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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in BarnesWinter2011
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The New Translation of the Roman Missal I am delighted that the new translation of the Roman Missal we are now using has restored to us the prayer: 'Holy, holy holy, Lord God of hosts.' It’s one of many welcome returns to the language of Scripture, recalling that wonderful encounter in Chapter 6 of Isaiah where the prophet sees the Lord, 'seated on a high throne, and his train filled the sanctuary. Above him stood the seraphim and the angels voices cry: Holy, holy, holy.' It is vital to notice that what overwhelms Isaiah is not the power and might of God, but his holiness. The holiness of God is a key Old Testament theme. To the Old Testament mind holiness is Otherness, it is what sets God apart. Our own age is very keen to express what St Thomas Aquinas calls the analogia entis or likeness of being between God and the human being made in his image. I can’t help feeling that it sometimes does so at the expense of the other point that St Thomas makes – namely that there is maior dissimiltudino, a difference between how we are and how God is which is immeasurably greater. I like the definition of a Christian anthropology given by F. J. Sheed : Man is surrounded by angels, tempted by demons, destined for heaven, in danger of hell. It is a sad fact that for many these days this is not really their Christian anthropology. The vision of human life has far narrower horizons. Man is the centre of all that is – our horizons no longer reach as far as that world of the spiritual – the world which is more real and enduring than our own material world which we are inclined to think of as being so permanent. Our culture suffers from a suspicion that somehow angels can have no place in a modern, scientific world. This is because it does not understand who and what angels are and because it does not actually want to be disturbed by anything other than the material world, with what can be owned and controlled. Such an attitude will leave us deeply unsatisfied. For despite the fact that some people appear to think that our highest faculties consist of shopping and texting, in fact they are knowing and loving. To know and to love are what makes us human and also what takes us beyond the horizon of things we can see and touch, beyond the horizon of what is only material. It follows then, that there is nothing inherently unreasonable about the idea of a being whose life is knowledge and love, who is pure spirit. There is nothing irrational in believing in angels: beings who do what pure spirits do, know and love, for that is what the spiritual part of us does. The existence of angels reminds us of the three-fold order of creation, of angels, men and matter. It orientates us towards the right perspective, the right end of the scale, by reminding us that unlike rocks or – I am sorry to say it – cute puppies and kittens, we are distinguished from the rest of creation by these faculties of knowing and loving, which raise our animal functions to an altogether higher level. In fact, those functions within us are actually transcendent; they will never be satisfied with what is merely of the earth. They open us to God, to his way of being, which is holiness, which is why he is praised and adored by angels. He made them to find joy in love and praise of him, and for his sake they care for and minister to us. Revelation tells us so. If I am uncomfortable with these holy, spiritual beings, if I think them unlikely or unimportant, what do I really think about God? I am surely stressing the analogia entis – the fact that God is like me – to a ridiculous degree. To truly come into the presence of God is to come to self-knowledge: realistic self-knowledge which includes a frank acknowledgement of my sins, a metanoia, a change of heart, after which I am led on to serve. The whole goal of the Christian life is to enter the holy of holies; to be like an angel and live in the presence of the living God. To understand myself in the light of this encounter. This sums up what it means to be a Christian; to be vividly aware that I am always in the presence of the Thrice-Holy God. Holiness is just another word for Love; a love which I will, by his grace, spend eternity praising. As St Bernard says, 'There the praise will be without end, for the love will be without end.' Dominic Allain   |
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