consecration 1: 2nd week advent tuesday II

Our lex orandi today is the very words of the consecration itself.  In the past when the liturgy was too strict and the interpretation of every rule too rigid, whenever a priest mispronounces or omits a word in the consecration, he commits mortal sin.  It’s not for anything but to emphasize the sacredness of the words themselves.  These are sacred words, these are the words which consecrates the bread.  These are the words whose effects on the bread and wine distinguish lay persons from priests.  Only an ordained priest can say these words because it is through the power of these words that the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine becomes the blood of Christ. 

There is a joke regarding this consecration thing.  A priest became so angry with his bishop and you know what he did.  The priest went to the bakery dressed in stole and chasuble, the vestments of a priest during mass and pronounced the words of consecration.  Take this all of you and eat it.  And the priest left.  The most outrageous thing however was when the bishop heard this.  The bishop went in a huff down to the bakery and bought all the bread there.  Well he thought that through the words of consecration of the priest the ugoy-ugoy, the mamon, the teren-teren, the pandesal and the ensaymada all became the Body of Christ.  Ang nami pamangkuton kon gin-ano niya ang mga tinapay nga binakal sa bakery - ginpakalawat, ginbutang sa tabernacle, ginabutangan kandila? Interesting?!

No, the words of consecration are not magic words.  And of course not - the bread in that bakery did not become the body of Christ. 

But as I said these are sacred words, the words of Jesus himself.  In the words of traditional catechesis these words are the form of the sacrament while the bread and wine are the matter of the sacrament.  In the same way that you cannot change the matter of the sacrament, you cannot just use any bread or any wine for that matter, so also you cannot use any form or any words for the consecration.  You have to use what is prescribed by the church.  The words that we use should as much as possible re-echo, or repeat accurately what Christ said during the Last Supper.  That is why translations for the consecration are approved only by the pope.  That is how serious the church is in preserving this short sentence that consecrates the bread and wine.

In this new translation there are 3 changes made especially in the consecration of the wine.  In the consecration the priest says: 

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT, FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.  DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.

First instead of cup it now uses chalice.  It uses the word chalice because cup in the ears of the translators is too ordinary.  Liturgy uses ritual language, not day to day secular language and expressions, in the same way that the priest uses ritual vestments and not the ordinary street clothes.  Why? because this is something different, what we are doing in the mass is not something ordinary, the mass is somethign different.  In the liturgy we should be transported beyond this world, beyond time, beyond our day to day concerns.  The Liturgy is different - ang panglakat mo sa SM ukon sa calle real indi kasubong sang panglakat mo sa sulod chapel - hinay lang pero indi man nga daw nagapahunay-hunay.  Ang pamatasan ta sa sulod sang chapel sa misa indi kasubong sang pamatasan ta sa food court.  Ang bayu ta sa chapel indi pareho sang bayu ta sa beach.  It is different.  Indi ta lang pagparelohoson ang tanan.  Sang una may maestro kami nga pari nga kon may clase kami - nagakurog-kurog gid ina sia sa pagsiling - distinction, distinguo.  Sakto indi bala?  Kis-a wala na kinalain, palareho na lang, and that is where most troubles begin.

Second, it uses the word poured instead of shed.  This is my blood which will be poured out.  The translators re not content with just the word shed to described the act on the cross.  It was really a pouring out of blood - wala lang sia nagpatulo sang dugo, gin-ula ya gid ang iya dugo for us, for each one of us.  The love of God is superfluous, nagasolobra - ginpuno na, gindasok na, ginpa-awas pa - siksik, lik-lik at umaapaw.  That’s the meaning of poured.  Amo na nga indi gid pag-isipi ang Dios - sa imo pag-alagad sa Iya, sa imo kaalwan sa imo isigkatawo, indi gid pag-isipi ang Dios.  Kay kon mag-isipay na kita gani, pierdi gid kita.

Our gospel today demonstrates this superfluous love of God.  He leaves the ninety nine to look for the single lost sheep.  Common sense and the practical man would tell us ti anhon mo na kay naglisa sia, pasulabihon ang 99.  But not God, not God.

The third point we reserve for next week.