THE HYMN AND ITS FUNCTION IN THE OFFICE: Fr. Maurice Coste

THE HYMN AND ITS FUNCTION IN THE OFFICE: Fr. Maurice Coste

Coste, Maurice: L'hymne et sa fonction dans l'office, - La Maison Dieu 1980, 143, 61-78 

“Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise”.

Thus begins chapter IV, devoted to the divine office, of the conciliar Constitution of Vatican II on the Liturgy. If this Council takes the "part for the whole" and calls "hymn" the divine office which is sung in heaven, it is doubtless true that this piece holds a place and fulfills an important function at the heart of the official prayer of the 'Church.

The dynamic of the hymn in the office:

In the traditional monastic office, used  until Vatican II, the hymn occupies, according to the various hours, different places.

In an article entitled "The hymn in a renewed liturgy," published in 1967, Father Gelineau summed up the question of the place of the hymn:

 "In the divine office, unlike the Mass, the hymn is one of the constituent elements alongside reading, chanting and prayer. It fills, as the case may be, three functions:

    A) Opening: this is the case with little hours and Matins. The hymn "situates" the office in time and ‘launches’ the celebration.

   B) Deepening and lyrical expression as in the two great hours of the morning and evening, when the hymn is after reading ... In this place, the hymn deploys more effectively its own power than at the beginning of the Office.

    C) Conclusion: as in the case  with the Te Deum after the Vigils. "

The liturgical reform will ultimately chose the opening function of the hymn. This change of place will be formalized by the "General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours,”  published by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship on March 15, 1971, which mentions this twice:

    "The Liturgy of the Hours ... is constructed in such a way that , after the opening hymn, there is always psalmody, then a more or less long reading drawn from the Holy Scriptures, and finally prayers. »N ° 33

    "Immediately after the introductory verses, the appropriate hymn is sung or said. »N ° 42

The hymn takes on another color, and therefore plays another role, when it actually opens the service or when it comes in response to a chant and a long listening to the Word. In either case the hymn is a text that delivers a message regardless of where it is used.

The hymn and  time

In these remarks about the place of the hymn in the office, we have passed over in silence a very important fact, namely the link between the hymn and the "mystery" celebrated by the office. The General Instruction of the Divine Office is quite explicit on this subject:

    "The role of the hymn is to give each hour or festival its own tone, and to make it easier and more joyful to enter prayer, especially when the celebration is with the people. »N ° 42

    

"The hymns, which have their place in the office by virtue of a very ancient tradition, still retain their place. In truth, not only by their lyrical nature, they are expressly destined for the praise of God, but they are a popular element, and they even  manifest almost exclusively, better than the other parts of the office, the Hours or each holy day. »No. 173

The relationship between hymn and time is to be taken at two levels. First, there is the level of "cosmological" time with its oppositions of night and day; Morning / mid-day / evening. Christian hymnography has always celebrated the appearance of light, the dawn, connecting it, moreover, to the person of Christ and to his Resurrection at the dawn of Easter.  Similarly, the sunset and the shadows of the night were, and still are a true source of inspiration for the Compline hymns.

None of these hymns, however, celebrate morning or evening for themselves, and "cosmological" time is only a beginning. Indeed, there is a second level, where time takes on a "soteriological" dimension. This is the time of the history of salvation, from the creation of the world to the Parousia, the Incarnation, the earthly life of Jesus, the birth of the Church, etc.