A reader writes:<\/p>\n
Aside: I do these little brain dumps to you because I find the way you think about the Church very helpful, and I do appreciate that you\u2019ve posted and commented on several of them. Mostly, I\u2019m just trying to verify that I\u2019m not being stupid about stuff \u2013 I\u2019d really prefer to fly below radar, liturgically speaking, and just got to Mass, receive communion, and not cause a fuss. But sometimes\u2026.
The little comment fodder over at First Things <\/a>misses, I think, the real point. As I mentioned in my comment there: <\/p>\nAs a singer, sadly I gotta ask myself: can I in good conscience sing these words? I\u2019m willing, in the spirit of Christian fellowship and personal mortification, to sing horrible music, as long as the lyrics aren\u2019t out-and-out heresy. <\/p>\n
With that in mind, I\u2019m with Chris on \u201cSing a New Church\u201d \u2013 the kindest thing one can say is that it\u2019s incoherent \u2013 but not incoherent enough for a faithful Catholic to sing. It crosses the line between the style of modern hymn that is a mere hodge-podge of religiousy-sounding phrases with no overall sense or message to words that, if they mean anything at all, mean something I\u2019m not willing to affirm. <\/p>\n
There are many others that, even with a generous mind, one simply cannot seriously sing before our God and Savior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As in everything Liturgical these day, it seems one must try to be as generous as possible, assume the best intentions, and allow for simple incoherence by people who are not thinking too clearly. So bad music, intentions that don\u2019t intend anything, priests ad libs that don\u2019t actually make any sense \u2013 these, and other like them I can live with, and have for decades. But, even with that suspension of disbelief, some hymn words seem to me just beyond what mere incompetence can explain. To take the example above: <\/p>\n
Chorus:
Let us bring the gifts that differ
And, in splendid, varied ways,
Sing a new church into being,
One of faith and love and praise<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOk, so \u2013 new in what way? In faith and love and praise? Is there any particular old church we\u2019ll be singing out of being that lacked these things? Or \u2013 what? These strikes me as something more than incoherent (although it is certainly that, as well) <\/p>\n
Compare and contrast a hymn that came up this weekend: <\/p>\n
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis hymn verse expresses a fairly sophisticated thought \u2013 that a true patriot isn\u2019t looking at his country as it is, but rather as it should or will be \u2018beyond the years\u2019 \u2013 that he, as stated in other verses, is willing to sacrifice and die, not for the crummy America of our two political parties, not for the current wars of conquest, but for a New Jerusalem of alabaster cities and eternal happiness. This can only obtain through the outpouring of God\u2019s grace \u2013 which is what this whole hymn is praying for. <\/p>\n
Now, that\u2019s a sentiment and idea I can get behind! <\/p>\n
The other hymn, parsed out similarly, is calling on us (not God \u2013 He gets only peripheral mention) to destroy a current or old church and replace it with a new church. By inescapable implication, this old church, unlike this new church we \u2013 not God \u2013 are singing into being, rejected diversity (whatever the hell that means) and was not built on faith and love and praise. But if we now, unlike in the past, \u2018trust the goodness of creation\/ trust the Spirit strong within\u2019 and \u2018Dare to dream the vision promised\u2019 then we\u2019ll create a new church \u2018sprung from seed of what has been\u2019. <\/p>\n
Full texts: http:\/\/tiny.cc\/avb1y<\/a>, http:\/\/tiny.cc\/d7agv<\/a><\/p>\n
O-Kaaaay. So one could argue that these two hymns are, ultimately, similar in intent \u2013 they look beyond the tawdry Now to envision a better, more holy, more true Future. But the second puts human action into a subservient position: the first verse blends spacious skies and purple mountains \u2013 a beautiful creation not of man\u2019s making \u2013 with amber waves of grain and fruited plains \u2013 humans making use of and relying on Nature. And each following verse introduces people in different roles \u2013 Pilgrims, Heroes, Patriots \u2013 each shown in relationship with a creation and a vision, and each verse ending with a prayer to God to pour out his grace, forgive our sins, purify our hearts so that we may live up to the bounty and grace He has already given us and, through our humble cooperation with His grace, bring His glorious reign into being. It even mentions \u2013 gasp! \u2013 self control. <\/p>\n
The first, however, mentions God in the first line \u2013 a gender-neutral God who summons us, \u2018rich in our diversity\u2019. And Jesus appears in line 3, as he in whose name we are gathered. So the subject, all through the first verse, is us \u2013 we are summoned by God, we gather ourselves in Jesus\u2019 name. The second verse merely sings our praises, mentions God again in a secondary sense, as the source of our image and as someone who delights in us. The third verse mentions the Spirit. And that\u2019s it \u2013 we never once call on God\u2019s aid, never once submit our judgment to His (unless we count trusting \u2018the Spirit strong within\u2019, which doesn\u2019t seem to suggest any possible revision of our vision, just God backing us up.)<\/p>\n
So, insofar as this hymn is not simply incoherent, it seems to be saying that we, with no express further need of God\u2019s guidance, are creating a new church in our image. To be fair, our image is God\u2019s image and delights God, but at no point do we ask God\u2019s help or submit our vision to God\u2019s authority \u2013 it\u2019s a finished product, awaiting only our efforts to make it actual. This new church will be way better than the old church. It\u2019s inescapable that there\u2019s an old church that must die for this new church to get sung into being. The \u2018seed\u2019 image is the only \u2013 but telling \u2013 mention in the song of this fact, but what else could this possibly mean? <\/p>\n
Now here\u2019s why I can\u2019t sing this song: we believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, not in a succession of ever-better new and improved churches. This Church is the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, the True Presence of Christ on earth. So, you might have a beef with current management, but you cannot have a beef with The Church in all her eternal glory and remain, intellectually speaking, within the embrace of orthodoxy. <\/p>\n
And putting your beef with current management (and all the management back to the Apostles and Christ Himself!) in a hymn and sneaking it into Mass where it can do its insidious work of, at the least, contributing to muddled thinking \u2013 well, I don\u2019t want to play that game. <\/p>\n
But I love the Mass, I want to sing every song, I don\u2019t want to present a model of bull-headed pouting to my kids \u2013 but I can\u2019t sing this song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What can I say? I think you are dead on. Happily, our liturgy guy has banished a lot of the Spirit of Vatican II (read: Half-Assed Revolutionary) junk that had been cluttering up the music and we don\u2019t have to endure crap like \u201cSing a New Church\u201d or \u201cAnthem\u201d anymore. (In case you didn\u2019t know, \u201cAnthem\u201d is my Most Hated Hymn, though \u201cSing a New Church is right behind it.)<\/p>\n
One of the things I\u2019ve noted in the past is that my friend Sherry Weddell has remarked that wherever she goes, she hears roughly the same twelve or so OCP hymns at every liturgy. Conspiratorial minds may discern a sinister pattern of indoctrination here. I think the answer is much simpler: your average suburban parish works on the Warm Body principle. The nearest Warm Body is asked to do whatever needs done. So the guy who can play four chords winds up leading the music and doing the four or five songs he knows. The repertoire expands to the other songs that other music leaders in the area know. Lather, rinse, repeat. Most people aren\u2019t giving the crappy lyrics a thought (\u201cSomething something God. Something something new. Something something life. Something something Spirit. Something or other Jesus and joy!\u201d) Those of us who care what lyrics say put the best construction we can on them and, where the lyrics are obviously revolutionary tracts disguised as hymnody, just don\u2019t sing them.<\/p>\n