Obsculto, o fili
This past Sunday, the Responsorial Psalm was Psalm 95. You know, "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts." I love this Psalm.
When I was a part-time grad student at Spring Hill, I was fortunate to take my Wisdom Literature class from an incredible Biblical Critic, Dr. Donald Berry. He is actually the Registrar for the University of Mobile, a Southern Baptist college and seminary, but he teaches a few classes for the Jesuits when the occassion arises. I suspect he finds more students at the Catholic college receptive to his opening line about the Bible not just dropping out of the sky than he does these days from the average SBC-er.
So when it came time to write our Big Paper for him, I chose immediately Ps 95 and Benedictine Monasticism. I was inspired partly by reading all that Kathleen Norris at Puritas Corbin's urging (Cloister Walk rocks; I could take or leave Virgin of Bennignton), and partly by my devouring of Thomas Merton. With my title, "Obsculto, o fili" (no, I don't think God hears you better if you pray in Latin but it can sure make you sound smarter), I tackled the obvious inspiration Ps 95 had been to St. Benedict of Nursia as he established his Rule and the lasting effects into today. I'll reprint some of the opening paragraphs for your perusal. If further reading sounds interesting to you, jsut email me or note in the combox that you wouldn't mind reading it. I really don't know how successful a thesis this was. As I told Corbin at the time, I really didn't need any Benedictines to buy into my line of thinking. I just needed to convince one Baptist that I knew what I was talking about (which I really didn't). So feel free, too, to argue with what I've laid out.
The entire Book of Psalms is fundamental to Benedictine monasticism, however Psalm 95 can be cast as the crucial model for the Benedictine life, to be open to hearing God when he speaks and accept what He says. When Benedict of Nursia constructed his Rule prescribing the life of his monks, he quoted the Psalms more than any other single book of the Bible. In the Prologue to his Rule, Benedict quotes “If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts” (Benedict 16) from Psalm 95 first, before any other psalm is quoted. To praise God, to be worthy of His
rewards, to lead the appropriate Christian life, Benedict advised an attentive
listening for God. Benedict uses many Psalms other than 95 and other Scriptures to support the Rule, but everything returns to being open and responsive to God speaking to them. In the Rule he outlines for his monastics the path to cultivate within themselves the environment; the Psalms and in particular Psalm 95 inform every part of it. When the monastics listen to and follow his Rule, they are frequently hearing verses from the Psalms in support of these guidelines. Additionally, when
Benedict defines the Opus Dei of his order, their work as prayer, it revolves
primarily around an ordered, communal, recitation of the Psalms. Several times daily the monastic participates in a listening and response exercise in what is now more commonly known as the Daily Office. Following the Rule and participating in the Opus Dei, activities both strongly rooted in listening to the psalms, are preparation for what Benedict saw as the culmination of the monastic life, Lectio Divina, or holy reading, or more correctly, seeking God in the Scriptures. The goal is the purest relationship with God, whom Beendict and his fifteen centuries of followers understand to be a God that continues to speak to us if only we listen and
respond when we hear.
Benedict of Nursia did not invent the monastic rule. His Rule, likely written sometime between 530 and 560 C.E., is largely drawn from other sources, including those referred to as the Rule of the Master, Psuedo-Basil, as well as other early Christian sources like John Cassian. Benedict was not interested in expressing his polished philosophy on Christian spirituality in the sixth century; rather he was trying to create a practical handbook for monastic living (Casey Living 29). At times the text and Scriptural references are at best obscure and normally confounded as he excerpted and edited heavily from his predecessors’ documents. Benedict did appear, however, to order the major parts of his Rule uniquely and according to what he believed to be most fundamental principles to foster in each individual Christian as well as in his Christian communities the right environment to hear God’s call.
Benedict opens the Prologue to his Rule with “Obsculto, o fili” (Kardong 1). From this beginning he establishes his most critical action for worshipping and
encountering God: “Listen, my sons.” As he was instituting law and order
for his monastic followers, there were many ways in which he could have opened
his text that would have been keeping with the monastic or traditions of his
time, for instance “Orate, fraters” in English “Brothers, let us pray….”
However, just as Benedict chose to begin the introduction to his Rule with the
command to listen, he is following in the larger literary tradition of Biblical
Wisdom literature. Fr. Terrence Kardong in his annotation on the Rule
points out strong parallels between the Prologue and the gently paternal
instruction that can be found in Proverbs (5). It is also no accident that
Psalms, another important book in the Wisdom Scriptures, figure heavily in
Benedict’s Rule and his idea of monastic life. He unmistakably saw the
Psalms as highly instructional in supporting his definition of Christian living
and wished his monks and their community would be shaped by the Psalms (de Waal Praying 129). Completing his great opening line, Benedict writes:
“Listen, carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them
with the ear of your heart” (Benedict 15). The “ear of the heart” is the
unique organ where God is encountered. This is not just listening
with the mind, but an engagement of the whole person (Klassen section
I.D.). Listening with the “ear of the heart” is precisely what Benedict
desires his monastics to do when he sets the course for the rest of his Rule
with his use of Psalm 95.
As mentioned previously, Benedict’s Rule is largely drawn from earlier source material. More interesting than his exclusions from the earlier monastic rules are some of his additions. Much of the Prologue to his Rule is copied from Pseudo-Basil and the Rule of the Master (Kardong 26), with one notable exception: the addition of a reference to Psalm 95. In his Rule, Benedict writes Let us open our eyes to the
light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day
calls out this charge: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
(Psalm 95:8) (Benedict 16) The insertion of a quote from Psalm 95 in the Prologue allows Benedict to prepare the monastic for the mission of living by the Rule. They should expect to learn how to listen in their hearts for what God has to say, to act accordingly, and thereby reap the rewards of sharing in the Kingdom. The whole of Psalm 95 reads
This Psalm opens with an invitation to worship. While Benedict does not quote
from this section, it will become important to the whole of his understanding of
how this Psalm is a model for Benedictine life. The reasons to praise God in Psalm 95 are the evidence of his love, substantiated by creation of everything including us, and the salvation promised by the covenant formula of being the well-tended flock (Schaefer 236). Benedict does quote directly from the opening lines of the second part of this Psalm, the oracle. The oracle serves as a striking contrast to the joyous mood of that precedes it, referring to the events of the Exodus where the people refused to trust God despite having witnessed His love for them when they were liberated. From God in the oracle we hear that they should have remained trusting even when God appeared absent. (Dumm Cherish 86). The contrast of the invitations to worship and the sobering oracle serves to show that the very action of
worship involves an approach of listening and right disposition (Shaefer 237). When Benedict quotes that single line in his Prologue, he evokes the entire Psalm 95. His monastics should expect to be charged with cultivating that right disposition and listening, even if they may not hear God that day. For Benedict, God speaks always, and his monastics need only to be in the right condition to hear and respond.
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