Question: My question is not exactly about the liturgy rubrics, but rather about the text of the opening prayer (collect) at Mass on Tuesday after the solemnity of the Epiphany. The text of the collect as I have in our Missal says: "O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves. who lives and reigns with you ...." It dawned on me that there is something not right in the wording, which seemed to suggest that Christ was not truly and fully human but only "outwardly like ourselves.” Is it a lack of attention to proper translation wording, or are we sidelining the whole struggle of the first three centuries over the nature of Christ, definitively concluding with the definition at [the Council of] Nicaea, if I am not mistaken, that Christ was both truly, really and fully divine and truly, really and fully human? Although the opening line of the prayer does affirm the teaching and faith that the "Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh," the conclusion "whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves" seems to suggest it is only an outward appearance and not a reality of being fully human as ourselves! Am I misreading the text? — J.S., Johannesburg, South Africa
