Laudatur Iesus Christus.
Dear Andruschak:
I too have been prompted to look up some of these verses tauntingly omitted from the Liturgy. One thing to recall is that the Liturgy is prayer and not evangelization. Verse Six is true, a given fact. We do not need to pray for it. In fact, in part our prayer is for delay, that as many as possible be saved.
Since the Liturgy is the “indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit,” (Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14), focus on hope and the salvation of the world may need to be emphasized, while the harsh facts of judgment on those whom the Church cannot save is well enough represented. Consider the primary Invitatory Psalm, which may be prayed every day, “So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall not enter into my rest,” (see Psalm 95). This reminder of failure is a constant presence in the Liturgy.
The balance necessary for prayer and formation must be subtle. I do not envy those who must make such decisions. One cannot help but notice, however, that the very omission of the verse has prompted us to seek it out; at least for me, this led to a sort of shock, the verse is brutally graphic and desolate. This very act of seeking the text and “discovering” the harshness of the background to the prayer might have its own beneficial, formative effect. It may add a sense of urgency to one’s fully conscious and actual participation in the Liturgy. Once one seeks it out, the missing line looms over the rest of the Psalm, coming to mind, even though it is not on the page or on one’s lips. This unspoken awareness of judgment might be an element of the “true Christian spirit.”
Pax Christi nobiscum.
John Hiner
