Obedience and the Shema Yisrael

Thanks to Suzanne for bringing in the Hebrew. One of the priests at my parish last week preached on Jesus's allusion to the Shema in the Gospel of Matthew.

Mt 22:34-40 (NAB)

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

And here is what the Shema says:

"Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One
(Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever). And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall speak of them. When you sit at home, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart."

Fr. Giussani has a way of mentioning significant details in an offhand way, and it's only during the Assembly that somebody presses on and gets to the importance of the details. And here's what Don Gius says about his friends, Manfredini and DePonti:

"Why did I become such a great friend of Manfredini and DePonti, whom I was always with? From third year of high school to fourth year of theology we were always together — always — I mean always! — and nobody ever said anything because the great reason that we were together was so evident to everyone. In fact, anyone who showed up, at any moment of the day or week, would have heard us speaking about certain things, so much so that a lot of people said, 'Oh brother, not those guys again! and they left. The same people who left other things! Why did we, who didn't even know each other, become such close friends? Because we began to intuit and to speak about certain things, things apart from which life was not worth living. This was the depth that God gave us the grace to have at thirteen or fourteen years old: to understand that apart from certain things, in other words, from Christ, life was not worth living in the literal sense of the term. (Is it Possible? Vol 1, p150).

To hear, shema, is to listen, to ponder, to speak of at all times and strive to understand and internalize it more. To set up reminders on one's head (thoughts) and on one's hand (action), at the doorpost and gate (the transition between house and world). Or as Fr. Carrón said in La Thuile in August, "Testimony doesn't mean words, but an experience perceived, penetrated, lived, felt, inevitable, inexorable, superabundantly evident."

To attend and to speak (to listen and to witness)

This post is a footnote to Fred's post, Whoever gives up his or her own point of view to follow Jesus...becomes a person capable of facing anything.

Proverbs 21:27-31 (from the Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English), a literal translation of the Hebrew:

"The sacrifice of the wicked is hateful: how much more when he brings it with an evil intent! A false witness shall perish; BUT THE MAN WHO ATTENDS WILL SPEAK FOREVER. A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright sets up his way. There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel before the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but to the Lord belongs deliverance." (Proverbs 21:27-31)

The word that is translated as "attend" is, in Hebrew, "shema," the first word of the prayer, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one..." It is also the root of the name "Simon," or in Hebrew, "Shemon."

Here are excerpts from Strong's translation of "shema":

"To hear intelligently (...attention, obedience...) ... hearken, obey, publish, understand, obedient, diligently ... consent, consider, be content, give ear, indeed, listen, proclaim, regard, ... witness ... undivided attention... to gain or get knowledge ... suggests summoning the person ... Hearing can be both intellectual and spiritual... To hear means not only to hear what is said, but to agree with its intention or petition ... To have a hearing heart is to have discernment or understanding... An annunciation."

The Hebrew word for "speak" used in this proverb is "dabar." Here is the definition:

"...to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak... promise, tell, commune, pronounce, utter, command ... answer, appoint, bid, declare, destroy, give name, rehearse, be spokesman, subdue, teach, think, use... This verb focuses not only on the content of spoken verbal communication but also and especially on the time and circumstances of what is said. Unlike 'amar,' (to say),' 'dabar' often appears without any specification of what was communicated. Those who 'speak' are primarily persons (God or men) ... In 2 Samuel 23:2 David says that the Spirit of the Lord 'spoke' to him ... Among the special meanings of this verb are 'to say,' 'to command,' 'to promise,' 'to commission,' 'to announce,' to order or command,' and 'to utter a song.' [...]" When the word 'dabar' is used as a noun, it means "word" or "utterance." Here is a bit from that definition: "...The 'word' of God indicates God's thoughts and will..."

Whoever gives up his or her own point of view to follow Jesus...becomes a person capable of facing anything

The title words above are a quote from page 144 of vol I of Is it Possible, and they are followed by these words: "The Bible uses different words: 'Vir obediens loquetur victoriam'" (Proverbs 21:28, presumably from the Vulgate, the Latin translation which the Church uses).

Have you looked up this verse in Proverbs? Here's the New Jerusalem Bible: "The false witness will perish, but no one who knows how to listen will ever be silenced." And here is the Douay Rheims Bible, which is based on the Vulgate: "A lying witness shall perish: an obedient man shall speak of victory. " From what I know of Latin, to listen and to obey have the same root (are they the same word?) As can be seen, Fr. Giussani only cites the second part of the proverb.

And what is obedience? To listen, to meditate on so as to understand, and to imitate. It is an apprenticeship. But in Christianity, obedience is an apprenticeship within the Church where we strive together to help each other better listen, understand, and imitate Jesus Christ — the meaning of life who is with us now.

This is the rosary, for example. To listen to the events of Jesus's life, to ponder them with Mary — the witness of His life, and to imitate His attitude in the midst of those daily things which impinge upon us and that we tend to regard as distractions. Jesus bore His cross, so I accept the burdens of life even when the circumstances seem to be terminal. The circumstances are not terminal but are what's given to us so that we can discover the attitude of Christ before them. The events of Jesus's life are the carnal dimension of the Our Father: thy will be done.

Like the five passages of faith (p 57), obedience consists first in paying attention to something in front of us and second responding to it. Imitation completes the listening. It's the reason for listening and the fruit of the listening. Obedience is the change that comes from encountering the exceptional presence. It is the human, free act of embracing the Father's will.

Concretely, what does obedience mean? It means that I begin to live according to an extraordinary measure instead of the common one. It means that a new affection, a new attitude lives in me and revives me. It means that one day I start paying attention to what I eat. It means that I start to see what needs to be done around the house and start to do it. It means that I look at Karen or the children with a tenderness that is beyond me.

As the Spiritual Exercises taught us: "This Is the Victory That Conquers the World, Our Faith." The bells above a sign, a reminder, of the voice we listen to and follow.