New Translation Monday: It is Right and Just

As a reminder, past editions of the New Translation Catechesis can be accessed via the top menu bar.

The Preface is the prayer that signals the beginning of the Eucharistic Canon.  It is(since about the seventh century) separated from the rest of the Canon by the singing of the Sanctus.  Nevertheless, historically the Preface belongs to the Canon itself.  The word “preface” comes from the Latin Praefatio, meaning an introduction or a prologue.  Each Preface begins with the “Preface Dialog” between the priest and the people.  The current formula is very familiar:

Priest:   The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Priest:   Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Priest:   Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right to give him thanks and praise.

There is but one small change to the translation of the Preface Dialog, to which we will turn momentarily.  First, let’s examine the Latin formula itself.

Priest:   Dominus vobiscum.

People: Et cum spiritu tuo.

Priest:   Sursam corda.

People: Habemus ad Dominum.

Priest:   Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.

People: Dignum et iustum est.

In the new translation, we will once again find the familiar change of “And also with you” to “And with your spirit.”  The first installment of this catechesis dealt with et cum Spiritu tuo in great detail, and we will not repeat the explanation here.  Instead, let us simply note that this is a very old formula appearing even in St. Paul’s letters [“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brethren.” (Gal 6:18 and Phil 4:23); “The Lord be with you spirit” (2 Tim 4:22)].  Unknown to the ancient world, the greeting seems to appear only in Christian writings.

The next part of the dialog is one of the oldest known liturgical formulas and occurs almost universally in all Christian liturgies.  As described by Adrian Fortesque in The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, Cyprian of Carthage, writing in the third century, quotes it and its response:  “The priest, before the prayer, the preface being made first (praefatione praeissa) prepares the minds of the brethren saying: Lift up your hearts (Sursum codra) and the people answer: We have them to the Lord (Habemus ad Dominum).”

The Latin sursum corda is actually composed of an adverb (meaning “upwards” or “above”) and a noun (meaning “hearts”).  A verb is missing from the phrase, (literally it would say, “Hearts upward!”) but given the meaning of the adverb, the translation is properly “Lift up hearts,” which, with the implied pronoun, becomes, “Life up your hearts.”  The response (Habemus ad Dominum) contains habemus (“We have”), the first word in the famous phrase that announces to the world the election of a new Pope (Habemus Papam!).  The literal translation of this response is, “We have [them] to the Lord” or, “We have [them] before the Lord.”  The current and new translations both read, “We lift them up to the Lord,” which is not quite literal, but attempts to supply the missing words not found in the Latin, just as in the case of Sursum corda.

The third piece of the dialog is where we will see a change in translation.  According to Fortesque, it too is a formula that goes back to the earliest age, appearing in the Apostolic Constitutions of the fourth century.  It is an invitation to give thanks, fully appropriate for the celebration of the Eucharist (which means a “thanksgiving”).  The invitation has roots in the Jewish grace before meals: “Let us give thanks to Adonai our God.”  As part of their conversational Latin, first year students will often be taught a similar phrase, “Gratias tibi ago,” which is the formula for “Thank you.”  Literally it means, “I give thanks to you” or, “I express thanks to you.”  Agamus is in the subjunctive, and so is rendered “Let us give.”  The translation “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God” is perfect.*

The response to this call to give thanks is Dignum et iustum est.  Dignum is an adjective meaning “fitting,” “right,” “appropriate,” or “worthy.”  Iustum is also an adjective meaning “just” or “righteous.”  The phrase translates, “It is right and just.”  This is exactly how the faithful will respond in the new translation.  The previous formula, “It is right to give him thanks and praise,” simply has little connection to the Latin.

The repetition of what it is right to do (“... to give him thanks and praise”) isn’t too troubling, though the fact remains that it is not found in the Latin.  However, the reduction of “right and just” to simply “right” changes the subtle meaning of the phrase.  St. Thomas Aquinas, in his laborious classification of the virtues, situates the virtue of religion under the cardinal virtue of justice.  Justice is the virtue of rendering unto someone what is due to that person, and the virtue of religion is rendering unto God what it due to God.  This is the proper meaning of worship.  It is in the Preface Dialog that we state our desire to offer our very selves up to God along with the Eucharistic sacrifice about to be offered at the hands of the priest.  In fact, although “hearts” is the most common translation of corda, a less common translation renders the noun as “minds,”  The point it that it is we turn our entire attention to God; we offer him our every emotion and thought.  We unite all that we are to the sacrifice of Christ.

We owe our existence itself to God, the one who created us.  Accordingly, there is only one gift we can offer to God that is a fitting response: ourselves.  This is the exitus-reditus cycle described by St. Thomas Aquinas: from God we have come, and to God we must return.  However, it is not only fitting (dignum) that we offer ourselves to God, but it is also a matter of justice (iustum).  We owe it to God to return to him; because he is our source, he must also be our summit.  It is true that our gift of self must be freely offered.  God will never force a soul to return to him, yet the free gift we make is also a matter of justice towards our Creator.

As a closing note, the first line of every Preface, which follows the dialog, reinforces the claim of justice.  The priest says, “Vere dignum et iustum est,” meaning, “It is truly right and just.”

With that, the new translation for use in Advent 2011 is:

Priest:   The Lord be with you.

People: And with your spirit.

Priest:   Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Priest:   Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right and just.

* Although agamus is rendered as “give,” which is typical when it appears with gratias, the word agere can mean a wide range of things: do, act, make, accomplish, perform, drive, move, guide, discuss, cause ... and this is just a partial list.  It all depends on the noun with which it is paired.