It’s Labor Day for goodness sake! Why the discussion of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays?

In looking at the posts on my Facebook this morning, I found a post expressing great outrage about greeting people with “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”. Really??!!! On Labor Day of all days??!! The Winter Solstice is still four months away. Why speak about that bitterly cold, miserable time of the year at the end of summer? Here is my response to that post.

I read a post this morning by “Bikers for Whatever (their nom de plume largely forgettable)”. It was post basically stating that anyone who refuses to say “Merry Christmas” and instead insist on saying Happy Holiday sometime around the Winter Solstice is a jerk and they should be deported from the United States. One might be surprised that I truly do not care whether someone greets me with Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday at that time of the year. I suppose one might assume that I being an ordained Roman Catholic Deacon might take great umbrage (anger mixed with insult for the vocabulary deprived) at being greeted with a “Happy Holidays!” It matters not one iota to me.

First, you have to understand that Christmas is a manufactured feast day. Theologians, astronomers, and biblical scholars have stated that scientifically, Jesus was NOT born on December 25th. Our current calendar was not adopted till the time of Pope Gregory centuries long after the birth of Jesus. He was probably born 4 years prior to the year we give him. (Note: that in historical research the BC/AD (Before Christ/After the birth of Christ) no longer are used in historical study because of its historical inaccuracy. The BCE/ACE, Before the Common Era and After the Common Era are now used for more historical accuracy). He was also born at approximately the birthing of the lambs, sometime in March/April. So clearly, in terms of science and historical research, December 25th was not the day in which Jesus was born.

Why was December 25th chosen? Ancient societies chose to have great celebrations at the Winter Solstice. In Roman society there were huge drunken/sex orgies (bacchanalias)  celebrating the shortest day of the year. Many early Christians loved pagan drunken, sex orgies (they would have a certain allure), so in order to control the more primal urges of the faithful, the Church “Christianized” the pagan festival, in a sense, rebooting the festival from unwholesome debauchery into something a wee bit more wholesome e.g. without the rampant sex and drunkenness. In truth, the Church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus for over 3 centuries. The first of Christian feasts is Easter, followed by Pentecost. It was not until about 3 ACE that Christmas began to be celebrated as a feast day. This is not the first of major Church feast days treated this way. All Saints Day was a “Christianizing” of the pagan holiday we know as Halloween. (As I recall, the Baptist Church does not celebrate Christmas because of its connotation with the pagan Winter Solstice holiday)

The other reason that December 25th was chosen was primarily theological. The Church chose to place the celebration of Jesus’ birth at a time of the year for symbolic purposes. Because the Winter Solstice is the darkest time of the year, it symbolized the darkness into which humanity had descended. The days begin to get longer immediately after the Winter Solstice, so by placing the celebration of Jesus’ birth immediately following the darkest day of the year, it symbolized that into the darkness of humanity, God introduced into the world the Divine light that will save humanity from its own darkness.

Flip all this forward to our present time. December and early January are filled with a number of different holidays religious and cultural. As Christians we seem to want to impose our religious holidays on all people whether they are Christian or not. We forget that the Christian religion is only one of many world religions. The Hindus, the Buddhists, the Muslims, and many other religions do not impose their religious holidays upon Christians. They quietly celebrate them as should we, if we are truly to remain faithful to the intent of the Holy Day.
Also note, that the Christmas holidays that the United States celebrate are anything but Christian. Christmas in the United States has very little to do with the birth of Jesus. It is all about cutthroat consumerism in which retailers hope to make up the losses they suffered during the rest of the fiscal year. Greed, licentiousness, drunkenness etc are just as rampant in the United States (note the Christmas parties that are celebrated in corporate America and within family units) as they may have been in ancient Rome. Perhaps the leg lamp displayed in the picture window of Ralphie’s home, “electric sex” as it is referred to in the movie “The Christmas Story”, is an apt description of what Christmas has become in the United States.

So instead of looking askance when someone greets you with a “Happy Holiday” during the Christmas season and telling them to get the hell out of the United States for failing to recognize whatever Christmas you think it to be, greet them instead with a return, “Happy Holiday.” If they greet you with Happy Hannukah, return the salutation and so forth. It is time for Christians and so-called Christians (note: Fox Cable News, religious neo-cons, and trump) to quit being horses rosettes about this whole subject. Instead of flipping people off when they greet you with Happy Holiday, instead spread the good will and peace of Jesus, which we Christians purport to say we believe, and greet them in kind with joy.

An essay/reflection on an ancient poem.

SAILING NOWHERE

I was placed in my boat of reed,
And placed in a river run smoothed.
I drifted past Moses’ landing place,
Nestled amongst the rushes,
past Peter’s boat and fishing nets,
past reformed basilicas and black minarets,
and factories of manufactured creeds and needs;
all, whose only purpose is to clean the streets,
tattoo feet, and recycle old shoes and dirt.
I sailed, past them all,
into the unknown of the ocean.

I came across this poem I wrote as a sophomore in college. In the grand scheme of Fowler’s stages of faith development I was in stage four, in which I, as a 19 year old person, was questioning everything I had been taught by my parents, my Church, and my government. Every value I had been taught was up for grabs. Every value I had been taught was severely examined for lies and fabrication.

What I discovered was that the values my parents taught me were solid. My dad and mom lived authentically that which they believed. While I might not always hold to their politics, I was even a liberal then, I knew they were trustworthy.

On the other hand, while my Church preached the Good News, I found that my Church didn’t always live authentically the Good News. For a Church in which the Great Commandment of Jesus was central, to love one another as Jesus loved us, had been very poorly followed by many in the Church, including some revered saints. From the Crusades, through the Borgia Popes, the evils of the Spanish Inquisition, the slaughter and enslavement of indigenous people, the slaughter of many Christians, all in the name of God, was as bitter a betrayal of Jesus as that of Judas Iscariot. Could my Church, or for that matter, any institutionalized religion could be trusted? My 19 year old self said emphatically, “No!.”

