In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl tells the story of going for a walk with a friend immediately after being released from prison camp. They were headed right for a field of young oats, and when Frankl tried to avoid tramping through the field, his friend became very angry and said, “You don’t say! And hasn’t enough been taken from us? My wife and child have been gassed—not to mention everything else—and you would forbid me to tread on a few stalks of oats!” The man dragged Frankl through the field and they crushed thousands of stalks of oats. The point of the story was the indiscriminate brutality caused by a sudden release from horrific suffering. But the point in today’s blog is somewhat different. Read on.
The Gospel from Tuesday’s Mass was the story of the disciples plucking the heads of grain while they walked “through the grainfields” (Matt. 12.1, Mark 2.23 and Luke 6.1, RSV). On the one hand, the disciples were hungry, on the other, it was the Sabbath. The result was that the Pharisees were scandalized. But the fabulous “revised for accuracy” translation given in Mass was as follows: “As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the Sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.” (Mark 2:23-24). Does this remind you of the first paragraph? In this translation the Pharisees were right to be frantic with disapproval—the disciples were engaged in a foul act of senseless destruction, without even the excuse of quality time with the Nazis. Making a path through a field of oats!!! “Walking through grainfields” in the plural implies that they were walking on the footpaths between fields, close enough to the standing grain to snaffle up a small meal, but not doing any harm. These idiots who revise for “accuracy” should not only pay attention to what sounds cool, but also to what the words actually mean.
