I'd Rather Not Understand

In a brief scene from a movie made back in 1995, a family is attending Mass and the grandmother says at one point: "I liked Mass better in Latin. You didn't understand what they were saying." Yes, there were a lot of people back in the 50's and 60's that did not know Latin, and (sadly) were never encouraged to learn it (which was one of the reasons they used to justify the development of the Novus Ordo). There is something even more revealing about a comment like this, though. There is another layer that many people might not realize.

The movie was made before the re-translation of the Novus Ordo in 2011, so it is significant that the English of the Mass that they were referring to was the second edition of the Novus Ordo. When I was ordained in 2012 the changes had already occurred and so I never actually said Mass in the second edition, but the third edition instead.

I once received a copy of the second edition and read through the wording in a number of parts. Before then, I had never felt the wording in the third edition was clear, reverent, or traditionally Catholic. When I read the second edition it became completely clear that it was even worse than the third edition; I understood why they believed they needed a new translation. What struck me most remarkably was the fact that it sounded incredibly similar to the wording in a lot of Protestant liturgies (and I often wondered if that were intentional). The wording in a number of places is so simplified as to be almost impossible to know what the point is.

It hurts to hear some of those prayers because they misrepresent the faith so severely. There was a time when every form of the Mass was written in a way as to make sure that it was understood. Then, when the Church desired for people to understand better, they chose to make the Mass so simplified as to lose the essence of most of the statements. When a prayer has been so dumbed down as to end up distorting the faith, I would rather not understand it at all. Now we have the third edition, which is certainly an improvement over the second edition, but the tone of the wording has not lost the casual and contemporary feel.

Thus, in the movie, when the grandmother says that it was better when you could not understand the Mass, I sympathize completely. If you had to choose between a Latin Mass that you could not understand at all, and an English Mass where the wording is so vague and un-catholic that you are misled as to what the Catholic faith actually is, the answer should be obvious. Of course, the Church wants you to understand the Mass (regardless of whether it is Latin, German, or Mongolian). The Church does not want you, however, to understand the words, but lose the meaning. Grandma was right; if given the choice, a Catholic Mass that you cannot understand at all is always better than a distorted Catholic Mass.