Psalm Offering 2, Opus 7
A prayer for the victims of sexual violence.
Psalm Offering 2 Opus 7. A prayer for the victims of sexual violence. (c) 2017, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved. (Downloadable for purchase at Amazon and iTunes.)
All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans, and turns her face away. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me. For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed. Behold my suffering; my young women and young men have gone into captivity. My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the young women in my city. Women are raped in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.” (Lamentations 1: 8b,c, 12a,b, 16, 18b; 3:51; 5:11, NRSV)
Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, “O eternal God, you know what is secret and are aware of all things before they come to be; you know that these men have given false evidence against me. And now I am to die, though I have done none of the wicked things that they have charged against me!” The Lord heard her cry. He (Daniel) said to him, “You off spring of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has beguiled you and lust has perverted your heart. This is how you have been treating the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. This lie has cost you also your head, for the angel of God is waiting with his sword to split you in two, so as to destroy you both.” (Daniel 13: 42-44, 56b-57. 59, NRSV)
REFLECTION: Sexual violence has always been a part of human history. We hear about the sexual trafficking of vulnerable men, women, and children. We see violence enacted against men and women in the LGBTQ community. Just this year the #MeToo movement has swept our nation, exposing celebrities, politicians, and other people in power who have sexually abused others over which they had power. The sexual exploitation of people inundates the internet and our media. Men, women, and children are sexually abused and brutally raped. Over the last 3 years, I have been involved in picking up the pieces of over a half century of sexual abuse perpetrated upon innocent children by Catholic priests and covered up by the bishops of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER: In what way have I been guilty of sexually exploiting people? Have I contributed to the sexual exploitation of others? In what ways am I able to give aid to those sexually exploited by others? Am I able to open my mind and my heart to hear the stories of those who have been harmed sexually by others? Am I able to hear the stories of those whose sexual orientation is different from mine? How do I reconcile the sexual violence within me?
THE MUSIC: This music is composed in the form of a Prelude and Fugue. It is written in the key of E minor (the Aeolian mode). The prelude is in the form of a through composed melody often used in church hymnody. The subject, or melody of the fugue is borrowed from the opening measures of the hymn and then is developed in both the higher and lower registers. Sometimes the subject is expressed in retrograde (melody being played backward) or inverted (an upside down melody). The music concludes with a recapitulation of the hymn.