Then there was the United States government. Like Ron Kovic (Born On the Fourth Of July), I had been taught to never question my government. Right or wrong, the government was never to be questioned. And, as Kovic discovered, the United States government was not to be trusted. It had lied about the Vietnam War. The sins of our politicians and our military descended upon us like a plague. Many men and women had their lives destroyed in this horrific war based on lies. The nation was torn in half. Those who had believed their government and fought honorably were despised by many opposed to the war. Even the American Legion would not accept them because they had not won the war. Those who opposed the war and either went to Canada to avoid the draft, or were imprisoned by refusing to be drafted were equally despised for having shirked their duties. All that followed by Nixon’s criminal behavior and those of his administration utterly shook the faith of the nation in the government. We all came away from this suspicious of all government, never entrusting our faith again in our political system.

It was from all of this that this poem was written. All these broken beliefs and trusts lay around me like shards of broken glass. However, out of this pile of broken debris arose, like a Phoenix, something incredibly wonderful. I began to embrace and welcome the truth of Mystery in my life.

I found that while religious and/or government creeds could not be trusted because much of it was of human construction, the concept of “Mystery” could be trusted. Mystery’s origin lay in the Divine. The one thing I could trust is that I am unable to understand Mystery. I can’t construct or control Mystery. Mystery is something to be experienced, something in which to be immersed. While some insight may be gained in the experience of Mystery, Mystery will never be fully understood. From the time of the burning bush, God can only be addressed as Mystery. The name God gave of God’s self to Moses is the ultimate Mystery, a Divine riddle that puzzles all who hear it. This mystery is aptly reflected in Sister Joan Chittester OSB definition of God as “changing changelessness.”

That 19 year old undergraduate of the College of St. Thomas is now a 65 year old Roman Catholic ordained deacon. How does this poem, written 46 years ago stand with me today? I find it still very spot on. The questioning never stops.

A faith that complacently accepts all that is taught is dead. True faith is life lived in the crucible. Faith is life lived in contradiction struggling to understand Mystery. Mystery is filled with paradox. There is a reorientation in our lives that is in direct opposition to what we have learned in our world. Jesus refers to this reorientation when he states that salvation is obtainable only by denying oneself and carrying one’s cross and following him, especially when this does not seem to make any rational sense. The word salvation is couched in mystery. Exactly what is salvation?

For all the stories of near death survivors, for all the soothsaying of mystics and mediums, no one truly knows with any certainty exactly that which awaits us as we leave this life for the next. In his song/poem, “Visions of Johanna,” (from the album “Blonde On Blonde”), Bob Dylan writes, “Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo back, ‘This is what salvation must be like after a while.’” The then, agnostic Dylan (this was prior to his ‘religious conversion’) was trying to desperately understand the Mystery of salvation. I have come to think that perhaps his acknowledgement of not knowing was probably more a product of faith, than a lack of faith.

In the Gospels, Jesus uses mysterious metaphors in speaking of salvation. He often references wedding feasts to describe the elusive concept of heaven. During the time of Jesus, wedding feasts were occasions of joy, in which food, drink, warmth, happiness, and acceptance were provided for all who attended. Using this metaphor to describe salvation, Jesus is saying that it is that in which all human senses are sated and fulfilled.

All St. Paul can say on the subject is that what we see and believe to be real in this life is all transitory and empty. That which is truly real lays beyond the comprehension of our senses. In his not knowing, St. Paul was resolute in sacrificing everything, including his life, in order to embrace the Mystery which lay beyond his comprehension and senses. Within the Mystery of salvation lies a glory that is incomprehensible to our human minds. It must be experienced within Mystery.

As one who is beginning his 41st year of ministry in the Church, I am still on that boat of reed floating out into the unknown of the ocean. Being immersed in Mystery for all these years, I have come to know that not all creeds and beliefs, religious or political, may be true. I have come to accept that I will never fully understand that which I say and have promised to believe. In the Kevin Smith religious parody film, “Dogma”, a film that is at times extremely offensive and far off base, and at other times an honest, comedic critique of Catholicism, Rufus, the “13th Apostle”, says to the “last scion” that the words “I believe” means “we have a good idea about what we are saying.” That is a fairly accurate statement.

Living in and with Mystery has taught me that the grace and the goodness that flows out of the Church is of Divine origin. Grace and goodness does not originate in the bewilderment of our confused humanity. My trust in the Christian creedal statements lay not in the words expressed, but in the Mystery that lay beyond the words.

Wedding Homily from this past weekend.

This past weekend I had the honor of officiating at the wedding of Danny and Kylie. It had been a very long time since I have been to the chapel at the University of St. Thomas. It has changed much since my undergraduate days in the early 70’s, and my graduate school days in the 80’s. While I officiate at funerals quite frequently these days, it has been a couple of years since I last officiated at a wedding. Here is the homily I gave at the wedding this past weekend.

My wife Ruthie and I were married at 7 pm on December 27, 1974 at St. Bridget of Sweden, in Lindstrom Minnesota. It was a bitterly cold Friday night. The temperature was 24 below zero. As Ruthie was processed up the aisle alongside her father, she looked radiant. I was captivated by her beautiful face, framed by her long dark hair, and white hood. What I was not aware was as they were processing the aisle, her dad told her, “You can still get out of this if you want to. I won’t be mad.” Ruthie just smiled at her dad and kept walking up the aisle. That night was the beginning of an incredible life with someone who has utterly transformed and enriched my life.

The Gospel story of the wedding at Cana is not really about the wedding nor about water being miraculously transformed into wine. It was at this wedding that the world was introduced to a new creation, a new way of being human as Jesus ushers into human history the Messianic era. At the wedding of Cana Jesus began the process of transforming the world. Kylie and Danny, today through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus transforms your lives into a new creation. Christ transforms you into being a visible living sign of God’s love to our world. This is visible in the mutual love you have and express for one another. This reflects the mutual love that Christ has for the Church and that God has for our world.

