Almost a year and a half. This is the time that, at least one morning a week, I have been listening to a priest alter the words of Jesus in the formula of the Eucharistic consecration: instead of saying, with regard to the precious Blood of the Lamb, \u201cwhich will be poured out for you and for many...\u201d, the minister introduces a particular innovation: \u201cFor you and for all mankind\u201d. Just like that, so quietly. Again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And again and again this writer - and believer - wonders why he continues to do so. Yes, yes: I have already spoken to the gentleman, but he is unapproachable to discouragement. \u201cIt's just that I couldn't stick to a schematic formula,\u201d he tells me, in a sort of vindication of human freedom to transform the rite, to make it more palatable, closer, less rigid... It's not that Jesus said: \u201cFor you and for all the immeasurable relation of human beings whose nature was damaged by the first sin and who, if they believe in the Gospel, will be redeemed by me in a few hours\u201d. No, no. It is nothing fancy, nor extensive, nor noisy: it is a simple and faint \u201cand for many\u201d, but it seems to the good priest that the formula stifles him and puts him in an uncomfortable mold that prevents him from making visible the expansive grace of Christ. So no one should feel left out: \u201cThis is for all mankind, guys, okay?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the decades that I have been practicing the faith, I have certainly seen everything. I will not give a list of anecdotes, because who more, who less, has witnessed some liturgical irregularity, some outburst of tone, some nonsense said from the ambo... But a change at whim of the consecratory formula was not something I imagined I would ever hear. It is the inviolable summit, the sancta sanct\u00f3rum<\/em> The verbal and active announcement of the most sublime thing that happens in the universe at that precise moment: that Christ offers himself to the Father, in the Holy Spirit, under two meals that, minutes later, will be distributed to common people, fallible, capable of great injustices..., but capable of faith, of conversion, of amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiracle of love so infinite...\u201d, says a song. It is Christ who gives himself to us. It is to tremble, but not with terror: it is that our good God has gone mad with love for a speck of dust. Contemplation, awe and reverence. There is no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not understood, therefore, that it is necessary to make amends to the blessed Establisher of the Eucharist, as if He had forgotten to tell us something and a priest needed to fix the \u201cforgetfulness\u201d of the Redeemer with a footnote. The Church, of course, in her journey through history, would continue to need help, clarifications, lights..., but nothing has escaped Him. \u201cI still have much to say to you, but you cannot do it now. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into the whole truth\u201d (Jn. 16:12-13). <\/p>\n\n\n\n And indeed, the Spirit has come. He is still around, and he inspires the successors of the apostles, in communion with Rome, to judge what can be opportune and what not for the People of God, and to do so, moreover, in the light of pastoral experience in a concrete time. Thus it was that Benedict XVI, in his 2012 letter to the German bishops on the adoption of the \u201cand for many\u201d (pro multis<\/em>) in the new translation of the Roman Missal, noted as the basis for the decision the \u201creverential respect of the Church\u201d for the word of Jesus and the fidelity of Our Lord to the word of Scripture. \u201cThis twofold fidelity,\u2018 he added, \u2019is the concrete reason for the formula \u201dfor many'. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In harmony with the Holy Father, four years later the Spanish Episcopal Conference published its Instruction \u201cCelebrating the Eucharist with the Roman Missal\u201d, in which it pointed out that, if the Church demanded \u201ca reverential respect for every liturgical text, so that it is not licit to change or substitute it in whole or in part, this norm must be applied with greater reason to the Eucharistic prayers and especially to the words of consecration\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So no: we are grateful for the concern about whether \u201cwhat Christ meant to say was this and not that\u201d, but for that purpose there are already \u201cdoctors in the Church\u201d who, assisted by the Holy Spirit, are in charge of the configuration of the Eucharistic liturgy and the preservation of the treasure of faith, of which they know they are administrators, not owners; not owners of this House of ours built on rock, as if they could widen a door or pull down a pillar at will. Let there be no mistake: the Church does not belong to her pastors, but only to a Pastor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the first to forget ended up nailing down his own ideas -sui generis<\/em>, The first, curious, somewhat bizarre - on a piece of paper on the door of a German church five centuries ago. It was \u201csuccessful\u201d, it must be said, because it ended up attracting a good group of fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But his name is not in the saints' calendar. Nor, foreseeably, will it be.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Casi un a\u00f1o y medio. Este es el tiempo que, al menos una ma\u00f1ana por semana, llevo escuchando a un sacerdote trastocar las palabras de Jes\u00fas en la f\u00f3rmula de la consagraci\u00f3n eucar\u00edstica: en lugar de decir, respecto a la preciosa Sangre del Cordero, \u201cque ser\u00e1 derramada por vosotros y por muchos\u2026\u201d, el ministro introduce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3305,"featured_media":60058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1175],"class_list":["post-60050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-firmas","tag-misa","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}