What Roof?

“Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; speak but the word and my soul shall be healed”, said the commentator in one Sunday Mass in Gagalangin, Tondo. This happened many, many years ago and I told myself how come this commentator used rather old words rather than what was the usual response. (This commentator is notorious for resorting to ad lib not only in reading out the announcements, but in the responses at Mass.) Twenty-five years later, much to my chagrin, similar words would be used in the new English translation of the Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

This is one of the changes that I find myself unable to proclaim. If I were a Mass commentator in the UK (I’m glad there’s none!), I might not control myself to laugh or at least grin at these words.
The Gospel reading for last Monday (Matthew 8:5-11) is the source of prayer before the distribution of Holy Communion. A prayer inspired by the faith of the Roman centurion (a pagan) in Jesus’ power to heal the centurion’s slave.

Sadly, the translation principles followed by the new edition of the Roman Missal has made the prayer sound fundamentalist and limiting. Some critics of the new translation asked what ‘roof’ was being referred to. Was it the roof of the mouth? I can’t blame them for this because, if you come to think of it, the prayer is said before we receive the Body of Christ through our mouths. Surely there is a better way to translate the centurion’s word without making it sound ridiculous.

I can’t imagine how our kababayans at home would feel about saying this at Mass. We could ask those in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan (Pangasinan) – they have already introduced the people’s responses since Lent of this year. (No idea why the rush when the CBCP agreed to implement the change in Advent 2012.) Furthermore, I couldn’t think how the Filipino translation would sound like, in case the current translation requires an overhaul.

Apart from the word ‘roof’ another word catches our attention: ‘soul’. I know that it’s the soul that would enjoy the reward or suffer the punishment in the afterlife. But mind you, the Lord came healing all sorts of diseases, not just those that afflict the body such as leprosy or fever, but the soul as well such as driving away demons, etc. With this new change, it’s as though Jesus was only after the good of our souls. I’m not saying that the soul is less important than the body. The soul has to be taken care of as much as we would need to look after the body. And we need Christ’s healing on both (if needed) which is why, I think, the translators of the 1973 edition opted for “I” rather than “my soul”. Didn’t St Irenaeus once said “The glory of God is a human being fully alive…”?

Lord, humbly we admit that we are unworthy to receive You. And yet, You come to us, offering Your Body and Blood as our food and drink. Touch us by Your healing love, cleanse us by Your precious Blood, nourish us by Your sacred Body. In our physical, emotional, psychological weaknesses, in our deepest yearnings, in our sins, we affirm our faith in You: only say the word and we shall be healed. Amen.