Whenever we celebrate sacraments, we undergo a transformative change that the Church calls “the ontological change.” The transformation occurs very gradually, so much so, that the change that is occurring is barely noticeable. In the sacrament of marriage this ontological change is best described as two become one flesh, two hearts become one heart. Over time it is as if when one inhales, the other exhales. Another way to envision this change is a scene in an old Marx brother movie in which Groucho Marx is dancing with a pretty blonde woman. As they are dancing, she keeps whispering in his ear, “Hold me closer, hold me closer.” Groucho snuggles closer to her. She says again, “Hold me closer, hold me closer.” Again, Groucho snuggles closer to her. She whispers once more, “hold me closer,” at which he says to her, “If I held you any closer, I would be behind you.”

I hadn’t fully realized how close we had become until 2006 when we were separated from each as I was doing 3 weeks of Spanish immersion in San Antonio. The heartache I experienced over that 3 weeks was overwhelming. Even though I was busy learning vocabulary, practicing speaking, listening, and writing skills in Spanish 10 to 12 hours a day, my day pivoted around two significant events: 1) talking with Ruth by cell phone as she drove to work at the State Veterans Home at night (she works fulltime nights as a nurse there), and talking with her by cell phone when she returned home from work in the morning. By the time the last day of class was over, I could hardly wait to get back to the airport and get home to see her. My flight didn’t arrive till later in the evening, and Ruthie had to work that night, so I was fully expecting to be picked up at the airport by my daughter, Beth. My heart leapt for joy when I saw it was Ruth, not Beth, walking toward me at the airport. As we embraced I wept for joy. I was finally complete again.

In marriage we experience the presence of Christ in our spouse. The Jewish Theologian and rabbi, Martin Buber tells us that our relationships with one another are windows through which we look on the face of God. My greatest experience of God is in the person of Ruthie. From her lips I hear God saying to me, “I love you! I forgive you!” In her touch and in her arms I feel God embracing me. As I look into her brown eyes, I see the face of God.
Does all this happen overnight? Of course not, it is a gradual transformation into Divine love. Divine love is not a power over relationship. Divine love is a power with relationship in which both parties mutually and equally share their love with one another. It takes time to learn how to love at this deep a level. You must mutually invite the love of Christ that transforms all lives to be part of your new life together. This mutual love is the foundation of all for which you have been preparing these many long months. Mutually listening to one another in love. Mutually assisting each other through hardships and joys, triumphs and failures, always in love.

In the year 2011, I was on medical leave because of an infection I received when I got a hip replacement. 5 surgeries later, with Christmas approaching, still without a hip and because of my immobility unable to get Ruthie a Christmas present, I decided to start a book of poetry dedicated to her, recounting our courtship, our wedding, the birth of our children and the many joys and hardships we have experienced together. I called it “The Book of Ruth.” I sent it to my daughter-in-law, Olivia, to print out and put together so I could give it to Ruth on Christmas. I have since kept adding poems to this book. I would like to conclude with a portion of a poem I entitled, “Learning How to Walk.”

“To walk with you is
to learn how to love,
each measured step,
a grace-filled journey
to something greater,
far beyond and far better
than the stumbling steps
that I could have
made on my own.

To walk with you,
is to see the
world with different
eyes, colors bursting
through the grays,
warmth on the
coldest of days, your
voice floating, playing
delightfully in the air
alongside until the
sound settles gently,
gracefully in my ears.

We have walked many
steps together in life,
my gait now not as steady,
these days of uncertain
limbs, joints and cane,
reminiscent of my first steps.

 

In walking with you,
new discoveries never end,

new beginnings
abound, and that
with you, the first
and the finest of
all teachers, learning
to walk is never
fully learned.”

Kylie and Danny, as you process down this aisle as a married couple, you begin your walk today as a couple transformed in Christ’s love. You will walk many steps together, through good times and bad times, through challenges, through triumphs, through heartaches, and through joys. May the love of Christ transform your lives today. And may that Divine love through you transform the lives of all you meet from this day forward. May God bless you with many years of walking together, always learning to be the presence of God in our world.

 

The DNA of God among us – a homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

In the Fall of 1980, I had the great opportunity of taking an independent study on scriptural exegesis with Fr. Mike Joncas. Scriptural exegesis is a very involved and exact process of studying scripture to better understand what a scripture passage is saying. When he wasn’t composing hymns like “On Eagles Wings”, Mike is a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas.

Mike had given me today’s Gospel as an assignment. After doing all the exegetical work on this Gospel, I handed Mike my paper on it. After reading the paper, he asked me two questions. Did Jesus initially refuse to heal the woman’s daughter because in being raised Jewish he had learned from his culture not to associate with people who were not Jewish? Or, did Jesus initially refuse to heal the woman’s daughter to test the woman’s faith? I told Mike, that Jesus was probably testing the woman’s faith.

Mike replied that many scripture scholars believe that because Jesus was raised in the Jewish culture of his time, and as a good practicing Jew, he was following the teachings of his religion to avoid people who were not Jewish. This is evident in the behavior of the apostles advising Jesus not to engage with this pagan woman. And, initially, Jesus ignores the pleas of the woman. The pagan woman’s faith challenged this bias that Jesus had learned from his religion. As he listened to her and discovered her deep faith, he realized that what he was taught by his religion was wrong and he cured the woman’s daughter. Jesus had to unlearn the cultural bias taught to him by his Jewish culture. From that moment onward Jesus began to widen his mission to include both Jewish and non-Jewish people.

In reflecting on what I heard from Mike Joncas that day, I began to examine my own prejudices and biases. I remembered a time when, as a college student riding the Snelling Bus to St. Thomas College, how uncomfortable and uneasy I became when at the intersection of University Ave and Snelling Ave the color of the bus changed from primarily white to primarily black. Where I had I learned this prejudice against people of color?

