Consider four words that ‘carry a wealth of meaning.’

For the past several months I’ve been discussing some of the texts from the new Missal, which will be implemented Nov. 27, 2011, the first Sunday of Advent. I have been alternating each month between texts for the people and texts for the priests. Last month I discussed the Gloria, and this month I will continue our examination of Eucharistic Prayer III.

According to the Introduction to the Order of Mass (USCCB, 2003), “The Eucharistic Prayer, the center and summit of the entire celebration, summarizes what it means for the Church to celebrate the Eucharist.” The prayer “is addressed to the Father through Jesus Christ, by the priest celebrant in the name of all who are present. The faithful profess their faith and give their assent through dialogue, acclamations, and the Amen.”

One of the notable changes is in the epiclesis, the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine. The current wording—“We ask you to make them holy by the power of your Spirit”—is changed to “We humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts.”

In the new Missal the word ask is changed to humbly implore, and make is changed to graciously make. The two adverbs, humbly and graciously, establish the right relationship between us and God. We come before God in humility, not presumption, trusting in his mercy and graciousness.

A second significant change is from cup to chalice. The institution narrative will now read, “he took the chalice” and “this is the chalice of my blood.” In part this reflects a figure of speech in the Greek original. In the earliest account of the Last Supper, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (cf. Matthew 26:27, Mark 14:23), Jesus took the bread and the cup, not the bread and the wine (the Greek is the generic word for drinking vessel, not a specific type of vessel).

This is a figure of speech known as metonymy, in which one word is substituted for another, which it suggests. Here, cup stands for wine. Even more, it is wine that has become the blood of Jesus, the very substance of his soul and divinity. The word chalice, in addition to being more faithful to the Latin calix, more accurately describes a vessel worthy to contain “the living and burning Blood, signed with the heat of the Spirit” (Ancient Paschal Homily).

A final noteworthy and much-discussed change concerns the translation of pro multis, currently translated “for all”: “the blood of the new and everlasting covenant . . . will be shed for you and for all.”

In the new Missal this reads “poured out for you and for many.” There are a number of reasons for this change. First, it is faithful to the language of the Gospels: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24); “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). It is also a reference to the Suffering Servant Song in Isaiah: “he poured out his soul to death . . . yet he bore the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12).

A second consideration is that for many is an accurate translation of the Latin term pro multis: multis means many, not all. Third, this formula has been used in the Roman Rite in Latin from the earliest centuries. Only with the advent of vernacular translations in the last 40 years has it been translated as “for all.” In addition, the eucharistic prayers of the Oriental Rites—Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Slavic languages—use the equivalent of for many.

Finally, for many is open to the inclusion of each human person. As Cardinal Arinze, former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, put it, the phrase reflects the fact that salvation is not brought about in a “mechanistic way, without one’s own willing or participation; rather, the believer is invited to accept in faith the gift that is being offered and to receive the supernatural life that is given to those who participate in this mystery, living it out in their lives as well so as to be numbered among the ‘many’ to whom the text refers.” It is a dogma of our faith that Christ died for all men and women (cf. John 11:52; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Titus 2:11; 1 John 2:2).

This month we have considered only four words: humbly, graciously, chalice, and many. Yet each carries a wealth of meaning about our relationship with God, the Eucharist, and our eternal salvation. These simple words can be a source of fruitful personal meditation and prayer and will enrich our understanding of and participation in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

Father Stice is director of the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy. He may be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.

Tags: The new missal