Transcript of Abbot Clement’s talk on Tuesday, 21 May 2002

        I delayed to today hoping more would show but I guess this is it. I understand it’s the end of the school year it’s perfectly ok.

        The argument against praying the psalms goes something like this, "How can we pray these psalms in the twenty-first century when they were written at least two thousand years or more before?" Another argument goes, "How could we pray these psalms in a Western culture when they arose in eastern culture and strongly agrarian?" And one of the biggest arguments is, "How can we pray these psalms, which come out of the old covenant, when we are in Jesus in the new covenant?" In fact there was an article that I wanted to pursue, but I can’t get my hands on it, but De Voque was supposed to have written an article which is kind of interestingly entitled "To chant a psalm is not to pray." I don’t want to prejudice against De Voque but my suspicion is he would be arguing something like this, that for monastics to recite a psalm is to listen to scripture, to listen to the Word. And then at the pause of silence then you pray. I’m not sure that’s what’s in the article but having read other things by him that’s my suspicion.

        First of all, those are all wrong questions. They can’t possibly be true. Why? Because we pray, or better yet, the psalms are prayers based on human experience. Authentic human experience which is universal. Secondly, they’re expressions of encounters with God. Which is again universal. And thirdly, we know Jesus prayed the psalms and fulfilled some of them, well probably all of them. But some are easier to see than others. And He prayed them. The most obvious one is "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" So we really don’t have to be great scholars and do research, not that that’s not a bad idea, it would be nice if you would do what the early monks did, memorize psalms. I remember when I was a young monk we did that but we did it in Latin, of course. And I remember once changing a tire all of a sudden psalm 51 is coming to my mind. I’m asking God for mercy.

        So what then is the entry into the psalms? Well the entry then has to be: What are my experiences that are universal? Negative and positive. And what are my experiences in terms of encountering God? To the degree that I am in touch with those then I will vibrate with the psalms human experience and its encounter with God. So let’s just take psalm 51. It’s a psalm asking for mercy. But the key question is, in that psalm is, not only do I come asking for mercy before this merciful God, this loving presence, but I’m aware that I have to acknowledge my sins, "I did this!" It’s against You. I want to make sure I quote this correctly that’s why I brought the Bible. The text says, "For I acknowledge my offense and my sin is before me always, against You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight." So that means that our sense of repentance cannot be well, I’m going to go to confession, I confess I was impatient, I blew my stack at the students, I’m distracted in prayer, I was nasty to one of my Confreres, then get absolution and walk out. No the first question is, "Am I aware that in my actions, that are sinful, I offend a loving presence, God?" That’s the question.

        If I don’t take out time to realize I have offended a person, a loving person, then my universal experience of repentance is not too deep. I just want to straighten things out. It’s like the person who gets pregnant out of marriage, they’re sorry they’re pregnant because it’s an inconvenience. Well we can do the same thing. And so we can’t pray that some very fruitfully, very richly, for ourselves or for others unless we are aware of the loving presence of God, of His tremendous mercy, and that I personally have done these actions which offend Him. So the issue then, well let’s take an example, most obvious example, when Adam and Eve were in the garden they were in harmony. There was such harmony that they were naked and they didn’t have any problem. Then the devil tempts them and they give in. What’s the first thing they say? They are conscious of being naked and they have to sew fig leaves. So the interior harmony is gone and the exterior harmony is gone. And then if you include the punishments there’s even more consequences. But are they aware that they offended God? Yes and no. When God comes in the scene what does God do?

        He calls them first of all and then Adam says, "we were afraid and we hid ourselves." So that’s the level of their awareness. And what does God say? "Have you eaten of the fruit of the tree of life?" "You must have." So God has to reveal to us that we offend Him. Many times we commit sin but we don’t see in that sin an offense against a loving presence. Now according to the Eastern tradition, there’s a whole tradition that Adam and Eve repented and they are saints. So much for that. I don’t want to go into that kind of thinking but I hope it’s true, probably is, cause it was deeply reflected on. But my point is that the psalms are capable of being a rich source of prayer and feeding and strength and transformation to the degree we are honest and enter our own authentic universal experiences. And to the degree that we really see and open ourselves up to how we are encountering God.

        Just to get quickly through the other one: Jesus and psalm 22. Now that’s a tremendously rich psalm and it’s got all kinds of dimensions in it. Starting with the fact that Jesus is the just person suffering persecution but totally aware that God is faithful to Israel. And total trust. He expresses the experience of being mocked, of being scourged, of being put down and so on. And yet He’s also aware that He is going to be victorious. So it reminds us of what was said in the passion that was heard this morning the telling of the apostles what was going to come about. He was going to be scourged in Jerusalem, was going to die, and was going to rise on the third day. So Jesus’ presence, authentic presence, is not simply present to the here and now around Him, but even to God’s plan, the Father’s plan for Him and His knowledge that He will fulfill His mission. So we can pray that psalm from all kinds of angles and depths according to our own experience of encountering God in our life. So we need to reflect how we are entering the psalms. Which means we have to reflect on our own authentic human experience. And also our own growth in encountering the presence of God in our life.