By DON FIER
At the end of time when the resurrection of the dead and the General Judgment take place, an essential tenet of our faith — one that should fill the faithful with great hope and expectation — assures us that there will be an incredible transformation not only of humanity, but of all visible creation. We will behold “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).
“The universe itself, freed from its bondage of decay, will share in the glory of Christ,” affirms the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Thus, the fullness of the Kingdom of God will come about, that is to say, the definitive realization of the salvific plan of God ‘to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth’ (Eph. 1:10)” (n. 216).
As expressed by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council, “After we have obeyed the Lord, and in His Spirit nurtured on earth…all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again, but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over to the Father: a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love, and peace” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 39 § 4).
There will be no more strife, no more division; all will be perfected. “The human race will finally be united,” says Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, “and all those who are saved will form the Holy City of God” (The Faith, p. 100).
Its instruction on the 12 articles of the Creed having been completed, Part One of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which is entitled “The Profession of Faith,” ends with a short but beautiful five-paragraph reflection on the word “Amen.” This, indeed, should come as no surprise, for “the Creed, like the last book of the Bible (cf. Rev. 22:21), ends with the Hebrew word amen. This word frequently concludes prayers in the New Testament. The Church likewise ends her prayers with ‘Amen’” (CCC, n. 1061).
For anyone who regularly prays and participates in liturgical worship, “Amen” is a response that may often be said automatically and without much thought — it is perhaps one of the most common words on the lips of a Christian.
But where did it originate and what is its meaning? Pope Benedict XVI, in his general audience on May 30, 2012, explains that it “derives from ’aman, which in Hebrew and Aramaic means ‘to make permanent,’ ‘to consolidate,’ and consequently, ‘to be certain,’ ‘to tell the truth’.”
In his Catholic Bible Dictionary (CBD), Dr. Scott Hahn adds that in the Hebrew, it also means “so be it,” “so it is,” or “it is true” (p. 38). And according to the Catechism: “In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word ‘believe.’ This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness” (CCC, n. 1062).
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The word Amen is one of a small number of Hebrew words which have been imported unchanged into the liturgy of the Church.” Thus, rather than a translation from the Hebrew, it is a direct transliteration. “So frequent was this Hebrew word in the mouth of the Savior,” says the Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent, “that it pleased the Holy Ghost to have it retained in the Church of God” (IV, 17, 4).
Pope Benedict draws attention to the special relationship between “belief” and “Amen” in his book entitled Introduction to Christianity: “One will note how closely the first and last words of the Creed — ‘I believe’ and ‘Amen’ — chime in with one another, encircling the totality of the individual assertions and thus providing the inner space for all that lies between” (pp. 74-75).
In other words, our sincere “Amen” at the end of the Creed — which we begin with the words “I believe” — expresses our trustful surrender and assent to all that is contained in the 12 articles of faith that we have spent the last three years unpacking in this column.
As expressed by the Catechism, “The Creed’s final ‘Amen’ repeats and confirms its first words: ‘I believe.’ To believe is to say ‘Amen’ to God’s words, promises, and commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the ‘Amen’ of infinite love and perfect faithfulness” (CCC, n. 1064).
St. Augustine implores the faithful to truly mean their Amen: “Call thy faith to mind, look into thyself, let thy Creed be as it were a mirror to thee. Therein see thyself, whether thou dost believe all which thou profess to believe, and so rejoice day by day in thy faith. Let it be thy wealth, let it be in a sort the daily clothing of thy soul” (Sermo 58, 11, 13).
The first occurrence of the word “Amen” in Sacred Scripture is in the Old Testament Book of Numbers (see Num. 5:12-31). A woman is suspected of adultery by her husband, but with no witness to substantiate the act. The wife, in turn, claims to be innocent. To come to the truth of the matter, she is taken before the priest who puts her under oath: as an affirmation of her innocence, “the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen’” (Num. 5:22).
If she was indeed guilty of an adulterous act, a physical curse would come upon her; if she was telling the truth, she would not be afflicted with the curse and would be acquitted of the accusation. Her “Amen,” thus, was a solemn “so be it” to the declaration of the truthfulness of her claim of innocence.
This is an example of what Gerhard Kittle refers to in his Theological Dictionary of the New Testament as the use of Amen “to confirm the personal application of a divine threat or curse” (p. 335). It is similarly used in other places in the Old Testament (see Deut. 27:15ff; Jer. 11:5; Neh. 5:13). Kittle identifies two other Old Testament uses of Amen:
“To confirm the acceptance of a task allotted by men in the performance of which there is a need in the will of God (1 Kings 1:36) . . . [and] to attest the praise of God in response to a doxology (1 Chron. 16:36; Neh. 8:6) as at the end of the doxologies…of the Psalms (Ps. 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; 106:48)” (ibid.).
In each case, “Amen” is the acknowledgment of the validity and sureness of a declaration.
Another example of the implied use of “Amen” can be seen in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: “He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen]” (Isaiah 65:16). Here, “we find the expression ‘God of truth’ (literally ‘God of the Amen’), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises” (CCC, n. 1063).
In the New Testament, Jesus uses the word “Amen” (rendered “truly” in the RSV) to lend emphasis to His teachings. For example, consider a verse from the Gospel of St. Matthew: “For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:18). “In this fashion the Lord expresses his claim to authority and the fact that his words have power absolutely to bind the conscience” (Johannes Bauer, Sacramentum Verbi: An Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology, p. 19).
Be Vigilant
We should, then, be especially prudent to heed with vigilance all declarations of Jesus that are preceded by “Truly, I say to you,” an occurrence that happens with great frequency in the Synoptic Gospels. Similarly, in the Gospel of St. John, Christ’s solemn proclamations are often prefaced with a doubling of the word, as for example, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53).
Elsewhere in the New Testament (outside of the Gospels), Amen “is used as a liturgical response by the congregation (1 Cor. 14:16; cf. Rev. 5:14, 7:12) and appears at the end of doxologies that proclaim God’s glory (Romans 11:36; Gal. 1:5; Eph. 3:21)” (CBD, p. 39).
Moreover, in the Book of Revelation, “Jesus Christ himself is the ‘Amen’” (CCC, n. 1065) as identified by St. John: “The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14). As St. Paul says, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20). Indeed, “[Jesus] is the definitive ‘Amen’ of the Father’s love for us” (CCC, n. 1065).
We are now ready to embark on an examination of Part Two of the Catechism: “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery.” Over the next few months we will discuss the liturgy as mystery and as celebration, the seven sacraments, and the sacramentals of the Church. Let us close our consideration of Part One, as the Catechism does, by prayerfully reflecting on words spoken by the priest to end the Eucharistic Prayer at Holy Mass:
“Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever. AMEN.”
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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