Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Feast of St Benedict: Psalm 118 Samech Pt 1



Today being the Feast of St Benedict (it’s a memorial only in Roman EF calendar, but a Solemnity in the Benedictine), I want to focus in on just one verse of today's stanza of Psalm 118, namely verse 116, which is the centerpiece of the Benedictine profession ceremony:

Súscipe me secúndum elóquium tuum, et vivam: et non confúndas me ab exspectatióne mea.

The Douay-Rheims translates the verse as ‘Uphold me according to your word, and I shall live, and let me not be confounded in my expectation’. Most Benedictine translations of the Rule, however, make it ‘Receive me O Lord and I shall live’, and that reflects a long exegetical tradition.

In the context of the Benedictine monastic profession ceremony, the verse is generally interpreted as a plea for God to accept the monk or nuns sacrifice, in the form of the renunciation of the world, and to give them the grace to persevere.

But it is applicable to all of us, for though only religious offer themselves as a total holocaust to the Lord, we are all, as Christians, called to offer ourselves to him, and all need his grace to persevere in our own proper vocation.

Monastic Profession ceremony

In the Rule of St Benedict, the profession ceremony involves the monk making his vows of ‘stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience’. He then places a document setting out this promise on the altar.

The Rule continues:

“…and when he has placed it there, let the novice at once intone this verse: "Receive me, O Lord, according to Your word, and I shall live: and let me not be confounded in my hope" (Ps. 118[119]:116). Let the whole community answer this verse three times and add the "Glory be to the Father." Then let the novice prostrate himself at each one's feet, that they may pray for him. And from that day forward let him be counted as one of the community.”

The Monastic Profession ceremony is often regarded as a kind of second baptism, so one can perhaps see this verse as referring back to the reference to the oath sworn in the previous stanza, that firm commitment to do God’s will that we are all bound to by our baptism.

Doing anything under formal vow, however, elevates it to a more perfect offering (with consequent more serious consequences for breaking it), and thus makes it a referent point for us all in our daily struggles to stay on the path.

Accept and protect me

The Latin ‘Súscipe me’ is in fact rather ambiguous – it can mean either to receive/accept me or uphold/protect me

So is this a prayer for divine support or for divine acceptance?

In fact it can be interpreted as both, and we should take both meanings to heart.

St Alphonsus Liguori paraphrases the verse as “O Lord, take me under Thy protection, as Thou hast promised, that I may live to Thee; do not, I beseech Thee, permit me to fall into the confusion of being deprived of the help that I expect from Thee”.

But it can also mean on one side, to voluntarily take up or accept an obligation as a favour; and, on the other, to receive or accept: to take up a newborn child was to acknowledge them; or to adopt them as one’s own. Dom Delatte’s classic Commentary on the Benedictine Rule captures this double meaning in the context of the monastic profession ceremony saying: "Grant that I may be really 'given' and really 'received,' truly received because truly given, and that both of us may be able to keep our word.”

A prayer we can all make our own, and ask St Benedict to aid us with on this his feast day.

Text notes

116 Súscipe me secúndum elóquium tuum, et vivam: * et non confúndas me ab exspectatióne mea.
Uphold me according to your word, and I shall live: and let me not be confounded in my expectation.

suscipio, cepi, ceptum, ere 3 to guard, protect, uphold, support; receive, accept; to seize.
confundo, fiidi, fiisum, ere 3, to put or bring to shame, to discomfit, confound, disappoint
exspectatio – ionis f – hope, expectation

Súscipe me = Receive/accept me or Uphold/protect me

Suscipe can mean to support, sustain or defend, hence Cassiodorus explains it as: Now that they have routed the faithless and are cleansed of intimacy with wicked men, they ask to be supported by the Lord so that they can be saved by the promise of His word.

But it can also mean on one side, to voluntarily take up or accept an obligation as a favour; and, on the other, to receive or accept: to take up a newborn child was to acknowledge them; or to adopt them as one’s own.

Accordingly as the Swiss-American commentary on the ceremony points out, “the act of monastic profession is understood at least implicitly, as an oblation or sacrifice. In the suscipe the newly professed beg God to accept the offering which they make of themselves in response to his promise of eternal life (Mk. 10:28-30).”

secúndum elóquium tuum = according to your word

et vivam = and I will live (fut) or make me live (subj)

Opinions on the tense are split here – the RSV and Coverdale go with subjunctive; Douay-Rheims with future. The Greek is, on the face of it, a subjunctive, but both Brenton and NETS treat it as future tense. Cassiodorus continues: But when they say: I shall live, they speak of the time to come, for we do not truly live in this world where we sin in the frailty of the flesh. Their expectation was that in their great devotion they would encounter Christ's mercy. They ask that they realise this hope at the Judgment to come, so that they cannot be robbed of their expectation through misleading themselves and being confounded.

et non confúndas me = and [you may not (subj)] put me to shame/discomfort me = let me not be confounded/disappointed

ab exspectatióne mea = from my expectation/my hope

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