I was not taught this prejudice from my parents. My parents would not tolerate any religious or racial prejudice at home because they themselves had experienced religious prejudice as Catholics. My father was a mechanical engineer, but many United States businesses would not offer him a job precisely because he was Polish and Catholic. My grandfather told my dad to change his last name to something more Protestant sounding. So, my dad legally changed his last name from the Polish Catholic Wojnar to the more Protestant German sounding Wagner, and, was subsequently hired by Westinghouse Air Brake Company as a mechanical engineer. My mother, a highly degreed home economics teacher lost her job teaching poor children in the inner city Pittsburgh public schools for the reason of being Catholic.

Where I had learned to be racially prejudice? It was from my culture. In high school, it was made very clear that when a person drove in the Selby-Dale area of St. Paul, you rolled up your windows and locked the doors. Why? because that neighborhood was populated only by black people and was considered dangerous. It was a load of hogwash. It was just as dangerous to ride through German neighborhood on Rice Street in St. Paul, where Ruthie lived, as it was to drive through Selby-Dale. It took that uneasiness I experienced riding the Snelling bus for me to become self-aware of my own racism and to begin to “unlearn” the lies I had been taught at school.

Today’s Gospel forces us to examine the racial and religious prejudices we have been taught and have accepted. It forces us to engage, as Jesus did, with those we have been taught to fear and to hate by our culture and perhaps by our family. This Gospel forces us to acknowledge that to God there is no such thing as different races or cultures. God’s mercy and God’s love is extended to all people. Whether we are black, white, Asian, Native American, Latino; whether our names are Ole and Lena, George and Gracie, Emil and Ludmilla, Ezechial and Sophie, Maria y Jose, we are all made in the image and likeness of God. We all have God’s DNA in us. We belong to only one race and that is the human race.

To overcome our prejudices and biases we must, as Jesus did, listen and talk with one another. We will find that we all possess the same heartache, the same love, the same joys and the same sorrows. There was a time when Germans from Union Hill or Heidelberg would never marry a Czechs from New Prague. There was a time when the Irish from St. Patrick, St. Catherine or St. Thomas would never consider marrying a German or a Czech. Somewhere along time our grandparents discovered that national prejudices were false and ridiculous.

Unlike the movies, and many television mini-series that portray Jesus as a Northern European man with long brown hair, blue eyes, and a British accent, Jesus was a brown skinned, dark haired, brown eyed Palestinian Jewish man who spoke Aramaic. Jesus mission as St. Paul vividly points out in the second reading was not just to the Jewish people but to all people. Jesus’ death and resurrection brought salvation to not just a select few, but to all people of the world, who are sons and daughters of God. May we, who possess the DNA of God, who are the Body of Christ made flesh in our world, continue his salvific mission by serving the image and the likeness of God in all people.

A PEW FULL OF HYPOCRITES – a reflection

My first day as a second grader at St. Andrew’s Catholic School in St. Paul, I, and approximately 29 other classmates were told by Sister Angeline that ten of my classmates were going to go to Hell when we died. That came as no great surprise to me. I personally knew the unfortunate ten, though I must add that my list might not have been consistent with the lists of my other classmates. And there was a distinct possibility that I might be on the “hell bound” list of others in my class.

In the world of a Catholic school second grader in 1959, religious sisters were a kind of human anomaly. Because the religious sisters were covered head to toe, with only their faces and hands showing, I thought there were three different sexes, namely: men, women, and nuns. Because of this anomaly, I believed nuns had special powers not attributed to other human beings, and, the words they spoke carried a lot of weight that was generally reinforced by the 12 inch rulers secretly placed up their sleeves.

Sister Angeline was a kind and compassionate nun, however,  she held to a firm belief that the quickest path to heaven was through the use of fear. If we were not going to heaven willingly, she would do all in her power to scare us there. Hence, we had a full year of stories about Hell, demons, demonic possession, and other paranormal horrors to insure that we would be “good Catholic” boys and girls. What was pounded home time and time again was that we were in desperate need of conversion. I didn’t know that Jesus was loving, kind, and merciful until I took beginning theology courses as an undergraduate in college. Incidentally, this belief was confirmed when the Doobie Brothers made it official in their song, “Jesus Is Just Alright.”

Admittedly, over the years I have had a love/hate relationship of sorts with the memory of Sister Angeline. Her over emphasis on sin and Hell I greatly resent in so much that it prevented me from seeing the tremendous love, compassion and mercy of Jesus. This explains my negative visceral reaction to the heavy handedness of any cleric, particularly Pope John Paul II, and then, Cardinal Ratzinger, who choose to err on the more Pharisaic side of rigidity to rules and a judgmental God rather than focusing on the love and compassion of Jesus.  All that being said, there is no denying that all of us are in need of conversion.

In a world that denies the need for conversion and boasts that there is no such thing as sin, all we need to do is pick up a newspaper, watch the news, and find that sin is very prevalent and is very much alive all around us in the horrible things that people do to one another every day. From mass shootings, to corporate greed, to racist and religious prejudice and persecution, to withholding food and shelter from the poor, oh, yes the world is in much need of conversion.

It is easy to think that of all the human institutions that abound, the only one that is NOT in need of conversion is that of the Catholic Church. One couldn’t be more wrong. The Catholic Church, in so much as it is made up of human beings, is very much in need of conversion, too. Remarkably, the Catholic Church says as much.

In the Introduction to the Rite of Penance¸#3, under the heading “The Church Both Holy and Always in Need of Purification, we find the words, “Whereas Christ, ‘holy, harmless, undefiled’ (Hebrews 7:26), knew no sin but came solely to seek pardon for the sins of his people, the Church, having sinners in its midst, is at the same time holy and in need of cleansing, and so is unceasingly intent on repentance and reform.”

This is an important statement by the Catholic Church. For countless centuries, the Catholic Church taught that the Church was the “Perfect Sinless Society” without flaw. For many of us who have ministered within the Church, we know how flawed an institution it is.

