Thoughts on Music

    In today’s Gospel passage, we continue on the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, who has a difficult message for us: renounce all to follow him. The first reading from the book of Wisdom, calling us to acknowledge that the mind of God is beyond human comprehension, prepares us to hear words that have the potential to throw our minds into turmoil. Hate my father and mother? Hate my children? Hate my own life? Days of the Lord cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writing on costly grace to emphasize the fact that discipleship “implies radical choices” (Days of the Lord; Vol. 6, p. 200). “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field: for its sake, the man gladly goes and sells all he has; it is the pearl of great value” (D. Bonhoeffer; The Cost of Discipleship). In light of both the Gospel and the first reading, I would like to focus on two musical selections chosen for today’s celebration.

 
    The composition we sing at the time of the presentation and preparation of gifts is “Take Up Your Cross”. The tune, “O Jesu mi dulcissime” is a chorale from the Clausener Gesangbuch, a collection of German Catholic hymns published in the mid-17th century. The melody is set in the dorian mode - the use of which is a legacy from plainchant. We encounter it in the plainsong hymn “Jesu dulcis memoria”, the tune of “The Church of Christ in Every Age”. It is a melody with strong rhythm, beginning with pronounced leaps followed by step-wise motion making frequent use of the raised sixth degree of the dorian mode. The poem by the 19th century hymn writer Charles Everest begins each stanza with the command “Take up your cross”. The first stanza quotes Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel. The second stanza promises Jesus’ strength in helping us bear this burden, for, as we sing in the third stanza, Jesus first bore the burden of the cross for our salvation. In the fourth stanza, we sing of taking up the cross in Christ’s strength. This is to be our daily task, as the fifth stanza reminds us. Thus, we follow Christ, bearing our cross till death, to be with him in eternity.

    Today’s appointed psalm response is taken from Psalm 90. The verses from this psalm chosen for the Lectionary expand upon the theme of the passage from Wisdom that we have just heard – essentially, our limited human condition in relation to God, who is limitless. To each verse we respond, “In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge”, which is the first verse of Psalm 90. We acknowledge that God, beyond our understanding, is still the one to whom we must turn.

    On 9/11, whose anniversary we are approaching, the poet laureate was asked to recommend poems that might help our nation in this time of tragedy; he recommended the Psalms. I would further recommend reading Psalm 90 in its entirety. The psalmist doesn’t back down from “storming heaven” when baffled by God’s actions. Yet, the psalmist can also express serenity grounded in trust in God’s ultimate care.

     We go forth from today’s celebration of the Eucharist with Jesus’ call to renounce all to follow him as our insistent and somewhat prickly companion. Yet, let us go forth in courage. We are reminded in “Be Not Afraid”, our communion processional song, that Jesus goes before us always.