Las Reflexiónes sobre Nuestra Lema

Bienvenido / Página Inicial (Español) / Conozca a Los Padres Basilianos /

Teach Me Goodness, Discipline & Knowledge

When the General Council first began its deliberations regarding the 2006 Chapter, it decided to use our motto as part of the theme for Chapter, a theme that reads: Teach Me Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge: Living Together the Gospel & Working for the Kingdom. In doing so, the Council has understood the motto to be a doorway into our living the Gospel and working for the Kingdom. This reflection is an attempt to expand on that understanding and to see in the motto a phrase that will help us understand the task that this Chapter places before us.

* * * * * * * *

Many organizations believe in the importance of a short pithy statement to capture their mission and philosophy. In one such phrase, General Electric tells us that they “bring good things to life.” Canadian Tire tells us over and over again, “I’ll start with you”, hoping, of course that we too will start with them. Such slogans or maxims become mottos for those who use them: they instantly sort out for those who use them what is essential and what is dross. That is what a good motto does.

About 130 years ago, it seems, Father Charles Vincent, CSB, the Superior of St. Michael’s College and the parish priest at St. Basil’s Church in Toronto, discerned th found that one line of psalm 118 (119) stood out; namely the 66th verse: “Bonitatem et disciplinam et scientiam doce me.” He began to affix it to stationery; he also placed it on a stained glass window and generally made its presence felt in the life and work of the Basilian Fathers. It was, indeed, in the process of becoming our motto.

When the Basilian rule was developed in the first half of the 20th century, the motto became enshrined in paragraph 544:

Our teachers will keep in mind the motto of the Institute: Bonitatem et disciplinam et scientiam doce me. Here is indicated the threefold work that confronts them; to teach the students three things, the first which is the duty of a good Christian, the second character and self control, the last and least important, knowledge.

Clearly, the motto was seized upon specifically for its virtue in guiding our apostolate. It gave priorities to our work and developed a sense of direction. It called us to be a certain kind of teacher or educator. It did so, in part, by revealing a Franciscan love for things in threes. From that point of view, it was seen as addressing matters spiritual, emotional (or perhaps physical), and intellectual – in short, it encouraged us as Basilians to teach the whole person as directed towards God.

However, in linking itself to the Basilian Apostolate, this reading of the motto perhaps led us Basilians not to see its application to OUR whole persons. Indeed, here was a motto not only for our work, but also for our lives as Basilians. It is after all: not so much a request from our students as it is each of us turning to the Lord, and placing our whole lives as Basilians before God as disciples, followers and learners. Each one of us is asking God to “teach me goodness, discipline and knowledge.”

Reading verse 66 in the context of the whole of psalm 119 (118) draws us into a deeper appreciation of what this motto might mean with respect to us Basilians being students. This psalm is an extended meditation and prayer about Torah, a word so inadequately translated as simply “law.” Torah, at its heart, is that extraordinary gift of God that teaches leads and guides us into all truth and goodness. It is what God used to lead Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land – and it is the way God constantly guides us also from our slavery into freedom. It is God’s gracious guidance manifested in words and teaching. Indeed, in Christian terms, such guidance at its heart is Christ himself, who is that teaching and that Word made flesh. He is our meditation and our guide.

Psalm 119 displayed enormous skill and intelligence. Technically, it was very difficult to write. Each of the 22 stanzas has eight verses, each one beginning with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Imagine the difficulty of having eight verses begin with letters rarely used. All but one of the verses in the psalm contains a synonym for Torah (v 122). Furthermore, in terms of theme the poem is completely unstructured. As R.A.F. MacKenzie put it: “One could start with the last verse and recite it backwards, and the general effect would be the same.” In another sense, every line of the text stands alone, instantly inviting one into the mystery of Torah that the whole poem reflects. Given such complexity and difficulty, it might well have been the feat of a school or community of scholars dedicated together to reflecting on this Torah and making it real in their lives. Its very composition calls us to live likewise, as a community of faith seeking to create for our own world and time a composition of faith and love that invites others into the mysteries of God’s providential guidance.

