Sumani, Wilfred (2014) Benedicite Omnia Opera Domini Domino: The Canticle of the Three Servants in the Fiery Furnace (Dan 3, 52 – 88) as a Liturgical “Classic” in the Roman Tradition. PhD thesis, Pontificium Athenaeum S. Anselmi de Urbe - Pontificum Institutum Liturgicum.
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Abstract
In his penetrating study of Christian rites, Gordon W. Lathrop contends that the essence of the ordo of Christian worship is what is called “liturgical dualism” – the juxtaposition of the old and the new, word and gesture. This, in his view, is the “deep structure” not only of the Christian liturgy but of the Bible as well. Old words are used to say something new, while Old Testament texts are juxtaposed with gestures drawn from the New Testament. Therefore, he sustains that to understand the dynamics of the liturgy it is important to pay attention to the “patterns” of worship because in liturgy meaning occurs through the structure of the celebration. While the present writer agrees with Lathrop’s emphasis on the importance of the patterns (structure) of liturgy, it is equally true that, in Christian worship, meaning occurs through the content of the ordo. Not all texts or gestures play the same role in liturgical celebrations. As Lathrop remarks later in the book, some texts «carry the heart of the faith better than others». For instance, during the Easter vigil, it is allowed to omit some of the Old Testament readings, except Exodus 14 and its canticle. This means that Exodus 14 and the Canticle of Moses are particularly pertinent to the Easter vigil. Addressing the question of meaning-making in the liturgy, Lawrence Hoffmann distinguishes between “themes” and “conventions”. “Themes” are truths or verities seen to be central to a particular tradition. Such truths endure in time because «their message is never exhausted by any simple statement. Different ways of alluding to them run throughout a religion’s history». For the Jews, the Exodus is the theme underlying their religious tradition, while redemption in the death and resurrection of Christ (the paschal mystery) is the theme for Christians. “Conventions” are material or concrete expressions of the timeless themes. These expressions may take the form of poetry, architecture and art, among others, and each age has its own conventions for celebrating the theme of its tradition. However, some conventions express a particular theme better than others. Texts or gestures that embody more adequately the theme tend to have a longer lifespan in a tradition than those that express the religious theme in a marginal manner. Therefore, in the study of liturgical traditions, due attention ought to be given not only to the structure of the celebration but also to the specific texts and actions found in the ordo, in order to understand why some texts or gestures are deemed to be more adequate embodiments of central themes of religious traditions. In the history of Christian liturgy, one of the texts that “carry the heart” of the Christian faith, to borrow Lathrop’s expression, is the Canticum trium puerorum6. This poetic composition has been used in the Easter vigil, in the Divine Office, in the vigils of the Quatuor Tempora, in the Pentecost vigil and in the Thanksgiving after Mass, among other liturgical loci. The Christian community has prayed with this biblical text for so many centuries that the Danielic hymn came to penetrate the marrow of popular devotion and influenced personal spirituality. For instance, Rufinus (c. 345-410) mentions in his Apologia contra Hieronymum (written about 401) that the Canticle was regularly sung in the Church’s solemnities: Trium puerorum hymnus, qui maxime diebus solemnibus in ecclesiis Dei canitur, ab isto e loco suo penitus erasus est. This suggests that the Hymn had already made inroads into the Church’s liturgy at least by the end of the fourth century. John Chrysostom also describes the Canticle of the Three Hebrews as the most popular of all the canticles, adding that it was sung throughout the world9. Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople, likewise reports that in his time the Hymn resounded every day in the whole world: Ananias ac socii pueri abdormierunt nihilominus vocibus orbis universus quotidie concrepat, dicens: Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino. The importance of the Canticum trium puerorum is also attested by the 14th canon of the fourth Council of Toledo (633), which legislated that this Hymn, with which every creature in heaven and on earth praises the Lord, and which the Church spread throughout the world executes, is to be sung during Mass and during solemnities of martyrs, in all the churches of Spain and Gaul. Priests who do not comply with the law are to be excommunicated. The Canticle is also said to have irrigated the landscape of spirituality in Christian antiquity. A legend relating to the life of St. Porphyry of Gaza (c. 347-420) goes that, one day three children fell into a well and the bishop of the area, Porphyry, prayed that the Lord would preserve them from death. The children were found alive, sitting on a big rock at the bottom of the well. When they were brought out of the well, the people recited the Canticle of the Three Hebrews: et trahentes, dicebant hymnum trium puerorum: Benedictus es, Domine Deus patrum nostrorum. The bishop too joined in the praise, saying: Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino. While the story may have been composed for the edification of the intended readership – as hagiographical accounts are wont to do – the reference to the Canticle shows how the story of the three Hebrews in the furnace and its accompanying Hymn appealed to popular imagination and could be enlisted to interpret analogous human experiences. In semiotic parlance, one could say that the story of the three Hebrews and the Hymn enjoyed great “followability”, that is, the story and its Hymn were easily appropriated by its hears. Though the universalistic tone of the above reports may be interpreted as hyperbolic, it nonetheless betokens a certain degree of widespread usage of the Canticle in the early centuries of the Church, both in the East and in the West. At the same time, the Hymn’s strength, namely, its popularity and repeated use in liturgy, risks becoming its Achilles’ heel, which repetition may inspire a sense of fatigue and monotony. More pointedly, the Canticle’s classification as a deuterocanonical text is increasingly leading to its marginalisation in the field of biblical exegesis. Few of the commentaries on the Book of Daniel published in recent years include the deuterocanonical portions of the Book. Such scholarly marginalisation may gradually blur the liturgical importance of the Canticum trium puerorum. Adapting Sacrosanctum Concilium’s directive that liturgy has to be studied in its theological, historical, spiritual, pastoral, and juridical aspects, this essay situates the study of the Canticle within four coordinates: celebrative, theological, historical and methodological. The juridical and pastoral aspects can be subsumed under the celebrative and theological coordinates, just as the spiritual aspect also emanates from the theological dimension. It is within these four coordinates that the justification and the scope of the present study will be defined.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | The Canticle of the Three Servants (Dan 3 :52- 88), Liturgical classic, Roman Tradition |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BS The Bible |
| Divisions: | Comparative |
| Depositing User: | Mr Christopher Mapunda |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Jun 2015 13:13 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Mar 2018 13:28 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/244 |
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