In our Archdiocese for the past 3 years, we have undergone an exposure to the sin perpetuated upon the innocent and the vulnerable, mainly children and adolescents, by ordained clergy, mainly from the past when the Church still considered itself “the Perfect Sinless Society.” Countless number of people were sexually preyed upon by priests and religious in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and now as a Church, we must do penance and compensate those so grievously harmed by not only the sexual predators, but also by a hierarchy who ignored the cries of those victimized, and threatened the victims to remain silent, in order to preserve this illusion of being a “Perfect Sinless Society.”

When I began my ministry in the Church 41 years ago, I had to come to grips with the sinfulness of the Church as a human institution. All the flaws we see in any human organization are present within the institutional Catholic Church. As in any business, there are those attempting to climb the corporate ladder, often priests seeking higher clerical office within the institution. As there is in any human institution those actively seeking higher office have no scruples as to who they step on or destroy in order to attain that higher office. Some of these fail, and others succeed to become bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. The politics of the chancery can rival that of many monarchial dynasty. “Holy Mother Church” as a human institution can be a cold hearted, evil step-mother who uses people and casts them aside as refuse when no longer needed.

On the other hand, I also was exposed to the many men and women, some clerical, some religious, some lay ministers, and some lay volunteers who do remarkable ministry in the Church without seeking any recognition or personal gain. Motivated by the Gospel life of Jesus, they seek to serve rather than be served and work tirelessly to build the Reign of God in our world. I found that there are many more of these selfless people within the Church then the self-seeking religious plutocrats seeking self-advancement.

Very early on, I had to develop a coping mechanism to continue working in the Institutional Church. I did this by using a rather graphic metaphor to separate out the sinfulness of the Institution from the grace-filled Church that Christ intended. The cruel and awful things the Church as an institution did to people went into the “shit” pile. The wonderful ministries to the poor, to the disenfranchised, to those mourning, to those most in need spiritually and temporally, went into the “grace” pile. That which the Church does that builds up the People of God and advances the Reign of God in our world goes into the “grace” pile. That which separates and destroys community goes into the “shit” pile. I continue to use this graphic metaphor today.

When I read the opening statement for the Sacrament of Penance, above,  for the first time, I realized that my observation as a church minister on the sinfulness of the institution was spot on. Comprised of its human membership, all of the Catholic Church, hierarchy, religious and laity are in need of conversion. Only Jesus, the head of the Church, is without sin. All of the institutional Church is in need of metanoi, ongoing, daily conversion, so that we might more ably reflect the love of Jesus, the sinless One, to those we have been called by God to serve. It is only through ongoing conversion to the Gospel of Jesus that the good fruit of the Church can happen in the world. It is only through ongoing conversion to the Gospel of Jesus that the lives of those most in need of love can be healed from their brokenness.

I have been told by people that they no longer go to church anymore because of all the hypocrites sitting in the pews. The people in the pews put on a good show of “holiness and righteousness” within the four walls of the church, but outside the church their values are in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus. This is a valid observation and one that has been made for as long as I can remember. My father, prior to the reforms of Vatican II, talked about “Sunday Catholics” who performed their Sunday obligation but were hell-bent on getting out of the parking lot of the church as soon as Mass was over. The only time they were “Catholic” was the 40 minutes or less when they were in church. Outside that time, they got drunk, cheated on their spouses, stole, and lived contrary to the rules of the Church. The hypocrisy of church members was no different then as it is now, the only difference being the Mass was in Latin.

The truth be told, the Catholic Church, and for that matter, all Christian churches, and non-Christian religions can be labeled “hypocritical.” Each and everyone of us, whether we be a Pope, a Bishop, a Iman, a Rabbi, the Dalai Lama, and so on, are hypocrites. We are hypocritical in that we fail to live out the faith, the religious tenets to which we are called and profess. Whether it be the Gospels of the Christian religions, the Torah, the Talmud and Mishna of the Jewish religion, the Koran of the Islamic religion, the Tripitaka and Mahayan Sutras of the Buddhist religion, the four Vedas of the Hindu religion, or any other sacred teachings of any religion, no member of any of these religions faithfully and completely live that which is taught in their sacred texts. So, yes, we are hypocrites. However, this only proves that no matter what religion we profess, we are equally hypocritical.

If those who profess a religious faith are hypocrites, what is the point of worshipping God in community? For Christians and speaking specifically for Catholics, the answer is in the first part of what was said in that Introduction to the Sacrament of Penance. All of the Church is in need of conversion/purification except for one, Jesus, who is sinless and is the head of the Church.

We gather as a miserable, broken, hypocritical bunch of human beings to receive the grace from the One who has not sinned but bore the brokenness of our miserable human condition in his own body. Our brokenness needs healing. We do not possess the ability to heal ourselves. Only Jesus can heal the brokenness in our lives. We need to be made self-aware of our own hypocrisy and to begin to live lives that bring harmony to the world, not disharmony. Whether I am at Mass as an ordained deacon, whether I am at Mass as a liturgical musician, whether I am at Mass as one among many in the pews, I come to receive the grace I need from God to be made whole again for another week. I come to be renewed when my faith is challenged. I come to receive forgiveness for the brokenness I have caused others during the week, and to forgive those who have caused brokenness in my life. I come to Mass to acknowledge that I am one with everyone in the church and in equal need of conversion in my life.

There is no place for an attitude of “holier than thou” in the Catholic Church. To use Jesus’ parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee who went to the Temple to pray, rather than boast with the Pharisee about how self-righteous we are, we must adopt the attitude of the tax collector who bows his head, strikes his breast, and says, “Have mercy on me, Lord. a sinner.”

Sister Angeline was correct on insisting that us Second graders needed to learn the lesson of conversion. Her methodology to reinforce that particular lesson could have been better. It is important that we acknowledge as a community our need for conversion in our lives. It is important that we gather as a community to mutually seek the healing for the brokenness in our lives. We can learn much from the wisdom of 12 step groups that by ourselves, we cannot bring about the conversion that we need in our lives. We need to rely on the love and the grace that we can receive only from Jesus. Why gather to worship at Mass? Why not? It is the only place where we, hypocritical as we are as a community, can receive the grace we so desperately need.

