Adoration leaves no room for pride

Dear Choir of Hope,

Good work!   The sopranos were in particularly fine voice last night. But then you all were—from sweet and soft to powerful and majestic.   Thank you for being open to expanding our ministry—the Evening of Spirituals, the possible revival of Dives and Lazarus, singing at the 9:30 Mass again, and of course, joining our dear Bass, Jerome at the Glorious Easter Vigil as he is received into the Church.

Sunday we are singing one of the best of Fred Pratt Green’s many extraordinary hymn texts.   

When in our music God is glorified,

And adoration leaves no room for pride,

It is as though the whole creation cried   Alleluia!

What a very difficult and even disturbing text this is for me when I, alone with my soul, am forced to hold Green’s text up as a standard for my own ministry.   Leaves no room for pride.  But I am proud.   Each time the Choir of Hope comes closer to a perfect unison, I am proud.   Each time I hear one of our remarkable soloists, I am proud.    I am proud of your commitment to the liturgy.  I am proud when you lovingly show other choristers how much you care.  I am proud that you are punctual and focused and hard-working.

The more Green’s hymn rings in my ears, the more I realize that the poet had not just thrown in that troubling “pride” word as a convenient end-rhyme for “glorified” and “cried.”   Like any skilled poet, Green had already prepared the way.   It is the first three words of the opening line that trouble me the most and point the way to “no room for pride.”

When in our. Three little one-syllable words, tucked into the up-beat of a measure to introduce the first important word “music,” the subject of the entire poem.  Three little words “costing not less than everything” (words borrowed from T. S. Eliot).   There’s that very first word of the first line—“When” right up front, a difficult acknowledgement that God is not glorified every time I make music.   The poem would be so much easier if it began, “Since in our music God is glorified.”  That would be comforting;  I make music and God is glorified.   But that “When” instead of the easier “since” insists that it is not just a matter of opening my mouth or waving my arm.   Something more must be happening if the music is to glorify God. Or, as “no room for pride” demands, something less must be happening—something pride-less, self-less, ego-less.

And then there is that deceptive easy-to-skip-over, difficult-to-live-out second word—“in.” How much simpler had the poet written “with”:  When WITH our music.  But he didn’t.   My music-making must be subsumed in the sacred text, inside the notes, deep within the liturgical action.  “In” the music demands a submission to the holy, a willingness to be completely given over to the glorification of God, so deep “in” the music that there is no room for pride and self and ego.

But the third word of the first line, “our” is the hardest.   It must be “our” music, not “my” music.    As long as it is “my” music-making, my singing, my conducting, how can God be glorified?   When “our” completely replaces “my”; when “I” authentically becomes “we”; when “me” is completely given over to “us” then genuine worship is able to happen.   Then the holiness is expressed. 

 Green wisely did not write  “Since with my music God is glorified” No! The poet’s call is much more demanding of us:

“When in our music God is glorified.”

JBS

                       Christ Our Hope Catholic Church~~~February 12,2017

The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introit   Give peace, O Lord in all our days  with Psalm 122 Graduale Simplex, ed Paul Ford Choir of Hope & Men’s Schola Cantorum  

Entrance    Seek ye first  [UIC 732]

 Gloria  Mass of creation

Psalm (R & A) Refrain intonation Choir of Hope, Psalmist  Christine

Gospel Acclamation    Alleluia 7, Berthier  Men’s Schola Cantorum

Preparation of the Altar and Gifts  Eye has not seen Quaker Hymn, [UIC 727]

Sanctus   Mass of Creation

Memorial Acclamation Mass of Creation,  

Amen Mass of Creation  

Agnus Dei Mass of Creation Intonation Choir of Hope

Communio   When in our music [Stanford]

 Communion Procession   I am the bread of life  [UIC 505]

“Send forth”   Though the mountains may fall [729]