Should Some Hymns Be Laid To Rest?

[cmotherofpirl]

Should some hymns be laid to rest?

By George Weigel

I love hymns. I love singing them and I love listening to them. Hearing the robust Cardiff Festival Choir belt out the stirring hymns of Ralph Vaughan Williams at what my wife regards as an intolerable volume is, for me, a terrific audio experience. It was only when I got to know certain Lutherans, though, that I began to think about hymns theologically.

For classic Lutheran theology, hymns are a theological "source:" not up there with Scripture, of course, but ranking not-so-far below Luther's "Small Catechism." Hymns, in this tradition, are not liturgical filler. Hymns are distinct forms of confessing the Church's faith. Old school Lutherans take their hymns very seriously.

Most Catholics don't. Instead, we settle for hymns musically indistinguishable from "Les Mis" and hymns of saccharine textual sentimentality. Moreover, some hymn texts in today's Catholic "worship resources" are, to put it bluntly, heretical. Yet Catholics once knew how to write great hymns; and there are great hymns to be borrowed, with gratitude, from Anglican, Lutheran, and other Christian sources. There being a finite amount of material that can fit into a hymnal, however, the first thing to do is clean the stables of today's hymnals. Thus, with tongue only half in cheek, I propose the Index Canticorum Prohibitorum, the "Index of Forbidden Hymns." Herewith, some examples.

The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. "Ashes" is the prime example here: "We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew." No, we don't. Christ creates us anew. (Unless Augustine was wrong and Pelagius right). Then there's "For the Healing of the Nations," which, addressing God, deplores "Dogmas that obscure your plan." Say what? Dogma illuminates God's plan and liberates us in doing so. That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches. What's a text that flatly contradicts that teaching doing in hymnals published with official approval?

Next to go should be those "We are Jesus" hymns in which the congregation (for the first time in two millennia of Christian hymnology) pretends that it's Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you/Care for each other, I have cared for you/Bear each other's burdens, bind each other's wounds/and so you will know my return." Who's praying to whom here? And is the Lord's "return" to be confined to our doing of his will? St. John didn't think so. "Be Not Afraid" and "You Are Mine" fit this category, as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life," to which I was recently subjected on, of all days, Corpus Christi -- the one day in the Church year completely devoted to the fact that we are not a self-feeding community giving each other "the bread of life" but a Eucharistic people nourished by the Lord's free gift of himself. "I am the bread of life" inverts that entire imagery, indeed falsifies it.

Then there are hymns that have been flogged to death, to the point where they've lost any evocative power. For one hundred forty years, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sent shivers down audiences' spines; does anyone sense its power when it's morphed into the vastly over-used "Joyful, Joyful We Adore You," complete with "chanting bird and flowing fountain"? A fifty-year ban is in order here. As it is for "Gift of Finest Wheat." The late Omer Westendorf did a lot for liturgical renewal, but he was no poet (as his attempt to improve on Luther in his rewrite of "A Mighty Fortress" - "the guns and nuclear might/stand withered in his sight" -- should have demonstrated). Why Mr. Westendorf was commissioned to write the official hymn for the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia is one of the minor mysteries of recent years. "You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence. It, too, goes under the fifty-year ban.

Hymns are important. Catholics should start treating them seriously.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

[Thomas Michael]

I would like to throw in "Here I Am, Lord". This falls into the #2 and #3 categories... it starts off "I the lord of earth and sky, I have heard my people cry... whom shall I send, etc." Plus, the chorus blatantly rips off the Brady Bunch theme at one point.

Can we include service music in the "flogged to death" category? Because I am SO sick and tired of "Mass of Creation". Maybe it sounds elegaic and majestic to most people, but to me it's way too minor-key and it sounds like it belongs in a haunted house. And it seems like every Catholic parish in the suburbs uses it all the time. In fact, one of the reasons I'm switching parishes is because that my old parish started using it at every Mass.

[Norseman82]

100% opposite here. I think Weigel et al. need to take a chill pill here:

"You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence.