 

The wisdom of being childlike – a homily for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. (Matthew 11:25-26)

As human beings, we like to think of ourselves as being smart, knowing all the angles so as to keep from being fooled by others. We like to think that our base of knowledge is complete, that we have all the answers to every situation we encounter and every problem that comes our way. We like to think of ourselves as completely self-reliant. And, so believing our own myth of being all wise and all knowing, the sin of pride oozes and drips from our own egos. We suffer so from our own blindness.

This past week the G-20 is meeting in Hamburg, Germany. One of the most highly anticipated events of the G-20 thus far is the meeting between Putin and trump. Putin schemes, plots, and sows discord to consolidate more power for Russia and for himself, as dictator of Russia. And there is, trump, a prisoner of his own narcissism, controlled by his oversize ego, instant gratification in all areas of his life, and an inability to think about anyone but himself. Both of these men believe themselves to be the better and the smarter of the two (Admittedly, Putin has the better brain, the political savvy, and the ability to manipulate and play with trump, as a cat does with a mouse it is about to kill.). They like to think of themselves as all knowing, filled with wisdom, and have hired people to tell them that they are. In spite of the vast wealth and the political power both wield, they equally fail to grasp that which is most important in the world. They are so afflicted with blindness.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “We look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”

St. Paul in this simple statement sums up the blindness that afflicts most of humanity. Our own physical senses create an illusion that reality is only that which we can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. Our philosophy of life, the way we order our world, the way we judge happiness is all based only on physical stimuli. St. Paul tells us that all which are senses consider to be real is not real, but is merely temporary and will fade away like mist. Our perceived reality is based on nothing but empty air.

St. Paul’s statement is not just an isolated sentiment in the Christian Testament. Throughout the gospels, Jesus repeatedly tells us that are lives must not be built on the unreliable sources of this earth, but on that of God. For instance, Jesus explains that no one builds their homes on a foundation of sand. Only those homes built on solid rock, that is the word of God, will survive the storms of life. (Matthew 7: 24-29)

In the first letter of Peter, it is written,” Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”

St. James writes, “Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire.”

It is easy for us to make out Putin and trump as quintessential examples of lives built on narcissism and blindness and yet, live in ignorance of our own blindness and our own stupidity. It is not easy to confront our own blindness, and acknowledge our own enslavement to the transitory unreality in which we live. St. Paul observes that it is only in being close to death that we finally see that which is really real. Can we not begin earlier in life to see that which lays just beyond the barrier of our physical senses? Jesus tells us yes, that this is within our capabilities in this life.

We must begin to see the world around us with the eyes of a child. Our eyesight must not be limited to just the physical things that we see, but we must look beyond the physical object to the wonder that lays beyond that object. It is similar to looking at a religious icon. A religious icon is a flat, two-dimensional picture, generally not all that captivating to the eye. Its two-dimensional unattractive state is painted so as to draw our mind’s eye to the multi-dimensional reality of God that lies beyond it.

How do we develop that kind of eyesight to see the multi-dimensions that exist beyond our physical world? Jesus tell us that we must begin to see the world through the lens of a child, the lens of humility. The new born child is well aware that life is dependent on others. The child suckles on the breast of his/her mother to draw not only nourishment from breast milk, but also to draw in the love of his/her mother. The child innately realizes that the ability to live is not based on his/her self-reliance but in relying on the love of his/her mother and father for food, clothing, and protection. The child discovers the world and how to navigate through the world by looking through the eyes of his/her mother and father.

Jesus tells us that true sight, true wisdom and true knowledge is gained by humbling acknowledging that our lives are totally dependent on our God who is Mother and Father to us. We draw upon the breast of God for spiritual nourishment. We draw upon the mind of God for knowledge. We draw upon the love of God for life. It is in doing this that we begin to see with eyes that which is truly real. It is doing this that the barrier of our physical senses create fades away like a mist to reveal that which is truly real and lasts for eternity.

All that which Putin and trump believe important, is, in the end, very transitory and unimportant. Upon that which they base their reality and happiness is nothing more than just empty air. It is important that world nations address the immense evils that pollution, poverty, hunger, and the inequitable distribution of wealth cause the people of our world. It is important that the world nations use the tools which God has entrusted to humanity to address these evils. But, as Jesus points us, we must humbly acknowledge that the only correct way to use the tools given to us is by allowing God to work these tools through us.

St. Peter concludes his second letter with these words.  “According to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace. And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures. Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity.” (2 Peter 3:13-18)

A continuation of the discussion about patriotic songs in Roman Catholic liturgy …

Yesterday, Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, wrote a very fine editorial on the prohibition of using patriotic songs in liturgy, especially the celebration of the Mass. Informed by the many liturgical classes at had at the St. Paul Seminary, and using the liturgical principles stated in the Church’s liturgical documents, I threw in my own two cents in addition to what Fr Martin expressed.

The celebration of the liturgical rites of the Church, including all sacramental rites, is focused on our relationship with God, NOT our relationship with our country of origin. Roman Catholic liturgy transcends all nations, all nationalities, all cultures, and all races. In fact, the liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church point and lead us to a concept that strikes at the heart of nationalism of any nation. Jesus did not just die for a particular nation, ideology, form of government, or culture. JESUS CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ALL NATIONS, ALL IDEOLOGIES, ALL FORMS OF GOVERNMENTS AND ALL CULTURES. Not one of them was left out of Christ’s sacrificial offering.

Symbols of any nation, whether it be the American flag, the Canadian flag, the Mexican flag, the Vatican flag (the Vatican is recognized as a sovereign nation), or any nation, should be not be displayed in any liturgical space. If a congregation wants to have a flag flying outside the Church, or in the narthex of the Church, fine. But the flag of any nationality must not be within the liturgical space for the simple reason that Jesus did not die to save just the people of that nation. JESUS DIED FOR THE SALVATION OF ALL PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE ENEMIES OF ANY PARTICULAR NATION. This is what our Roman Catholic liturgy expresses in word and sacrament. In the middle of the American Civil War, when a person stated to President Abraham Lincoln that God was on the side of the North. Lincoln responded so very succinctly, “The question is not whether God is on our side. The question is, are we on God’s side?”

