Refreshing changes in a Church that remains the same
It was refreshing to hear that on the first day of the Catholic liturgical year, the US bishops began implementing changes in the Roman Missal. (“Church revises Roman Missal,” Inquirer, 11/25/11) The Catholics in the Philippines will be implementing the changes next year.
The recent changes in the prayers in the Mass show that indeed many things in the Catholic Church remain the same. But even as the Church continues to reform, facing the challenges of a changing world, it remains the same. It goes back again and again to its roots in scripture and tradition.
Since the Vatican II changes, with the Mass celebrated in the vernacular in the 1960s to make it accessible to the people, I miss the original Latin Mass. Not that I know Latin like the Romans, but when I attended the Mass before Vatican II, I felt that I was participating in a ceremony as old as the Church.
Authorized by Pope John Paul II in 2001, the US bishops have revised the formula of prayers to make it “word for word more literally tied up with the original Latin Mass.” I like the choice to restore the mea culpa. In the past, when I uttered those guilt-fostering words, at the foot of the altar, I would feel like the unnamed character in the Bible who went up to the temple and would not look up to heaven as he kept beating his breast because of his sins.
I welcome the restoration of the words uttered long ago by a centurion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but speak the word…” When I utter the words of the Roman soldier, before the communion, I imagine seeing Jesus Christ telling the crowd he had never seen such great faith.
Actually, the new changes in the Mass are not new; it is a return to the original. After all, what is religion but a reliving of the stories of the different characters in the Bible like Peter, Paul, Zaccheus, the centurion, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and many others. Going back to its roots in scripture and tradition, the Church stresses the value of reliving the various stories of salvation. Through faithful custom and observance through the ages, the Catholic Church has preserved its faith which dates back to the apostolic times.
—MARIANO F. CARPIO,
9 Diamond St.,
Camella Homes 3-C,
Pamplona Tres,
Las Piñas City
