If I were throwing a dinner party and had some honored guests, I'd want to serve the greatest food. The best ingredients and recipes I could muster. If I met the Queen of England, I'd get my best suit, shave, do my hair, and present myself as best I could.
Why is our liturgical music different? As time has gone on, I have a harder time with it. Bad translations, fluffy lyrics, holdovers from the 70s, and not an organ in sight! The Mass is only seen as a meal, not a sacrifice; the music focuses on the horizontal aspect (the community) rather than the vertical (worshipping God). Social justice is a popular theme in modern liturgical music, but the definitions for that are varying and vague. How about we go shelter the dreams of the homeless? No, really.
Here are the Latin lyrics of Panis Angelicus, the beautiful text written by St. Thomas Aquinas:
Panis Angelicus, fit panis hominum
Dat panis coelicus, figuris terminum
O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum
Pauper, servus et humilis
Te, trina Deitas, unaque poscimus
Sic nos tu visita, sicut te colimus
Per tuas semitas, duc nos quo tendimus
Ad lucem quam in habitas
This is one of those rare hymns that is widely known in the secular world. The lyrics sing of the Holy Eucharist: Jesus' offering of Himself and the deliverance on a promise to be with us until the end of the world (Matt 28:20). The Mystery of Mysteries! Encapsulating all the major high points of the Catholic faith--the Paschal Mystery, the Incarnation, the salvation of our souls, the Mystical Body of Christ and our being drawn into the Holy Trinity... and on, and on, and on. So the English translation of this great hymn would be carefully wrought, right?
Latin to English, in a Roundabout Way
The "translation" by Owen Alstott that was sung at Mass this morning is a great example of theology being stripped of the supernatural and robbed of depth. I don't have a good enough knowledge of Latin to do a translation myself, so here's what Wikipedia says:
Bread of the Angels is made bread for mankind;Gifted bread of Heaven of all imaginings the end;Oh, thing miraculous!This body of God will nourish the poor, the servile, and the humble.
Thee Triune God, we beseech;Do us Thou visit, just as Thee we worship.By Thy ways, lead us where we are heading,to the light Thou dwellest in.Here are Alstott's lyrics:
Holy and living bread, wondrous food from heaven sent
God's sacrifice foretold, now in our hands we hold
Sign and reality, challenge for us to be
Humble servants to all the poor.
God, holy Three in One, through this off'ring of Your SonPerhaps he didn't intend to actually translate the lyrics; that he composed his own lyrics to go with the melody of Panis Angelicus. That's the best explanation I can figure, since the his translation doesn't resemble the Latin after the first few words. Not even close! Well, the words humble, poor are the same... comments on the faulty translation (FT) below.
All now on earth can see, what we are called to be
Hope for a world in need, signs that love can succeed
Where true justice and peace endure.
Not Too Shabby
I like how the sacrificial aspect to the Eucharist is mentioned. "God's sacrifice foretold" alludes to the prophecies of the Old Testament. "This offering of Your Son" makes me think of Jesus as the priest and victim, and the Paschal Lamb from the Book of Revelation. I also like the mention of "sign and reality"--that is, highlighting the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Shabby. Very Shabby
Overall, my problems with the FT revolve around one central issue: removing the vertical language (=directed toward God and heaven) and replacing it with completely horizontal language (=about the community, the people, and the mission of the people of God). Theology & spirituality need to keep both in tension; if not, distortions enter. If a theology is only vertical, it stays in the academies, cathedrals, and monasteries and doesn't go out into the world. If a theology is only horizontal, everything is human-based. The focus is on the community, on ambiguously defined words like justice, and making the world into heaven on earth. In a sense, the community replaces God, and achieving an environment of justice replaces heaven. Those are extremes, but in my opinion and experience, SO MUCH of post-Vatican II theology and spirituality tends toward the horizontal at the expense of the vertical.
The FT exemplifies this problem, highlighting the horizontal at the expense of the vertical. "O res mirabilis!" goes from being miraculous to "wondrous", which is nice but not the same. The "challenge for us to be humble servants to all the poor" is way, way off of the Latin. Wikipedia's translation says this Heavenly Bread will be food for the poor, servile, and humble. One could do some theological calisthenics and say that the faithful, in being humble servants to the poor, do in fact feed them. That's valid to some degree, but not where the song is headed. Think the manna in the desert... think a generous God Who nourishes His people. The FT changes direction: the vertical dimension is gone and replaced with the horizontal. Making it all about us.
"All now on earth can see what we are called to be": really? It's that clear to everyone? Wouldn't our churches be more full if this was the case? And what we're called to be is "hope for a world in need, signs that love can succeed, where true justice and peace endure." Without actually defining huge terms like justice, peace, hope, and love, these words are empty. A social work organization could write those exact, same things into its mission statement! Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a great post on this, I highly recommend it.
In the Latin, the latter half of the second verse talks about heaven. And yet again, the FT makes it all about us. If we are "hope for a world in need" and "signs that love can succeed", then, true justice and peace endures! That is the goal of the Christian life, justice and peace! Who needs heaven? Why bother talking about it?
What a shame that such a meaningful hymn has become banal. The Solemnity of Corpus Christi deserves so much more!
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