which entangles.  The Apostle St. Paul contrasts the wisdom of this world with the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:20;  3:19; 2 Cor 3:19). In Romans 12:2 Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

This is not just a Pauline concept.  Compare our Collect today also with 2 Peter 1:3-4 (RSV): “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge (cognitio: cf. eruditio) of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature (efficiamini divinae consortes).”  

St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) beat up some Donatist heretics and dismantled their argument that all clerics ordained by a sinful bishop would be automatically stained in the same guilt. He used imagery like that of our prayer today (Ad Donatistas post collationem in CSEL 53:19.25, p. 123 my translation):

“The sludge (lutum) their feet are stuck in is so thick and dense that, trying in vain to tear themselves out of it, they get their hands and head stuck in it too, and lingering in that sticky mess they get more tightly enveloped.” 

The Donatist argument was based in worldly, not heavenly, wisdom. 

Sticky lutum is a metaphor of worldly life. 

Neglecting God, who speaks in the Church and our conscience, we weak sinners can convince ourselves of anything, over time: down becomes up, back is made front, black turns into white, and wrong is really right. 

We justify what we know, or knew, to be sinful. 

Once this becomes a habit, it is a vice in more than one sense of that word. 

Occasionally our consciences will struggle against the grip of self-deception, but quite often the proverbial “Struggle”, Novocain for the conscience, supplies permission: “I really ‘struggled’ with this, … before I did it!” 

If we go off the true path into the murky twisted woods, thoroughly mired in sticky error we will not escape the Enemy, the roaring lion seeking whom he might devour (1 Peter 5:8). 

Nor will we elude Christ the Judge, who will come through dark woods by straight paths

Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of both the Enemy lion and the Lion of Judah who will open the seals and read forth the Book of Life (Rev 5:5).

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in ADVENT, SESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Comments

  1. FrCharles says:

    Thanks so much for these, Fr Z. In my community we don’t have common LoH on Sundays, so I usually say my prayers for the 2000 typical edition LoH. So, in the course of an average Sunday and its vigil, I pray the Collect in Latin five times but then sing it twice in the (lame duck) English translation. I often really feel the disconnect across my praying day. To be spurred on to look closely, and made to long even more for the new translation are real gifts.

  2. RichR says:

    I usually bring my 1962 hand missal to pray while at my OF Mass (there are no EF Masses within reasonable distance), and I noticed the difference, yet similarity, in the translations of the Post-Communion prayer for this Sunday.

    LATIN (2002 Missale Romanum):
    Repleti cibo spiritalis alimoniae,
    supplices te, Domine, deprecamur,
    ut, huius participatione mysterii,
    doceas nos terrena sapienter perpendere,
    et caelestibus inhaerere.

    ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
    Father,
    you give us food for heaven.
    By our sharing in this mystery,
    teach us to judge wisely the things of earth
    and to love the things of heaven.

    LITERAL TRANSLATION:
    Having been filled with the food of spiritual nourishment,
    we suppliants beg you, O Lord,
    that, by participation in this sacramental mystery,
    you may teach us to ponder earthly things wisely,
    and to cleave to heavenly things.

    1962 Missale Romanum:
    Repleti cibo spiritualis alimoniae, supplices te, Domine, deprecamur: ut huius participatione mysterii, doceas nos terrena despicere, et amare caelestia.

    Translation of 1962 Missal:
    Filled with the food of spiritual nourishment, we humbly entreat Thee, O Lord, that by our partaking of this Mystery, Thou wouldst teach us to despise the things of earth, and to love those of heaven.

    So, I ask, are we no longer to despise the trappings of this world, or are we now endowed with innate wisdom as to the proper use of earthly goods that we no longer need exercise caution? Are the world, the flesh, and the devil no longer our enemies?

    Just askin’………… And I’m just reading. Changes are made for reasons. What’s the reason here?

  3. Mitchell NY says:

    What will the new translation say? Are we allowed to know orpost that yet? Would help with Catechis.

  4. RichR: You put your finger on a problem that many people raise when they talk about the editing done to the prayers when they were chosen for the Novus Ordo.

  5. Mitchell: The Green Book draft had this:

    Filled with the nourishment of spiritual food,
    we humbly beseech you, O Lord,
    that, through our partaking in this mystery,
    you will teach us to judge wisely the things of earth
    and hold fast to the things of heaven.
    Through Christ our Lord.

    I don’t know how this may have been amended for the Gray Book.

    But you can always work directly from Latin, at the same time teaching people that Latin really is the Church’s language and that the translation is in a sense second best for content.

Comments are closed.