Listen to the Word


n its historical development, this Preface gradually shifts from the implication that divine glory has been enhanced by the salvation of the faithful to a meditation on the character of the divine glory itself.


Source: The source prayer first appears in the Verona collection of Mass booklets compiled between 561 and 574, where it is assigned to a Mass in October during a time of drought.


Analysis of literary forms The main verb of the source prayer, pertinet, “it belongs”, assumes the present perspective to recount the three works of God in history given in the third (perfect) subjunctive: “Unto whose immense glory it belongs [now] that not only you came [in history] … you pro- vided … you saved.” This present perspective is used in the Roman Missal 2010 for the first several verbs, “it belongs [now] to your … glory that [in history] you came … and even fash- ioned”. Perhaps to avoid the implication that the divine glory has been enhanced by the Incarnation and Passion, when the source prayer resurfaces in several eighth-century Gelasiansacramentaries from north of the Alps the three verbs are shifting, not without great difficulty, from a present to an historical per- spective expressed by the second (imperfect) subjunctive, but the main verb never makes that shift. This results in a conflict in the cur- rent prayer, which first begins with a present perspective and then shifts to recount the sav- ing deeds of God in history as if they arose from the divine intention, but without indi- cating their origin in the divine will at any point in history. For the Missale Romanum of 1970 a new main verb was introduced, cognoscimus, “we understand”. What we understand is given in a sentence whose subject is the implied pro- noun id, “it”, and whose verb is the contemporaneous infinitive pertinere, “[it] belongs”. Changing this to an antecedent infini- tive, pertinuisse, “to whose immense glory we understand [now] that it belonged [in his- tory]”, would provide an historical origin from which to narrate the saving works of God. This would resolve the conflict in perspectives, and the vernacular would not need to replicate or to compensate for the self-conflicting Latin text. The clause, ut … succurreres … provideres … salvares, may be understood to express the original divine intention rendered in English in the subjunctive, “that you might come, might


Glory to help, provide, save I


SUNDAYS OF ORDINARY TIME, PREFACE III


Roman Missal 2010 … God. For we know it belongs to your boundless glory, that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity


and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself,


that the cause of our downfall


might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.


© International


Commission on English in the Liturgy


provide, might save”. The third of these is used in the text of the Roman Missal2010, “might become”. The perennial problem is that this type of clause may also be taken as a result clause, in this case explaining the contents or character of the divine glory. Accordingly, the subject of pertinere men- tioned above is really the entire ut … clause, which is rendered in English in the indica- tive as either contemporaneous actions, as in “God, to whose immense glory we understand [now] it belonged [in history] that [at that time] you were coming to the aid of mortals … but also were providing a remedy for us … and … were saving all of them”, or as an expres- sion of futurity from a point in the past, as in the study text, “[from the Creation] it belonged to your glory that you would come [eventually in human history] … would pro- vide … would save”. Confession: Faith provides understanding into the divine life, as stated in the relative clause, Ad cuius immensam gloriam pertinere cognoscimus, “to whose immense glory we understand it belongs”, given as, “For we know it belongs to your boundless glory”. First amplification: The character of divine glory is then explained with three verbs, the first, ut mortalibus tua deitate succur- reres, “that you would come to the aid of mortals with your divinity”, given as, “that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity”. Second amplification: The second, sed et nobis provideres de ipsa mortalitate


Missale Romanum2008 … Deus: Ad cuius immensam gloriam pertinere cognoscimus ut mortalibus tua deitate succurreres;


sed et nobis provideres de ipsa mortalitate nostra remedium, et perditos quosque unde perierant, inde salvares,


per Christum Dominum nostrum.


Study text … God,


to whose immense glory we understand it belongs, that you would come to the aid of mortals with your divinity,


but also would provide a remedy for us


out of our very own mortality, and from where the lost people had perished, from there you would save all of them, through Christ our Lord.


Prepared in collaboration with Frs James Leachman OSB and Reginald Foster OCD.


nostra remedium, “but also would provide a remedy for us out of our very own mortality”, is given as, “and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself ”. Premise: Correlative to the third is a clause that states the given human condition, [perditos quosque] unde perierant, “from where [all the lost] had perished”, rephrased as the subject of a purpose clause, “the cause of our downfall”. Third amplification: The third explana- tion of divine glory is et perditos quosque … inde salvares, “from there you would save all the ones having been lost”, rephrased as a pur- pose clause with an historical perspective, “that … might become the means of our salvation”. The plural pronoun quosquemeans “every one, all”, referring to the lost people. Mediation: Often concluding the introduc-


tory formula, the mediation of Christ concludes this elaboration, per Christum Dominum nos- trum, given as, “through Christ our Lord”.


Summary The prayer does not say that we have to die


first, but that we may enjoy salvation in our mortal humanity. We come to share in divine life by sharing more fully in human fragility, where Christ meets us, and we become Christ- like as we help others to find in their human fragility the salvation offered by Christ.


■Daniel McCarthy OSB is a monk of St Benedict’s Abbey, Kansas, who writes and teaches on liturgy.


5 February 2011 | THE TABLET | 13


It is proper to divine glory to aid mortals with divinity and to provide a remedy from mortality itself. The faithful share in divine life, writes Daniel McCarthy, by sharing fully in human fragility


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