The Sense of Reparare in Classical Culture and in the Eucharistic Prefaces for Epiphany and Easter

Abstract

ABSTRACT:For centuries the Roman Missal has employed the same Latin verb, reparare (“to refashion”), in the Eucharistic prefaces of Epiphany and Easter to describe the effects on us of, respectively, Christ’s appearance in human flesh and Christ’s death and resurrection. This verb appears frequently in early missals and sacramentaries, and scholars have investigated its liturgical meaning as well as its use in certain patristic authors. In this paper I investigate the connotation of reparare in the classical world, and I demonstrate that the liturgy has appropriated a rather ordinary word and invested it with new meaning in order to express the most sublime truth of the Christian faith, viz., that contrary to the seemingly inexorable laws of nature, Christ has refashioned us for eternal life.