jgreiss
posted on Nov 13, 2003 - 05:40 AM
I'm sorry, but I think Mathitis understands this the best. He's just not expressing it fully.
Salvation is paramount. That's what we live for. All our prayers and efforts are (or should be) aimed at attaining the Kingdom of Heaven. Anything else you do in your day is a waste of time.
So when it comes to Liturgical services, and particularly the Liturgy of the Eucharist because it the most frequently attended, we come together as one body in Christ to pray together and to partake of the Sacrifice. It is essential that the prayers be understood. The end of the Divine Liturgy has a priest confessing before God and the people that what rests in front of him is the Body and Blood of Christ. How can a confession be something recited and not understood? Every altar deacon response instructs the congregation to do something. How can the deacon ask the people to do something if they don't understand what he's saying? Understanding is paramount in any service. I disagree that the Church Fathers "fought to transmit to us the Coptic language". The Ecumenical Councils were established to solidify the Orthodox faith - to ensure the faith wasn't corrupted by heretics at the time. St. Athanasius stood up at the Council of Nicea to condemn Arius, not to declare Coptic was the Liturgical language. Understanding is central - people need to understand their faith and their services to be able to live full spiritual lives.
Now, just because the majority of people don't understand Coptic today doesn't mean we have to get rid of it. Quite the contrary, because so many people don't understand it means we need to preserve it. I know a Greek Orthodox priest who learned Coptic in order to read two of St. Athanasius' letters which are only available in Coptic. We need to hold to Coptic so that we don't lose these riches. Furthermore, we all know and recognize that something is always lost in a translation. Really, the true meaning of any text can only be found in its original language. So all of a sudden, it becomes essential to preserve the Coptic language in order to keep a full understanding of what the Church Fathers wrote down in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Otherwise, we lose valuable pieces of our faith - potentially even losing an understanding of the Orthodox faith that are contained in these letters.
Of course, the Copts are in an ideal position to preserve the language, so the responsibility really is ours. And since the Divine Liturgy is served at least 3 times a week, and adequate translations are available, I can then feel confident that the priest understands what he is professing, even if he is saying it in a language I don't understand (or he understands). I can understand the instructions of the altar deacon because the translation is right there in front of me and I've attended the Divine Liturgy before. The Divine Liturgy seems to be an ideal place to have more Coptic, just because those resources are there and the frequency of the service itself.
When we look deeper, specifically to the Midnight Praise, we see mere beauty when the hymns are performed in Coptic. Each verse in Aripsalin is poetry in Coptic, in how each verse rhymes and has similar meter (rhythm), and also how each verse begins with consecutive letters in the Coptic alphabet. What an ingenious way to get the believers to memorize the hymn verse for verse! If contemporary English scholars don't modernize Shakespearean english so that everyone can understand his plays more clearly, then we shouldn't be so quick to dump Coptic and be in danger of losing the beauty and meaning of these hymns.
I don't want to take the Shakespearean example too far. Notice that even the composers of the Coptic hymns recognized the needs of the people (that they couldn't read, or that the hymns were long) and so served the people's needs appropriately by making the consecutive letters of the alphabet start off each verse. The focus is always the needs of the people. I still think that it is important that good, quality translations be available to the congregation, BUT ALSO, that the Liturgical services should be done in an understood language so that the people can lift up their hearts without having to read a book. A good balance needs to be found, which is probably dependent on each individual congregation.
I'm sure H.H. Pope Shenouda III, in all his wisdom, did not intend that we compromise the understanding of the congregation just to add more Coptic. It seems it was more a plea not to forget our duty.
Ultimately, it's not any hymn or language that lifts your eyes to heaven to thank the Saviour. It's the deep, deep understanding that you, the betrayer of your Creator, were the reason His Son had to come and die.
Hopefully we can all find a balance between understanding and preserving the language. (And I hope we can all realize that you can't teach the entire congregation Coptic overnight).
Please pray for me,
John
_________________
John
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Joined: Apr 21, 2003 | Posts: 147
