Sorry, folks, but I just love John 1 in Latin. Let this roll off your tongue. You’ll thank Him for it.
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est; in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum; et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.
Isn’t that beautiful? Even if you cannot comprehend it?
In the old Mass, this was the Last Gospel. I am so lucky to hear this almost every Sunday. The Last Gospel, for those who love irony, begins with “In the beginning.” Last=Beginning. Do you Catholics not see the perfection of this Mass? This Mass most of you scoff at and ridicule? Do you see that the new Mass nas a beginning, a middle, and an end? Do you wonder, ever, when you’re lying in bed on Saturday night, drunk (God willing), thinking about Mass the next day, that your Church–Christ’s bride–celebrates His eternity with finite Mass? A Mass that TRIES to be FINITE? Don’t you find it inappropriate?
I do. I find it theologically retarded.
I pray you Catholics, you modern, liberal, post-Vatican II Catholics who might read this blog, have had some philosophy, either in school or on your own. I ask you to ponder my argument philosphically. It won’t be long.
If our God is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the way, the truth, and the life, doesn’t it stand to reason that His church on earth, His creation, should celebrate Him with a service that has no beginning, no middle, and no end?
Yes. Of course.
Now, think back to the beginning of this piece. The Last Gospel is the Beginning. “In principio . . . .”
The new Mass ends.
The old Mass never does.
Think about it.
Pray upon it.
Let your end be the beginning, just as His death destroyed ours and His rising restored our life. Let the surface contradictions seep into your soul so that the truth of the impossible makes more sense to you than the deception of the physical. Et domini sit semper vobiscum.
UPDATE: Want to learn Church Latin from the Pope’s Latinist? Here’s the link.