Thus, we Basilians cannot be simply teachers of this Truth. In fact, to have any right to teach it, we must ever and always be disciples of it, constantly coming before God and asking God to teach us the goodness of Christ, his discipline and way of life and his guidance in leading us into all truth. His presence and teaching must change our lives and hearts into living witnesses of the truth of what we teach. For, as Paul VI put it in Evangelii Nuntiandi, paragraph 41: people nowadays listen more willingly to witnesses than teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, “it is because they are witnesses.”

Our Basilian motto once also was listed among the prayers in the Raccolta, a collection of official prayers and pious practices recommended by the Church for our use. As such, it formed the first part of verse 66 that read: “Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge O Lord; for I have believed Thy commandments” (Number 759, ‘Prayers to be said by Teachers’ approved in 1908). This translation of verse 66 was based on the Greek Septuagint and, in turn, the Latin Vulgate. As with all translations of this Contemporary scholarship has recognized that verse 66 might better be translated as “good judgment and knowledge.” Accordingly, the NRSV reads: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.” Nevertheless, whichever way it is read, the text of verse 66 indicates the need to get beyond mere belief in God’s commandments. What is also needed over and above such a profound faith is a subtlety of mind and heart to sense how to live out Torah in all situations of life.

“Goodness and discipline and knowledge” or “good judgment and knowledge” thus represent a grace that we need in addition to knowing the demands of Torah. As students and disciples of the Word, we especially need this deeper and subtler wisdom. In Christian terms, we might say that what we need in addition to knowledge of the Word is God’s Spirit, the same Spirit who will help us to enflesh God’s will in all that we say and do. Thus, this prayer addressed to the Lord, calls upon the gift of the Spirit to lead us beyond what we have grasped so far in God’s commands for us.

Another context that helps us appreciate more deeply the role of this psalm in our lives is its liturgical context. This context, in fact, may help us grasp more clearly what God may be calling us to do in the approaching Chapter.

In the new lectionary, this verse appears twice during weekday masses: namely, Year I, Friday of the 29th week of Ordinary Time, and Year II, Saturday of the 26th week. In year I, it follows a reading from the 7th chapter of Romans, verses 18 to 25a, where Paul talks about human nature and its wrestling with sin. Psalm 119:66 thus responds as a prayer to help us know how to move beyond simply knowing and believing the law. It is as if in encountering our own frailty and weakness, we realize that a mere knowledge of the law is not enough. In our experience of community, where we constantly appreciate our weakness in sin and temptation, we realize how much we need more than mere knowledge of what God wants of us. We also must call upon God for the grace, the wisdom and the strength, indeed the goodness, discipline and knowledge of the Spirit to move beyond our slavery to selfishness and pride and sloth and find the path to charity and unity. This, in turn, will help us to live together the Gospel.

The other liturgical context for this verse occurs on Saturday of the 26th week in Year II. In this context it follows the final verses of Job, when Job humbles himself before God. Job’s enemies are humiliated. Job’s fortunes are restored. Still, though it makes quick work of restoring the just, the end of Job does not eliminate the darkness and misfortune he endured. In this context, Psalm 119:66 calls us to another place beyond simply knowing and believing the law – namely, suffering. Here again, mere knowledge of the Law fails us. Here again, we are in need of that wisdom and guidance, that goodness and discipline and knowledge of the Spirit to know how to respond. The psalm calls us most eloquently to seek the grace to enter into the cross, especially among those who bear it most, the poor. In this way, we will learn to work for the Kingdom.

As we Basilians enter into Chapter, it may yet be possible for us to find in our motto a guiding light. Here are words of faith that connect us with generations of Basilians gone before us. Here also are words to guide our apostolate – but also, more deeply, our very own lives. Here is a call to be students again, especially in addressing our own sinfulness in community and in the suffering poor we find in our world. These are places where mere knowledge and faith in the law fail us. Here we are in need of something more: grace and the movement of Spirit. If we are to live together the Gospel and work for the Kingdom, we need this something more. May we pray today to be taught this goodness and discipline and knowledge of the Spirit, and so overcome the sinfulness that prevents us from living together the Gospel and working for the Kingdom, where the suffering of all the poor will be redeemed.

To obtain this text in PDF format, click here