New age at Mass

The fourth preface of Easter has quite interesting – in my opinion, unfaithful and over-interpreting – translations.

The Latin text runs like that: Vetustate destructa, renovantur universa deiecta, et vitae nobis in Christo reparatur integritas.

Let's look first into the Polish rendering, it's shorter than the English version: On [Chrystus] zniweczył moc grzechu, odnowił całe stworzenie i nam przywrócił utracone życie.

Now, the English translation turns the succinct Latin text into such ornate elaboration: In him [sc. Christ] a new age has dawned, the long reign of sin is ended, a broken world has been renewed, and man is once again made whole.

Those who know Latin know, too, how difficult it is to translate a short, simple, as it were, Latin text into any modern language. What does the Latin text of the preface say? All the creation that was thrown down (universa deiecta, I'll say more about it later) has been renewed. It could be done since (or when, the Latin text allows both interpretations) the “old fashion” of the world (vetustas), itself a result of the Fall, has been destroyed (destructa). In Christ our life is again made whole (that's a perfect word for it, with its – etymology – meaning of undivided, being in one piece, hence safe and healthy).

Back to the universa deiecta. All creation was felled, like a tree, by the Fall of man. One of the Gelasian Sacramentary prayers describes hominem invidia diaboli ab aeternitate deiectum, man thrown down by envy of the Devil. Humankind is yet redeemed by the blood of Christ, and the same prayer addresses God: [hominem] unici tui sanguine redemisti.

Redemption – Death and Resurrection of Our Lord – means raising of the man, the head of the creation, and with him all the creation, into a new life in Christ.