Roman Catholic liturgy transcends all the divisions of human language, culture, customs, and nations simply because ALL of humanity are children of God, all of humanity, including our sworn enemies!

If one objects to this by saying, “you are getting too political”, well, the gospel of Jesus Christ is very political. The Great Commandment of Jesus, the Beatitudes, the mandate by Jesus to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, take of the sick, visit the imprisoned and welcome the stranger are very political positions that transcends the ideologies of political parties. No political party is the political party of Jesus. No government, and no ideology is that of Jesus. The gospel of Jesus must be used to evaluate all political party platforms, all ideologies, and all national governments. And, in doing so, all of them will fall woefully short. All the more so political emblems, symbolism and songs must not be part of Roman Catholic liturgy.

If one wants to wrap themselves in the flag, or the political parties they espouse, then they must do it at events that are strictly limited to those kinds of events. There is a time and place for all these things, however, they must not be imposed upon the Mass or any other Roman Catholic liturgy. God has primacy over all these very human creations.

Last, but not least, the Mass and other Roman Catholic liturgies points us to a reality to which God is leading us. When God created the universe, God created all things to be in and live in harmony. Sin, as St. Paul states, drove disharmony into God’s creation. The great sin of humanity was to sow disruption and pain into the harmony God created. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose greed, violence, war, and destitution. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose human factions in opposition to one another. From the disharmony that humanity sowed rose persecution, religious intolerance, and genocide.

Jesus came to restore the harmony that humanity destroyed by Sin. In the celebration of the Mass, all of humanity is welcomed around the table of the Lord to join in a common meal. The great eschatological meal envisioned by Isaiah, Chapter 2, of all nations ascending the mountain of God, to feast and drink at the great meal provided to humanity by God, and to feast on the words, the wisdom, and the love of God is present at the celebration of the Mass. This is not the time for symbols and songs of division and disharmony, but, instead, symbols and songs of  harmony and unity. The Mass is the Thanksgiving meal for all of humanity. It is a restoration of that primordial harmony which God intended for creation as the Divine breath of God stirred life within the waters of the Abyss.

Our churches, daresay, our homes must reflect this restoration of the beginning. It is said that Church begins at home. How well do we embrace the harmony God intended for all of creation? While there is no sin in displaying one’s patriotism outside his/her home, I prefer to display in symbol the harmony God intended. Outside our home, we fly the “Earth” flag, in the hope that one day those differences between nations and governments will be destroyed forever, along with all weapons humanity has created to sow disruption and pain into our world. Foregoing all national symbols that illustrate the disconnection of humanity, I encourage all people to focus on symbols that will unite us as a common people of God, whom God loved so much that God sent, Jesus, the Son, the Logos of God, to redeem us.

 

 

 

Praying the Psalms to God in the Second Person

Ah, by the title of this post, one might think, “Oh, he is referring to praying to God through Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, in the Holy Spirit,” as we state in the Doxology in Mass just prior to the Great Amen. Or, again, one might not be thinking that or even considering that. What I am alluding to is in reference to the order of grammar.

Grammatically, first person singular is stated by using the word, “I.” For instance, “I walked to the store.” Second person singular is stated by using the word, “you,” as in, “You went to the store.” Third person singular is stated by using the words, “he” or “she”, as in “He or She went to the store.”

In many of the Psalms, God is addressed in the third person singular as “he.” The difficulty I find with this is not only because the reference is not inclusive of the reality of God in whose image women and men are created.

My primary difficulty is that the third person singular reference to God is too impersonal. Praying to God in the third person singular I find tantamount to praying to an object, like praying to a rock, or a chair, an “it.” The relationship we, as human beings, have with objects is one of ownership, not a personal relationship. Theologically, we, creatures of God, do not “own” God, even though we may try to created God in our own image. The creature does not own the creator.

However, praying to God in the 2nd person singular form, “you”, implies a relationship that is personal and close. This requires a little mental “retranslation” as I pray the psalms during the Liturgy of the Hours. For instance, using the Grail translation of this morning’s psalm, Psalm 24. The Grail translation states, “The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples. It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm.” I retranslate this from the third person to the second person in this way. “My Lord, yours are the earth and all its fullness, the world and all its peoples. It is you who set it on the seas; on the waters you made it firm.” Is not referring to God in the second person far more personal? Is not referring to God in the second person far more prayerful?

I suggest for those of us who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, especially the psalms, to try using the second person singular in praying to God. It adds a depth to the Psalms that is sorely lacking in the third person singular. In closing, I leave your with a retranslation of the Grail translation of the Morning Canticle, the Canticle of Zachary.

“Blessed be you, my Lord, the God of Israel; you have come to your people and set us free. You have raised up for us a mighty savior; born of the house of your servant, David.  Through your holy prophets you promised of old, that you would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. You promised to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember your holy covenant. This was the oath you swore to our father, Abraham, you would set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship you without fear, holy and righteous  in your sight all the days of our lives. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way of the Lord, to give the people of God knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins. In your tender compassion, our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shone on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Encountering God’s hospitality in giving and receiving – a homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

HOMILY FOR THE 13TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

In today’s gospel, Jesus addresses two important aspects of being a Christian disciple. It involves the act of giving and the act of receiving. First, as Christian disciples, we must give the presence of Christ to others. Secondly, as Christian disciples, we must welcome and receive the presence of Christ given to us by others.

For the last 15 years of my sister’s life, she had at least two major surgeries a year. Ruthie and I were generally at the hospital during those surgeries. One very cold January day back in the 1980’s, Ruthie and I got to St. Joseph Hospital in St. Paul early in the morning as my sister was being prepped for another surgery. It ended up being a very long day of sitting and waiting in the surgery waiting room with my parents. My sister was in surgery for about 7 hours, and another hour and a half in post-op. Like many of her surgeries, it was very touch and go, but, somehow, miraculously, she survived once more. Once she got up to her hospital room, Ruthie and I wearily made it back to our Aerostar parked in the hospital parking lot.

