Soracte

Writing to his brother Warnie in December 1939, C. S. Lewis includes this offhand report about his current reading habits:

"After years of estrangement I found myself this week going back to Horace, who has at least this advantage--that a single ode makes just the right length of reading for the odd five minutes before a pupil appears, or between the last pupil and dinner. I suppose the first lines would still wake in you as they do in me a flood of reminiscence--Solvitur acris hiems--O fons Bandusiae--Vides ut alta stet nive candidum...."

I'm not sure why Lewis--whose critical judgments I have always admired--would refer to the reading of Horace (the greatest poet who ever lived, as any of my well-coached children would be happy to tell you) as having "at least" a single advantage. Talk about damning with faint praise. Could Lewis have been reading Horace's rich, dense, and allusive Latin too quickly?  (It certainly takes me longer than "five minutes" to get through one of the odes -- even one of the short ones.)  Perhaps if Lewis had paid a little more attention....

Okay, I jest. I know that Lewis's Latin was a lot better than mine, and that de gustibus non est disputandum. What really caught my eye was that the last of those quoted opening lines in Lewis's letter ("Vides ut alta stet nive candidum") is from my favorite of all the Horatian odes. You can find it, and a parallel English translation, here. Horace looks out at the snow atop Mount Soracte north of Rome, realizes that winter is on its way, and uses that realization as the occasion to lecture his male servant (whom he fancifully calls Thaliarchus) about the necessity of enjoying life while one is young. Pretty much the quintessential Horatian sentiment--a philosophical commonplace turned, in Horace's magical hands, into poetic gold.

I was thinking along these lines recently because I bought this 1833 engraving...

...of Mount Soracte, the subject of Horace's ode. And in reading around about the mountain itself, I discovered that there is almost never any snow on its summit.

Global warming?

The New Mass Translation

My 17-year-old daughter, who works part-time at a Catholic bookstore, brought me home a copy of this booklet yesterday.  I really hope that it, or something very much like it, will be widely used in parishes across the United States to prepare Catholics for the new--and much improved--missal translation next year.

The booklet, written by Fr. Paul Turner and prepared under the supervision of the Archdiocese of Chicago, does an excellent job of explaining the innumerable ways in which the new translation is more accurate and precise, both linguistically and theologically (theologically because linguistically, one might say). It also makes a case for the new translation as a more euphonious and collectively pray-able text. I'm not quite convinced yet on that point, but I'm willing to wait and hear what it sounds like once my fellow parishioners and I have it down pat.

As a sample of just how clear, commonsensical, and fair-minded the booklet is in its presentation, consider these comments on the use of the word consubstantial in the Nicene Creed--that "elitist and remote" word that Bishop Trautmann is so afraid will completely befuddle us all.

This word is a mouthful. In the entire revised translation of the Mass, this is probably the one word that will raise the most eyebrows. It replaces the expression "one in Being," and it describes the relationship between Jesus and the Father. In the current translation, "one in Being" was thought to be more comprehensible and closer to the original Greek of the Creed. However, the revised translation chooses a word that lies closer to the Latin equivalent, "consubstantialis."  The question of how Jesus relates to the Father has immense importance. Heresies have divided Christians over this very issue. The early Church councils forged a vocabulary that carefully articulates orthodox faith, and they chose this word to express the dogma of Jesus' divinity. The Latin word means "having the same substance," which is even more fundamental than "one in Being." "Consubstantial" is a very unusual word. We don't use it for anything else. But it is describing a very unusual thing--the nature of Jesus Christ. He is not like anything or anyone else.

Understanding the Revised Mass Texts is full of helpful and winning explanations just like that. If the new missal translation can be presented to American Catholics in a way that is informative and respectful of their intelligence, I believe the coming transition--back to something more faithful to the prescribed Mass texts themselves--can be made without much disturbance.

The booklet can be ordered from Liturgy Training Publications for $1.25. Bulk discounts (may there be many!) available.