“ONE” LESS WORD

We do not need a linguist to inform us that the addition or subtraction of one word can significantly change the meaning of a text. The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments acknowledged this in a letter last May to the world’s English-speaking Conferences of Bishops. It noted that there was an addition in the English translation of the Collects for Mass which is not present in the original text (the Collect is the opening prayer). This sneaky little word shows up in the doxology, which is the concluding part of the prayer. Ever since Mass has been said in English the Collects have ended with the following phrase: “in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” No more. Now we are dropping the “one,” and for good reason.

The official text of the Mass and of all the Sacraments in the Latin Rite, to which we belong, is in Latin. Many of these prayers were formulated in the first few centuries of the Church. In the fourth century the doxology was added to the Collects to counteract the Arian heresy, which claimed that Jesus was created by God, meaning that he was not always divine. This deviation from orthodoxy was rejected by the bishops at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. The Nicene-Constantinople Creed which we profess in the celebration of Mass on Sundays has its roots in the symbol of faith which was promulgated by this Council (we use the option at ABVM to replace it with the Apostles’ Creed in Lent and Easter).

Christ was begotten, not created, by the Father. God cannot have a beginning nor an end. Christ has always been, and there was never a time when he was not with the Father and the Holy Spirit in a Holy Trinity of love. The doxology added to the Collects of the Mass emphasizes the Son’s equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The priest concludes by saying, “in unitate Spiritus sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.” Deus is Latin for “God,” and in the Latin Rite is often used as a direct reference to Christ as well as to the Father. The Congregation’s letter to the bishops states that Deus in the doxology refers to Christ, a strong affirmation of his divinity. Therefore, it is proper in English to end the opening prayer of the Mass by saying, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”

The addition of “one” in English was not doctrinally unsound but it softened the reference to Christ’s divinity. The literal translation we will use retains the trinitarian orientation, with the celebrant ending the prayer by directing his words to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, and referring to “Our Lord Jesus Christ” as “God.” Such wording echoes the language of the New Testament, as you can see by these passages: “The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him” (John 1:18); “awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13); and “through the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1).

The loss of one word in the prayers of the Mass is not life-changing for most of us. But the correction communicates more accurately the sense of the text, which is important, because, as the old Latin adage goes, what is prayed is what is believed (lex orandi, lex credendi). It also brings us in line with the other language groups in the Church, which never added “one” in their translations. Perhaps most important, it counteracts the modern tendency towards religious relativism, which treats all beliefs as having equal value. It is a powerful affirmation of the Christian faith for which millions have suffered and died, confessing that Jesus is both Lord and God, the only way to the Father, and the only one by whom we may be saved.

FATHER SCOTT