Catholic Transcript Online

Q. So many questions occur to me concerning the new English Mass. Why is it that perfectly usual expressions, even in Latin, have all but disappeared? One example is the Latin phrase, Ite, Missa est, meaning, "Go, the Mass is ended." Why do I sometimes feel that familiar expressions are being taken away, more and more?

A. The familiar Latin phrase, from the close of Mass, Ite, missa est, is ironically, not easy to translate into English. Even though, almost from time immemorial, it has been rendered as, "Go, the Mass is ended," it is, in fact, all but untranslatable. Clearly it is an idiom, about which an enormous amount of commentary has developed. But the commentary itself allows for diverse theories. Its original meaning, evidently referring to the conclusion of the Eucharist, as well as a eucharistically empowering mission, is more readily understood, in my opinion, in the context of the theory that the Latin Missa (English, "Mass") was a code-word for the Eucharistic Sacrifice. However, some scholars of the liturgy are reluctant to affirm even this, arguing that Missa did not signify "Mass" until about the sixth century.

The Church in the United States has begun to use the newly translated English Missal (or, technically speaking, the new English Sacramentary, which together with the standard Lectionary, completes the unit known as the Roman Missal). Although inaugurated in America on the First Sunday of Advent, it has been in use for several weeks in at least three other English-speaking nations. By and large, the new translation has been generally well-received. In many respects, it seems, the 2011 version clearly represents an improvement over the 1973 text insofar as liturgical English is concerned.

Q. Would you please answer some Christmas questions? First, how do we know that Christ was born on the 25th of December? Where is the Biblical text designating the date?

A. The traditional date for Christmas, 25 December, is described as the liturgical date; the historical date is unknown. (It could have been 25 December.) The Church chose 25 December as early as the fourth century (c. 330 A.D.). The fourth century marked the end of the Great Persecutions. (In the East, however, adoption of 25 December was somewhat delayed, as Christ’s Birth was celebrated within the context of Epiphany, recognized from the start as a very sacred Solemnity.)

Father Wilson D. Miscamble’s newly published The Most Controversial Decision (Cambridge University Press: New York, 2011) wrestles with questions about President Harry Truman’s election to use the Atomic Bomb in order to defeat the Japanese Empire in World War II. A gifted and highly accoladed historian, Father Miscamble (whose occasional visits and pastoral ministry here in the Archdiocese have enriched so many in the faith) teaches history at Notre Dame University. But his solid theological background is also reflected in the ethical aspects of his most recent book.

Q. I’m a bit confused over whether Sunday is a synonym for Sabbath. How is it that the Third Commandment, which cites the Sabbath, is now identified by Christians with Sunday?

A. Sunday is observed by Christians as the first day of the week because Christ rose from the grave "on the first day of the week," the day following the Israelitic Sabbath. (See Mk 16:1, and Mt 28:1.)

Thus it is that, from Apostolic times, Catholics met for the Eucharist on Sunday. The Church Father, St. Justin (d. 165 A.D.), left us this testimony:

"We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made this world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead."

And St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110 A.D.) wrote:

"Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord’s Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death."

One of America’s finest writers, Flannery O’Connor, was the subject of a major, two-page article recently in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Flannery, who died in 1964 from lupus at the age of 39, is one of the 10 "religious explorers" discussed by scholar Father Paul Gallagher, S.J., in Faith Maps: Ten religious explorers from Newman to Joseph Ratzinger (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 2010).