As we drove home, right around the small town of Lydia, my power steering went out. With some difficulty, I steered the car home and as Ruth went into the house to be with our kids, I opened the hood expecting to pull out a broken power steering belt. Instead, I pulled out a tail and then heard a pitiful meow coming from the engine. A cat had crawled on top of the motor in the hospital parking lot to get warm and tragically on the way home got caught in the engines’ pulleys. My nerves were raw from the emotional toll of my sister’s surgery and now there was a poor, suffering, partially dismembered cat in my car’s engine.

I rushed into the house. My son, Andy asked me how Aunt Mary was doing, and I cried out, “Don’t ask me about your Aunt Mary, I’ve got a cat pulled apart in my car engine!” Not quite the answer Andy was anticipating. I called the police and pretty much shouted into the phone what had happened to the hapless dispatcher. She said to me, “Okay, first, you get a garbage bag and then you get a baseball bat. You then pull the cat out of your engine. Next you hit the cat on the head with the baseball bat. Then you throw the cat into the garbage bag.” I could not believe my ears, and, I angrily hung up on the dispatcher. I was desperate. I was beyond distraught. What was I to do? I called up my good friend, Fr. Denny Dempsey, who was the associate pastor at St Wenceslaus.

I said, “Denny, I’ve got a cat pulled apart in my car engine and I don’t know what to do!” Denny was a frequent and welcomed guest at our home, eating with us at least once a week, and, on those nights when he did not have Mass early in the morning, would watch movies on our VCR to the wee hours of the morning. Denny was a welcomed dinner guest at many of the homes of St. Wenceslaus parishioners, so much so, that I think he seldom ate at the rectory. As my friend, Jack McHugh, once observed, when Denny comes to supper, he gets his own loaf of bread. Anyway, Denny calmly listened to me and told me, “I will be right over. This sounds more interesting than the report I am doing for the Archbishop.” He concluded, “Oh, I need you to get a garbage bag, and a baseball bat.” “Okay,” I answered meekly, and went to get a baseball bat and a garbage bag.

Denny pulled up in front of my car, his headlights shining onto the front of my car. He got out of his car, and said to me, “Has your engine lost its purr? Do you no longer have a tiger in your tank?” Still very upset, I just said, “Oh, shut up!” He opened the hood of the car and reached in and pulled out the poor cat. The cat had died. He gently placed the cat in the garbage bag. Then he came inside the house, listened to my day, and helped to calm me down.

Denny Dempsey brought the real presence of Jesus to me that cold January night. It had nothing to do with him being a priest. It was more about Denny being a very concerned friend. He came to my aid when I needed him most desperately. He brought Christ’s calming, healing presence to a situation that was for me chaotically out of control.

Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Today’s gospel is about God’s presence and hospitality to others, and welcoming and receiving God’s presence from others.

Our world today can be best described in the words of Norm Peterson, from the old TV comedy, “Cheers.” “It is a dog eat dog world, and I’m wearing Milkbone underwear.” Our world is as chaotically out of control as was my life that cold January night. These two aspects of being a Christian are vitally important in a world in which personal gain and personal revenge is lived out on the lowest level of human life to the very high levels of government; and, in a world in which humanity is more inclined to shoot one another rather than welcome one another.

In the gospel, Jesus is sending his Apostles out on a mission to bring his healing presence to others. We are the living Apostles whom Jesus sends out on mission to our world today. This mission, as the gospel states, transcends nations, ideologies, career, and, even family. We are to give Christ’s healing presence to others, and to welcome and receive Christ’s healing presence to others. When we give Christ’s healing presence to others, most often we will find that in their receiving us, they, in turn, will give Christ’s living presence to us. In giving Christ abundantly to others, we will, in return, receive Christ in abundance from them.

 

 

A prayer for the conversion of human hearts and society to the justice of God – Psalm Offering 9, Opus 7

(Please reflect on the scripture passages and read the commentary before listening to the music.)

PSALM OFFERING 9, OPUS 7
A prayer for the conversion of human hearts and society to God’s justice.

But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old. (Lamentations: 5: 19-21)

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezechial 36: 25-27)

“Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise. (Ephesians 5: 14b-15)

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. (1 John 3: 23-24)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12)

And, so we come to the end of this Opus. A prayer, a prayer for the conversion of human hearts and human society to the justice of God. The duality of light and darkness in John’s Gospel is revealed all around us. So many people dwell and operate out of the darkness of our world, in which the highest principle is best summed in the question, “What’s in it for me?” We see it in our government, in our political parties, in business, and in all strata of human life. One could be overwhelmed by the hopelessness of such a suppression of light. Yet, like fireflies on a darkened night, there are many whose light illuminates the deep darkness of the world. Their light is fueled by the Great Commandment of Jesus to love as he loved. The light of God shines in these people, and as we encounter them in their daily lives, the light of God becomes contagious as all begin to desire the peace, the serenity, and joy that fills the lives of these people. And, so this musical prayer is exuberant, joy-filled, and filled with light. May we all join in on this dance of life, this dance of light, this dance of God’s justice!

ABOUT THE MUSIC: This is in the form of a Grand Waltz. As primarily a musician, I have played dances, but never have been much of a dancer. In my mind’s eye, I see the Reign of God as one in which all of humanity joins in a great, joyful, resplendent waltz with God. The primary melody of the waltz is in the key of F Lydian mode. The form of the song is Rondo form in which the A melody is heard time and time again amidst a number of other and more secondary melodies, some of these melodies being long and some of them lasting only a few measure. The form of this song is AABAACADAAEA Coda.

(c) 2017 by BRUTH Music Publishing Company.

Scriptural Text by Coogan, Michael D.; Brettler, Marc Z.; Perkins, Pheme; Newsom, Carol A.. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version. © 2010 by Oxford University Press Inc. All rights reserved.