by Alan Griffiths
It is difficult to see how the authorized translation of this Collect tallies with its Latin original, or indeed what sense it makes.
The Latin reads:
Deus, qui in Filii tui humilitate
iacentem mundum erexisti,
fidelibus tuis sanctam concede laetitiam,
ut, quos eripuisti a servitute pecccati,
gaudiis facias perfrui sempiternis.
A more literal translation might read:
God, who in the humiliation of your Son
raised up a fallen world,
grant your faithful a holy joy,
so that those whom you have wrested from the slavery of sin,
you will cause to enjoy eternal happiness.
The authorized translation is:
O God, who in the abasement of your Son
have raised up a fallen world,
fill your faithful with holy joy,
for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin
you bestow eternal gladness.
There are some obvious problems with the second part of this authorized text. The Latin asks that the consequence of the grace of joy (because of being rescued from slavery to sin) will be the additional grace of eternal happiness. The authorized translation changes this substantially, and makes the eternal gladness a cause, not a consequence of the rescue. It is hard to see how this translation – or rather, paraphrase – accords with the guidelines of Liturgiam authenticam.
A future revision should consider something like this. I have made a slight paraphrase of the last line to add style:
O God, who in the humiliation of your Son
raised up a fallen world,
grant to your faithful people a holy joy,
that as you have rescued them from the slavery of sin,
so you will make them enjoy the fullness
of glad rejoicing that will never end.
Lastly, on a more frivolous note (but it’s what they heard the priest say), some friends of mine remarked after Mass last Sunday that they were unaware that ‘Jesus had a basement.’
Fr. Alan Griffiths is a priest of Portsmouth Diocese, UK.
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