I, ME, WE, US, OURS, MINE, - AND OH YEAH, HIS.

Can you stand one more observation about Catholic music?

The other day I was up in the choir loft playing music on our organ that I learned as kid. Here are the words to one song:

‘Neath olive trees,

‘neath olive trees.

Dost know the heart that here is weeping,

Dost though the blood-stained tears recall?

For thee each burning tear He offers,

For thee the sacred rubies fall.

To cleanse thy soul,

To cleanse thy soul.

Behold the man!

With scourge the heartless rabble beats Him!

In streams His blood most precious flows,

But not a word is heard from Jesus,

In silence to His death He goes.

To cleanse thy soul,

To cleanse thy soul.

I was quite taken with these words and brought deeply into contemplation. (And I realize that is me. It won’t be the same for everyone.) And then later I had the opportunity to sing at Mass quite a few of the more “modern” hymns. Here is a sample of one of them:

In these days of Lenten Journey

WE have seen and WE have heard

The call to sow justice in the loves of those WE serve.

WE reach out to those who are homeless,

To those who live without warmth. In coolness of evening WE’ll shelter their dreams;

WE will clothe them in mercy and peace.

Now, there is nothing really wrong with this song though God is quite left out of the picture. As much as the first song is focused on God and what He does, the second is hyper focused on us and what WE do. Here is another from my childhood:

Jesus asks for loving mercy,

Mercy for His enemies,

From the heavy Cross He carried,

Prompting us to bend our knees.

“Please forgive them loving Father,

All who’ve made my sorrow greater.

Men offending You know not what they do.

Here is another more recent one:

WE rise again from ashes,

From the good WE’ve failed to do.

WE rise again from ashes,

To create OURSELVES anew.

If all OUR world is ashes,

Then must OUR lives be true,

An offering of ashes,

And offering to you.

I will give the benefit of the doubt that the final “you” is God. Now, grant you, you can cherry-pick the best and the worst from the old and the new and come with a number of complaints and virtues of the music of the times. There was some pretty bad stuff written in our past and some pretty good stuff in more recent times. It may also be the case that we ignored ourselves a bit much in the past and it is good to put ourselves on the spot and say, “Hey! Get to work! God will do this but He wants you to work on it too!”

That being said, walking down the aisle preparing to celebrate the source and summit of our faith, embarking on an intimate contact with our God with His Word and His Body and Blood and all we can sing about is ourselves quite misses setting us up for what we are about to do. “Lift up your eyes from whence cometh your help!” not “We are called to be spiffy.”

This was on my mind today as we sang for Mass and I just kept thinking, “Gads, another song about us.” So perhaps I am being a tad strong, but I don’t believe entirely incorrect. We are coming to the Supper of the Lamb, it’s His party, and our music should more fully reflect this.

It is not a matter of old verses new. Really good versus semi-good. The advantage of the old is that we have left behind much of what was poor and kept the better half so the pickings are perhaps better. The new has a fuller mix of the good and the bad. Pastors and music ministers need to be on their toes about the music that they pick. Just because it is in an “approved book” and everybody likes it and all the local parishes are singing it does make it a good song for Mass. “If your best priest friend sang that song while jumping off a bridge does that mean you have to do it too?”

That sounded funnier to me when I thought of it than it does typed out.