Question: I have a question in regards to the Rosary. As you know too well objectors often bring up Mt 6:7 where Jesus warns us not to use "vain repetitions" or in some translations "babbling" like the Pagans do. I have heard this explained as Jesus meant prayers like this were vain because the pagan gods do not exist. My question is about Sirach 7:14 which says "do not repeat yourself at your prayers". To whom is Ben Sirach speaking and how does this jibe with the above repetitious prayers? I have never heard a protestant bring up this objection, probably because they don't have the deuterocanonical work in their Bible.
Answer:
That is part of it. The idea was that the pagans would continuously repeat their requests to their gods over and over again sometimes mutilating themselves in the process (remember Elijah and the duel between him and the priests of Baal? 1Kings 18:21ff). They did this to get the attention of their gods because in their theology, the gods might not be listening and you had to get their attention. On the other hand, Jesus taught us that his Father was always listening and in fact knew what we needed before we did. Indeed the repetitions were ultimately in vain because the pagan gods did not exist. But what Jesus was criticizing was the theology of divine indifference to the fate of men.
The rosary is a meditative prayer, NOT a prayer of petition per se. The repetition is not because we think God is not listening to us but because we may not be listening to Him. We are trying to ponder more deeply the words of Scripture on who Mary was and what her significance is in the order of salvation. The repetition is for our benefit, not God's.
There were always fixed prayers in Judaism. The Catholic prayer form of the litany and the "prayers of the faithful" in the Mass are based upon Judaic prayers of invocation from the temple. There is more than one psalm which uses repetition for rhetorical and liturgical emphasis.
I think Jesus ben Sirach was attacking the same thing Jesus did. No surprise there since most honest modern scholars (prot and cath) acknowledge the connections between Jesus' teachings and the Deuterocanonical books of Wisdom, Sirach, and Tobit.
In any case, I think that ben Sirach was saying that you don't need to drone on over and over again saying the exact same thing in order to get God's attention. Once is enough.
Art Sippo
The Catholic Legate