The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
You will perhaps say that the Mass and Canonical Hours ought then to be said now in the vulgar tongue. I deny that this follows, for the Apostle is speaking of the prayers which any lay person might compose for the edification or quickening of the people, not of the public Divine offices, which the clergy now perform with the approbation , not to say at the command, and in the name of the whole Church, to worship and praise God with a solemn and uniform majesty in Latin. For if the vernacular tongue were used, it would come to pass (1.) that the uneducated would not understand Divine mysteries, or rather they would misunderstand them, and accept heretical opinions ; (2.) the language would have to vary with the countries, or even with the cities. Although all the Germans speak the same language, yet each province has a different idiom: the Westphalians have one, the Swiss another, the Hessians another, and so on. And so if the Divine office were said in the vernacular, in such a difference of dialects division would arise, and sacred things would be ridiculed and despised.
You will urge, secondly, perhaps that the people do not understand Latin : what fruit then have they from the Latin Mass? I answer, (1.) They participate in the sacrifice and also the sacrament if they wish to ; (2.) in all the prayers which the priest offers for all men, and especially for those present ; (3.) they are inflamed by the decent rites and ceremonies to devotion and elevation of their souls to God in private prayer, especially since parish priests are bound, by the Council of Trent (sess. xxii. c. 8), to explain the service to the people in their sermons. See Bellarmine ( de Verbo . Dei. lib. ii. c. 16).
Ver. 15. — I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also. I will pray with sense and meaning, intelligibly, so that others may understand me. S. Paul alludes to Ps. xlvii. 7, where the same double meaning of understanding on the part of speaker and hearer is found.
Ver. 16. — Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit , &c. To bless here is to praise God with heart and mouth. S. Thomas understands it of the public blessing of the people ; so also do Primasius, Haymo, and Salmeron, the latter of whom strives by many arguments to prove that the Apostle is speaking here of the sacrifice of the Mass, in which the priest blesses God rather than the people ; for the two Greek words for “blessing” and “giving thanks,” used indifferently by the Evangelists and S. Paul in their accounts of the institution of the Eucharist, are used here, and seem to point to the Mass. It hence derives its names of the “ Blessing ” and the “ Eucharist ,” or giving of thanks. Add to this that in all the liturgies of the Mass, including those of S. James, S. Clement, S. Basil, and S. Chrysostom, after the consecration of the bread and wine, the people are wont to answer “ Amen ! ” The Apostle, then, seems to mean here that public blessings, prayers, and Masses should not be said in the church in an utterly unknown tongue, but that among the Greeks Greek should be used, among the Hebrews Hebrew, and among the Latins Latin ; for these languages are for the most part understood by all who are of each race respectively. If it is impossible to use one language which is understood by all the different peoples who hear the same Mass, then one which is the best known should be selected, such as Latin among us, so that many “ in the room of the unlearned ” may answer “ Amen ! ” as the Apostle requires.
But that the Apostle is not speaking of the solemn blessing in the Mass, but of any other uttered by some private member, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, in hymn or psalm or prayer, appears (i.) from the Greek particle (ἐπεί, else, which, in its meaning of because , gives the cause of the preceding verse. The singular, used in “ thy giving of thanks,” points also to the private and personal devotion of each of the faithful. (2.) It appears from the drift of the whole chapter, and especially from the conclusion, stated in ver. 26, “ Let all things be done to edifying.” (3.) It appears again from ver. 31, where he says : “ Ye may all prophesy one by one ; ” and from ver. 29 : “ Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge ; ” but it was of any one’s fresh and private blessing or prophecy that they were to judge; for the common prayer and liturgy of the whole Church, having been approved of by the whole Church, ought not to be subjected to examination for judgment. All this will better appear from the next paragraph.
The unlearned. Gagneius, following Severian, says the unlearned is the catechumen. Primasius says he is a neophyte. Chrysostom , Ephrem, Theophylact, S. Thomas, and others give the best meaning, viz., one untaught, unlettered, and with no knowledge of tongues.
S. Thomas, Primasius, and Haymo take the “ unlearned” here to be the minister who at Divine service says “ Amen!” for the people at the end of the Collects. These Fathers say that S. Paul means that at all events the minister at the Mass and other sacred rites should be able to understand the priest, or him who offers up prayer in public, in any other language than the vernacular, and should be able to respond, “ Amen ! ” This is good and fitting teaching, but not necessarily the one uppermost in the mind of the Apostle.
But the " unlearned ” here denotes, not some minister of the sacred rites, but any one of the laity. The Greek gives us, “he who sits among the unlearned ” that is, is himself unlearned. Prophets and teachers used to sit in one place, the lay people in another. This is the explanation given by Chrysostom and Theophylact. Justin (Apol. 2) says that the whole of the laity, and consequently any individual of it, was wont to answer “Amen ! ” Hence S. Jerome, towards the end of his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, says that the people used to answer “ Amen ! ” with a noise like thunder. A minister now says it for the people, so as to prevent a confused murmuring.
The Apostle is speaking here, we must notice once more, of the extempore prayer of the individual, uttered for the purpose of edifying , and which might possibly contain some doctrinal error, as is hinted in ver. 29. He directs that in such prayers the vulgar be used, so that the people may not answer “ Amen ! ” to a prayer in an unknown tongue which is meaningless, absurd, or heretical. He is not speaking of prayers approved by the Church, which for that very reason are free from error, to which a single minister makes reply, and to which the people can add private prayers of their own. Moreover, the Council of Trent orders that sometimes, instead of the sermon, these prayers be explained to the people.
Again, it is lawful to pray in a language not understood by the person who prays, if you are certain that the prayers are good ones, as, e.g., when nuns say the Canonical Hours in Latin. In the same way the laity, when the priest offers up prayers in Latin, can pray with him, and add the intention of seeking that the priest may obtain for himself and all the people what he asks in the name of the Church in the beautiful prayers provided. And even if they do not understand them, and get no nourishment for their understanding from the meaning of the prayers, yet they reap the fruit of devotion to God, and of reverence towards the prayers ; nay, they merit and obtain more than those who understand them if they pray with more humility, piety, and fervour.
S. Jordanes, when asked whether such prayers as these of nuns were pleasing to God, well replied : “Just as a jewel in the hand of a peasant who knows not its value is worth as much as if it were in the hand of a goldsmith or jeweller who knew its value , so too prayers in the mouth of one who does not understand them are worth as much as if they were uttered by one who knew their meaning.” A petition presented to a king by an ignorant peasant would obtain as much consideration as one presented by a learned man ; for it is written : “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise;” and again, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (S. Matt xxi. 16 ; S. Luke xix. 40). In the same way, in the “ Lives of the Fathers,” Abbot Pastor is related to have said to one who complained to him, that though he prayed he felt no contrition, because he knew not the meaning of the words that he used : “ Do you none the less persevere in prayer , for like as a charmer sings words which the snake hears but understands not, and yet is subdued and tamed by them , so when we use words whose meaning we know not, the devils hear them and understand them, and are terrified and driven away.” Cf. S. Thomas and Cajetan.