What in the Word?!

We are just about ten days away from the implementation of the revised Roman Missal – but you already knew that, didn’t you? I’m sure that you, along with the rest of the English-speaking Church, have been eagerly learning everything you can about what words are changing, and why, right?

Oh…just me, then?

It is no secret to those who know me well that I am a self-proclaimed (and unashamed) Theology Nerd. So when I first heard that our Church was retranslating the Roman Missal, my reaction was… ‘Cool.’ I know that there are a lot of mixed feelings about this new translation, but to me, a new translation equals an opportunity to learn more about what’s actually going on at Mass. Here are some of the things I’ve discovered:

Theology Nerd Fact #1: English, as a language, is not the coolest - in fact, it's fairly limited. For example, we use the word ‘love’ a million different ways. I love my family, I love God, I love the Cardinals, I love coffee. I really do love all of these people/things, but in very different ways. In Greek, there are many words for love: phileo is the family kind of love, eros is the romantic kind of love, etc. If I spoke Greek, I would have the right word for my many different loves, without confusing my feelings for Starbucks with my parents...

In Greek, there are also multiple words for time – cronos and kairos. Cronos is the measured kind of time we live in – seconds, minutes, days, etc. Sometimes living in cronos is awesome, like getting an extra hour of sleep during fall’s Daylight Savings time change. Sometimes living in cronos is a huge pain, like when you’re running late and you hit every red light. Whether we love it, or hate it, we live in it. Cronos is our reality. But kairos is quite different – it’s the unmeasured time that God lives in, which is something we can’t really wrap our heads around. God always was, is now, and always will be. He is in all times, all of the time.

Theology Nerd Fact #2: Jesus understood kairos better than we do. Not just because he is also God, but because he was Jewish.  Each year, the Jewish people celebrate the Passover (the memorial of the ancient Hebrew’s liberation from slavery in Egypt) with a Seder meal and an incredible experience of kairos. I remember celebrating an adapted Seder meal at my grade school, where we learned about the original Passover and ate the traditional foods. One of the key elements of celebrating this meal is a line of questioning. Typically, the youngest child will ask a series of questions and the leader of the meal will answer, “We do this because we were slaves in Egypt, and now we are free.” Not because ‘our ancestors’ were slaves… because we were slaves. They understand that, because God exists outside of time, they are able to participate in the original Passover of their ancestors.

Theology Nerd Fact #3: We do the exact same thing when we celebrate the Mass. Jesus was Jewish, and so were all of his disciples. When he and his disciples celebrated the Passover on the night of the Last Supper, he established a new covenant, a new Passover. Instead of the traditional Passover foods, Jesus gave them bread and wine that became his own flesh and blood, saying, “This is my Body, this is my Blood. Do this in memory of me.” And so the disciples did as Jesus commanded. When they celebrated the Eucharist after Jesus’ Resurrection, they knew that Jesus was truly present to them in the Eucharist, as much as he had been at the Last Supper. It’s not just a remembrance. It’s a re-living.

This teaching is difficult, maybe the most difficult one in our faith. Even the disciples knew that. When Jesus proves that he is serious about the Eucharist during the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6, he says, ‘I am the Bread of Life;’ ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven;’ ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life… for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’ And the disciples just can not handle this. They say to one another, ‘This teaching is hard, who can accept it?’ And many of them left and returned to their old lives.

If we believe that Jesus really is who he says he is, then he really is in the Eucharist. I know that when we go to Mass, it is difficult to understand. But I also know that after many of the disciples questioned this teaching and left, Jesus didn’t say, ‘Hey guys, come back! Amen, amen, I say to you, I was only speaking symbolically!’ This teaching is hard. How can we accept it?

One of my favorite passages in Scripture is the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24). In the days after the crucifixion, two disciples are walking along a road, when the Resurrected Jesus draws near and begins chatting with them about all that has happened. But for some reason, these two don’t recognize him. They spend the whole day together, and the disciples are amazed at all this stranger knows about the Scriptures and the events that occurred over the weekend. Then, at dinner time, Jesus sits and celebrates the Eucharist with them. He takes the bread, blesses and breaks it, and with that, their eyes are opened and they see that it’s Jesus who has been with them all along. That’s the reason I love this passage so much – because Jesus is there the whole time, even when they don’t see him. It gives me hope for recognizing him in the Eucharist. We know that he’s there the whole time, even when we can’t see him.

Right now, for us, the words of the Mass are changing. No matter how we feel about it, we’re getting a new translation – and this is a great opportunity for us to tap into our inner Theology Nerds and learn more about what’s going on when we celebrate the Mass. We will get kicked out of autopilot. We will be forced to pay attention again. We can choose to learn more about what these words mean and why we say them.

Even though the words of the Mass are changing… what happens in Mass isn’t. We are still being pulled out of cronos and invited into kairos where we are allowed to participate in the Last Supper, the first Eucharist. We are still given Jesus’ flesh to eat and blood to drink so that we can have eternal life. We are still learning how to recognize him in the breaking of the bread.

What matters most is not that the words of the Mass are changing. What matters most is whether or not the Mass changes us. If we truly believe that we are eating his flesh and drinking his blood, then our participation in the Last Supper must change us. Are we like the disciples who heard the Bread of Life Discourse, decided it was too hard, and walked away? Do we leave Mass each week and gossip with our friends at the back of church, or curse the other drivers on the way home? Have we already forgotten what happened on Sunday by the time the alarm clock goes off Monday morning?

Or are we on the Road to Emmaus? Where we walk with him, and talk with him, and learn from him, even when we can’t always see that it’s him? They spent time with him. They ate with him. And once they recognized him in the breaking of the bread, they immediately set out to share him with the others. We can choose to do the same.

What matters most is not that the words of the Mass are changing. No, what matters most is whether or not the Mass changes us.