Censorship Revisited - Under God's Word - The Tough Sayings

 

The Holy Bible – Douay‐Rheims version

Psalm 136

 A psalm of David, for Jeremias.

1 Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept when we remembered Sion:

2 On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments.

3 For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.

4 How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

6 Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

8 O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.

9 Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

     Watching a Ralph Martin video got me to thinking about my own experience of the post-conciliar regime of censorship which has deprived us Catholics of not few passages of Sacred Scripture at least since that faraway year when I was a freshman in college (here). Martin does an excellent job of shining a light into this dark place in the so-called liturgical reform.

    I remember very clearly when, even before the edition of the new breviary, our spiritual director in college seminary issued an ultimatum, banning verse 9 of the otherwise beloved Psalm 136 [9 Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.]. The poor priest, who abandoned ministry shortly thereafter, would nearly foam at the mouth and stomp out of the chapel if the hebdomadary would by distraction forget to cancel Ps. 136 from our Friday night common recitation of Compline. Personally, I found his antics exaggerated and stupid. Any child could understand the bitterness of the exiles rendered in the words of the psalm. And besides, it was God's word and must have been put there by wisdom for some reason.

   Verse 9 of Psalm 136 may just be the toughest sentence in the whole Bible to swallow as inspired word of God, but perhaps no other sentence of the Bible so renders the bitter sorrow, the rancor of a people in exile.

    In the video, Ralph Martin gives easier examples of the scandal arising from censorship of the canon of Scripture within the canon. He's right and Catholics deserve to know that for the most part, whether it is the Breviary or the voluminous Lectionary for Mass there are glaring omissions sadly intent on keeping us from that which makes the Word of God that which it should be, a two-edged sword, for our sanctification: "Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account." [Hebrews 4:12-13]

    Hard hearts may be closed to the Word even when proclaimed, but woe to those who withhold the Word! They are depriving the children of the Kingdom of proper nourishment! 

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