[Many of the brethren, followers of the eremitic
life, have asked me whether, since they live alone in their cells, it is right for
them to say ‘Dominus vobiscum’. . .and the like; and whether, despite the fact
that they are by themselves, they should say the responses, as the custom of
the Church demands.]
The phrase Dominus vobiscum is the priest's
greeting to the people; he prays that the Lord may be with them, in accordance
with the words spoken by the Prophet: 'I shall dwell within them’, and with
those spoken by our Saviour to His disciples and all the faithful: 'Behold, I
am with you’. This form of greeting, then, is no mere innovation instituted by human
authority; it has the sanction of the ancient authority of the Scriptures.
Anyone who examines the holy writings carefully will find many examples of its
use, both in the singular and the plural. Did not the angel say to the blessed
Mother of God: ‘The Lord is with thee'? And to Gideon likewise: 'The Lord is
with thee, thou mightiest of men'? In the book of Ruth, too, we read that Boaz
greeted his harvesters with the words: 'The Lord be with you.' And in the Book
of Chronicles we find that the prophet sent by God hailed Asa King of Juda and
his army as they were returning in triumph from battle with these words: 'The
Lord be with you’, for you were with the Lord.
When the Church receives the salutary greeting of
the priest, she greets him in return, and in doing so prays that, as he has desired
that the Lord may be with them, so He may deign to be with him. 'And with thy
spirit', she replies, meaning: 'May almighty God be with your soul, so that you
may worthily pray to Him for our salvation. Notice that she says not 'with thee', but
'with thy spirit'; this is to remind us that all things concerned with the
services of the Church must be performed in a spiritual manner. And certainly,
God must prefer to be with a man's spirit, for it is the soul of a reasonable
man that is made in God's image and likeness; it alone is capable of receiving
divine grace and illumination.
And the greeting which the bishop gives his
people: 'Peace be with you' or 'Peace to you', also has its roots in the
authority of Holy Writ, and is not just the product of man's mind. For we read
in the Old Testament that the angel said to Daniel 'Peace be to you'; and in
the New Testament the Lord almost always greets His disciples with the words
'Peace to you/ And He commended the same form of greeting to His disciples, saying:
'Into whatsoever house you shall enter, salute it, saying: "Peace to this
house." So it is fitting that the rulers of the Church, who are the
successors of the Apostles, should use this form of greeting; for they salute
the household of God in which it is right that all men should be the sons of
peace, so that the greeting of peace which rests upon them may be advantageous
both to the givers of the greeting and to its receivers.
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