Vespers
NB: I believe that Fr. de Reynal intended to say that the hymns of the first week are attributed to St. Gregory the Great and not to St. Ambrose.
The second pole of the daily prayer of
the Church, the most solemn office also, is the hour of Vespers, or the time we gather to thank God for the
day that has passed and for the good that has been done by his inspiration
and with his grace. Vespers is as traditional as Lauds. If continuity is
assumed to exist between the Jewish evening sacrifice and the hour of Vespers,
this involves the events of the history of salvation, the great
"sacraments" of the new covenant which motivates the custom of Christians to pray in the evening: the Cenacle,
the sacrifice of Jesus, and his return (154). The prayer of the Church restored
after Vatican II assumed the heritage of the tradition concerning prayer in the
evening. It is in the hymns that we find the most precise mention or reference
to the "Hour" of the celebration. Their poetic character presents interesting theological shortcuts but their wealth
does not pass in translation into modern languages.
Christ is celebrated at Vespers as the
one by whom everything was done in the first creation and who realized the New
creation by his redemptive sacrifice. The work of the six days is, indeed, the
beginning of the history of salvation. The optimism and even the enthusiasm of
the Vesperal hymns - those of the first week being attributed to Saint Ambrose,
before the beauty, harmony and order of the cosmos, are the echo of the first
chapters of Genesis. It is necessary to renew this inspiration for the
believers of today, who are more attentive to the apparent deficiencies and inequalities
of the order created by the sovereign wisdom which has presided over its
origins and maintains it in existence. The Pelagian controversy and its
subsequent developments by distinguishing too sharply the order of creation from that
of redemption causes a rupture between these two orders which are two
stages of the single plan of the love of God the Father. Our hymns at Vespers reflect
this theology very close to the kerygma, and, as such, are of great value (155).
It is again around the theme of light that, it seems to us, the memory of
Christ is kept at Vespers, He is light, as the Son of God; He is therefore the
creator of all things, and in particular, creator of the light: He is also the
Savior who brings the true light, that of faith, through the grace of the sacrifice
of the Redeemer
To the grace of the morning corresponds
the action of the evening graces offered to God and to his Son, the Lord of the Church (156). Through manifold
creatures, man returns to the Creator, to the Holy Trinity, the unique origin
of all things, source of the light of the sun. Yet it is Christ, the splendor
of the glory of the Father, who is more usually invoked as the author of the
light. Is he not the true light without sleeping in which faith is called to participate (158) ? The hymns
often present a practical development, ascetic, especially when Christ the Light
is asked to penetrate with his grace the
heart of man and make it a dwelling for his glory. (Jn 12:36). Such is the
light which must deign to illuminate the life of believers. The sun, so
necessary and so admirable to man, is, in fact, quite naturally, a God
(nowadays!), and whose appearance has been sung Lauds, is only a creature (160)! The natural slope
of the human heart fascinated by the cosmos. But is it not this to worship, at least practically, what is
only an emanation of God? The Church
proposes to us to consider the work of God in his creation and that all
the categories of beings bring their praise to him. Beyond creation, proof of the paternal
goodness of God, it makes us discern the work of redemption that completes the first. Thus the hymn
"Plasmator horninis Deus", which gives the cycle of songs in honor of the Creator reminds us that God has created
man in love. He intended it to share
his intimacy in this life and his beatitude in eternity (161).
154.
A. ARENS, art. cit., p. 206-207, en particulier, note 56.
155:
Dans Ie repos divin du septierne jour (Gen. 2, 3) une hymne, non sans humour,
voit Dieu se preparant au labeur de la
redemption:
Dorn. T.O. II ad I vesp. hymn. Rerum, Deus, fons omnium, str. 2.
156.
Voici quelques references pour Ie theme de l'action de graces vesperale : Dom.
1.0. I ad I vesp. hymn. Deus, creator omnium, str. 3 ; Dorn. T.O. II ad I vesp.
hymn. Rerum, Deus, Ions omnium, str. 1. Dom. T.O. II ad II vesp. hymn. 0 lux, beata
Triniras, str. 2; Fer. II T.O. II ad vesp. hymn. Luminis fons, lux et origo
lucis, str. 2; Fer. III T.O. I ad vesp. orat. conclus.
157. Dom. T.O. II ad II vesp, hymn. 0 lux, beata
Trinitas str. 1. Fer. II T.O. III ad vesp. orat. conclus.
158. Fer. II T.O. II ad vesp. hymn. Luminis fons,
lux et origo lucis, str. 1. Fer. IV T.O. II ad vesp. hymn. Sol, ecce, lentus
occidens, str. 4.
159.
Fer. III TO. I ad vesp. hymn. Telluris ingens conditor, str. 3; Fe&. IV
T.O. I ad vesp. hymn. Caeli Deus
sanctissime,
str. 4.
160. Dom. T.O. I ad II vesp. hymn. Lucis creator
optime, str. 1.
161. Fer. VI TO. I ad vesp. hymn. Plasmator
horninis, Deus, str. 4.
The redemption still more marvelous than
creation culminates in the sacrifice of Christ which he offered to his Father, and which the Church is remembers
at Vespers (162). The perfume of incense offered morning and evening at the
temple of Jerusalem was the sign of praise rising from the heart of man towards
God and symbolizing for us the "sacrifice of fragrant offering. (Eph 5: 2)
of the whole life of Jesus, consumed by love, and culminating in the cross.
God's response to this perfect sacrifice is the resurrection of Jesus. If our
life is a participation in the Passion of Christ, we can hope to rise one day
with him, in glory. The theme of the Lord's return is fundamental to Vespers, provoking the hope of believers whom
the Church calls to vigilance (164). She
waits peacefully for the arrival of her Bridegroom at any hour of the night. When
the sun declines and the night prevails, this is perceived as a feast: the night
of the Lamb (165). Moreover, the time of rest
which follows the fatigue of a day's work symbolizes the passage to eternal
life, the reward promised by Christ to all who have worked for him, in
imitation of the vine growers of the parable (Mt 20: 1-16).
The prayer which rises to the good God,
at the end of the day, gives thanks for the work of creation and of redemption of which Christ is the mediator of the prayer itself. It seems
difficult to affirm that the Liturgy of the Hours makes a memorial of a particular mystery of Christ at
the beginning: like the Johannine theology in the Prologue, but it does invite
us to contemplate the pre-existing Word of God, his intervention in creation, his manifestation in the Incarnation, and finally
his mysterious presence in his Church
until his glorious return.
162. Fer. V T.O. I ad vesp. hymn. Magnae Deus
potentiae str. 3.
163. Fer. VI T.O. II ad vesp. orat. eoncIus.;
Fer. II T.O. III ad vesp. preees, into la; Fer. VI T.O. III ad vesp. orat. conclus.
164. Fer. V T.O. II ad vesp. hymn. Deus, qui
claro lumine, str. 4; ibid. orat. eonclus. .
165. Dom. T.O. II ad II vesp. cantic. Apoe. 19,
1-7; Fer. II T.O. II ad vesp. Ps. 44; Fer. III T.O. II ad vesp. preces, into 5a.
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