RBWords - Volume 31 - Number 7: July 2018
Something to Think About
r.b.words – vol. 31 – no. 7 – July 2019
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
A recent fuss about some comments made by Pope Francis in regard to the translation and understanding of a line in the “Our Father…” could have some positive results. He questioned the use of the term “lead” in the line “and lead us not into temptation, and said it is misleading (no pun intended) because God does not “lead”people into temptation. That made me take a look at various translations in popular Bibles of the prayer. In the four major Bibles I looked at (New English, New Revised Standard, New American and New Jerusalem) the words “lead us not into temptation” do not appear! Yes, the liturgical prayer – the one we are all “used to” does have it. The American Bishops figured it would be too disruptive, when they issued the new translation of the Mass, to change the traditional wording of the Our Father even though it does not appear in the very Bible that they approve for liturgical use! In other words, they must have figured that the new translation of the Mass was hard enough, they’d better not mess with the Lord’s Prayer in sacramental practice!!!! Pastoral practice is not always logical!
The positive result, perhaps not widespread, could be that folks take a good look at what they are praying for when they say the Our Father! The whole tone of the prayer has become domesticated and has lost the urgency that the Greek had. Latin and English lack the particular grammatical tense the Greek had which meant “right now!” The punch that the lines on God’s forgiveness is lost for the most part. The Pope pointed out that God does not “lead us into temptation.” Those lines are really a plea for God’s protection from Satan’s testing.
I doubt any of this is going to change the way people pray the Our Father, but maybe – just maybe – we could become more intentional than automatic in praying it! IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.
From THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE – Revised Edition approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops!