Music Notes for March 11

       Today’s Exodus reading is another chapter in the unfolding story of God’s covenant with His chosen people. The Ten Commandments were carved in stone on Mount Sinai and to this day in town squares, framed on courthouse walls and school halls. The question is, are they carved in our hearts?  Such is the promise of Jeremiah which we will hear in two weeks, and it is also the text of our opening hymn at the organ Masses. “Grant to Us, O Lord” is one of the hymns in antiphonal style written by Holy Ghost Father Lucien Deiss,  inspired by the tribal chants he heard as a missionary in Africa. Psalm 19 also sings of God’s law in sensual terms, a living, breathing entity, part of the fiber of our being. “The law of the Lord refreshes . . .  rejoices the heart . . . enlightens the eye . . . more precious than a heap of purest gold . . . sweeter than syrup or honey . . . ”  Our setting is by Michael Joncas, composer of much of our contemporary repertoire, including “On Eagle’s Wings.” Psalm 19 is also the text of our communion song, “Your Words Are Spirit and Life,” also written by Bernadette Farrell, who also wrote last week’s “Christ, Be Our Light.” 

       God’s law, which “gives wisdom to the simple,” is the source of the true wisdom described by St. Paul. God’s wisdom explodes language and logic, for “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”  Our closing hymn at the organ Masses is the second half of the Breastplate of St. Patrick, “Christ Be Beside Me,” sung to the tune of “Morning Has Broken.” It expresses beautifully the meaning of St. Paul’s statement: “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

       All human beings crave signs. Language itself is a series of signs, as are music, dream images, or frames of a movie.  We read the astrology column (for fun, of course) and look for signs of climate change and the “end times.”  Confronted with a series of signs, we want to know what they mean.  When the disciples saw Jesus transfigured between Moses and Elijah, they wondered what this might mean, as well as “rising from the dead.” In today’s gospel they are left to ponder the meaning of Jesus’ display of anger as well as his response to those who demanded some sign of his authority. Our offertory hymn, “God, Whose Purpose Is to Kindle,” is a prayer that wisdom internalized will move us to action. (It is sung to the Applachian hymn tune ‘Holy Manna.’) In our quest for the meaning of resurrection, we note that the temple must be destroyed before it is restored. There is no resurrection without death. How is this experienced by those whose beloved parishes have been closed? When sickness is cured or hurt is forgiven?  How many things need to be let go of before we are free?

Music Notes for March 4

       Having been told by Jesus not to talk publicly about the transfiguration they witnessed on Mount Tabor until after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples discuss among themselves what “rising from the dead” might mean. Perhaps that phrase can be our guide for Lenten growth: what does it mean to rise from the dead? In his poem “Resurrection,” Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers wrote, “Death is not where we’re going to; death is what we’re growing from.” Our marching music could be our psalm refrain: “I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living.” That perspective is a tremendous test of faith in view of the suffering that human beings continue to inflict on each other. Psalm 116, which is also the psalm for Holy Thursday, takes up the same theme. It could even be a rap testimonial about our close calls with death in all its many forms. Verse 15 is variously translated: “How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!” Or: “Lord, you hate to see your faithful ones die.” That is the point of our story about Abraham and Isaac. Scholars tell us that this episode may be a counterpoint to the influence of neighboring ancient peoples who practiced child sacrifice. In II Kings we read that some of the Jewish kings fell into pagan rituals. We can also see the parallel between Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son and God who “did not spare his own Son,” in the words of St. Paul.

       Paul’s Romans 8 passage begins with: “If God is for us, who then can condemn us?” What a powerful Lenten mantra!  We sing Grayson Warren Brown’s meditation on this line. The psalm refrain at 10:00, “Walk With Me,” was written by another African-American musician, Leon Roberts, who died in 2000 of esophageal cancer. The entrance hymn at the organ Masses, “Transform Us,” was written by Sylvia Dunstan, a poet who died prematurely in 1993 at age 38. At the organ Masses the communion hymn will be “Christ, Be Our Light,” by Bernadette Farrell, a cancer survivor from England. The closing hymn at 10:00, “Shine, Jesus, Shine,” is by another English composer, Graham Kendrick. In fact, I first heard this song on a BBC World Service program some 15 years ago. The closing hymn at the organ Masses, “Beautiful Savior,” is a traditional German text and tune which many of us used to sing as “O God of Loveliness.”