New Translation of the Roman Missal

I had the opportunity to participate in the mass using the New Missal translation that was introduced on the first Sunday in Advent this year. There had been a lot of hype about the changes to be introduced in the new translation which made me rather excited and eager to see what they were. I was disappointed with the changes that were introduced as there was nothing new. It was just some change in the words and on when to bow, stand or kneel which to me is really insignificant.

Whether we respond “And with you also” or “And with your spirit” when the priest says “The Lord is with you “does not make any difference. Whether we stand or sit during certain ritual is immaterial as long as we do it with respect and reverence. Does the use of bombastic words, like “consubstantial”, really matter to us who are at mass to worship God? It is more important to use simple words that we understand and come from our hearts and not use difficult words which we ourselves do not really understand. The vast majority of English speaking Catholics are not English experts.

The church continues to portray God as a powerful, supernatural and mysterious being who has to be confined to majestic buildings and the tabenacle and worsipped by elaborate rituals.It may be so for some ancient deities but for us who follow Jesus,God is not such a mysteriois being.He is a living God who has to be brought into every aspects of our lives.He must be in involved in every inter-personal relationship of man.

The changes introduced into our liturgy failed to do this. It failed to address the very grievous problem the church is facing in the world where it is fast losing its appeal and relevance to man. What the changes did was just whitewash the outside with little or no real change in its substance to make it more relevant to modern man.

To remain relevant the church must bring about real change in substance to help modern man cope with the many socioeconomic, psychological, physical and moral problems that he is facing in a world that is governed technological advancements that tend to question His very existence. To bring back the practices of its glorious past to address the problems of the present and future is not going to succeed. We all know that but we insist in doing something futile.