Awful poetry? That's a personal opinion that does not reflect mine.

as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life," to which I was recently subjected on, of all days, Corpus Christi -- the one day in the Church year completely devoted to the fact that we are not a self-feeding community giving each other "the bread of life" but a Eucharistic people nourished by the Lord's free gift of himself. "I am the bread of life" inverts that entire imagery, indeed falsifies it.

Any self-respecting Catholic who has read the Gospel of John will recognize that it is merely a quote of John 6 reaffirming the real presence! I feel it is the greatest Eucharistic hymn to come out since Vatican 2. If I were to die tomorrow I want that hymn played at my funeral at the loudest possible decibel so all my non-Catholic friends in attendance can hear a biblical basis for the Real Presence in song!!!

Because I am SO sick and tired of "Mass of Creation". Maybe it sounds elegaic and majestic to most people, but to me it's way too minor-key and it sounds like it belongs in a haunted house. And it seems like every Catholic parish in the suburbs uses it all the time. In fact, one of the reasons I'm switching parishes is because that my old parish started using it at every Mass.

I LOVE the Mass of Creation. It is very majestic, which is why I love it. And I've heard it played at St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Chicago, which is run by Opus Dei and is NOT in the suburbs!

[FreeSoul]

You know, despite the amazing story behind it, I just can not stand the hymn amazing grace. lol I wouldn't want to stop others from singing it though...that's just mean.

Anyone heard of Keith Green? That old school guy? I think that's his name...

[cmotherofpirl]

I agree Free Soul. I love to sing it, but the words irritate me. I am not a wretch!

[Good Friday]

I disagree with the statements made about song type #2. When I sing songs like "Be Not Afraid" and "Here I Am, Lord" I don't think I'm God, and I don't think most other people do either. It's like we're reading the words of God, but we're not God. I really don't see how singing a hymn where God is speaking is any different than reading a Scripture verse where God is speaking. What is wrong with: "I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry..." some more that I can't remember, then: "my hand shall save." And then we respond to Him: "Here I am, Lord." I see nothing at all irreverent or theologically incorrect about that.

Actually, songs like "Here I Am, Lord" and others have really inspired me to do good things for God.

[cmotherofpirl]

Yes I like Hear I am Lord, Lord of the Dance, Be not Afraid. They are totally scriptural.

[littleflower+JMJ]

i sang "Be Not Afraid" when i had to sing for my great-aunt's funeral, it was really hard cuz i was the one who really took care of her in her last days.....

its a beautiful song and i'm afraid i couldn't finish the song when i sang it, it was that powerful, especially the part about gates of hell because that reminded me of death and judgment like her mass/funeral, i love it, i've been singing the song since i was little....

the lyrics were a complete comfort for me during her funeral...

God bless!

+JMJ

[PedroX]

I have to agree with the writer of the original article. I will not sing any song where I am "pretending" to be God. It just doesn't feel right.

I don't know. I hate most "contempory" hyms because they are silly and too sweet. This may just be a hold over from my protestant years. I think some of the reformers hyms are truly majestic. Very awe inspiring. It just feels weird to be standing in a majestic Catholic house of worship and singing dippy songs.

peace...

[Thomas Michael]

I LOVE the Mass of Creation.  It is very majestic, which is why I love it.  And I've heard it played at St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Chicago, which is run by Opus Dei and is NOT in the suburbs!

Hey, you can sing it all you want at your church. But for God's sake, give those who DON'T like it an option to celebrate Mass without it. Some churches aren't even that considerate and play "Mass of Creation" at every single one of their Masses. This church that I used to go to all the time in Colleyville never used it whenever I went there... until they moved into their new building. So far, it's all "Creation", all the time. It was kinda heartbreaking. At least at the church in Mineral Wells, "Creation" is always used at the Sunday 9:30 Mass, but never at the Saturday Vigil Mass. So I know which one to go to. Churches need more music directors like that, who can give you a choice.

It's gotten to the point where I've started going to Spanish-language Masses - so far, no one's made a Spanish version of "Creation" and I dread the day that THAT inevitably happens. At least I know this music will never touch Latin Masses.

I know this seems petty to be fussing over service music. But these days it's like trying to find a disco that doesn't play "Y.M.C.A." This "Mass of Creation" is WAY too popular, and I'm sorry, I don't want to feel like I'm in a haunted house when I'm at Mass.