A Little Hocus Pocus in the Church

It's that time of the year when ghosts, goblins and witches make their annual appearances and cauldrons of green, steaming, mysterious liquids boil, boil, toil and trouble. A common phrase used by those creepy ghouls when putting the finishing touch on their witches' brew is "Hocus pocus!" It implies something mysterious is happening, that there are unseen forces at play doing some kind of extraordinary act, changing forms and substances into a new, powerful potion or stew. 

Do you know where "Hocus Pocus" gets its name? Given its conventional use, it's background is most unusual. It comes from the Church - specifically from the Words of Institution spoken by Jesus on Maundy Thursday when first sanctifying the Lord's Supper. 

Travel back in time with me to the Middle Ages. The liturgy of the church - the regular structure of words spoken in the worship service - was all done in Latin. The people of the congregation were largely uneducated and unfamiliar with anything in Latin much beyond the Invocation "In nomine patri, et filii, et spiritus sancti. Amen." For unschooled laymen, understanding what the priests were saying in the Latin Mass was nearly impossible. 

Too, the laity was taught that in the Mass, the celebration of the Lord's Supper, something mystical and mysterious was happening. As the priest spoke the Verba, the words of Jesus, the elemental bread and wine were transubstantiated - changed substances - into the sacramental body and blood of Jesus. What great power was in those few dozen words!

For the sake of space, I’ll not print the whole Latin Verba, just the key phrase. “Hoc est corpus meum” – “this is my body,” spoken when consecrating the host, or the bread.  Priests often held the bread and wine aloft while consecrating, adding physical motion to the words by making the sign of the cross over the vessels. Again, to uneducated people, it wasn’t much more than holy hand waving.

It became a perfect storm: lack of Latin comprehension, a mystical interpretation of the consecration, and relatively poor priestly vocal projection – I don’t think they were taught elocution or vocal projection, let alone basic Speech 101 – and the poor laypeople were as confused as could be, understanding neither the words nor the action. All they knew is that when the priest said these words and waved his hands about, something magical happened.

Thus, was born the phrase, describing something magical and mystical as “hocus pocus,” an attempt to interpret and understand the action that was happening at the altar in the words and actions of the priest.

This kind of confusion was but one of the reasons Martin Luther wanted to get the Bible, in a known and understood language, in the hands of the people. He wanted them to be able to read and understand for themselves the Good News of Jesus, not merely relying on what they heard – or thought they heard – in the worship service.  

Are there things you don’t understand about the Divine Service? Ask your pastor. Chances are he would love to sit and visit with you about what you saw, heard, or understood.