Local News
Letter to the Editor: Celebrating What Is Important
Published: September 27, 2007
To the Editor:
I have been reading “Letters to the Editor” for three weeks concerning the language with which Mass is celebrated. It seems to me that we may have lost sight of what is truly important in the Mass: that is, the living presence of Jesus Christ in the Community, the Word, and the Eucharist.
When Pope Benedict XVI gave the church permission to celebrate Mass in Latin, he did not frown upon the use of the vernacular, that is, the language of the people. While he recognizes the return of the vernacular as a gift of the Second Vatican Council, he is responding to the yearning of some people to celebrate the Mass as it was celebrated from the Council of Trent (1545-63) until 1964.
Celebrating the Mass in Latin or in one’s native language is a privilege we all have. This privilege dates back to the early church when Latin was the vernacular of the people in the Roman Empire. However, when missionaries from within the Empire sought to convert the peoples of conquered lands, they brought along with them their culture, rituals, traditions, and language. Their language, however, was not the language of the people in these lands. It was a foreign language they neither understood nor spoke. It was in this language, however, that they learned to worship God as a faith community.
When the Second Vatican Council called for a renewal of the church’s liturgical life, most especially that of the Mass, it appointed theologians, liturgists, and Scripture scholars to study the liturgical life of the early church. One among many of the liturgical adaptations that the Council recommended was to celebrate the Mass in the vernacular as had the early Roman Christians. The Council never disclaimed Latin as the official language of the church. It did, however, recognize the fruitfulness of praying, singing, and listening to the Word of God in one’s native language.
The church has always recognized unity among God’s people amidst diversity of cultures. In our own country today there is present a diversity of people, cultures, and traditions. Can we embrace this diversity, reverence it, and hold it sacred while remaining one in the Spirit? I believe that whether we gather together to celebrate the Mass in Latin or in the vernacular, it ignites within us union with God and with all others. Is this not what Jesus prayed for on the eve of his death?
Cenacle Sister Susan Arcaro, Hoschton
