Posted on 08/29/2006 1:08:37 PM PDT by NYer
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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?
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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. |
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.
love that graphic! it looks like the angel is saying "Shush!"
Victor Lams posts about infiltrating the liturgical complex by writing outlandishly heretical hymns that will be snapped up by music publishers and then slowly trying to introduce real music. He has some very funny possible hymn titles of which I have put the words to one of them:
I Am The Resurrection Muffin
For the poor, the sad the downtrodden
Look to me the Resurrection Muffin
No half-baked theology for you or me
I am fully cooked plainly you can see
Chorus:
Repent deeply of all your sins
Look deeply upon the Resurrection Muffin
Your salvation now has truly began
available in Banana Nut or Healthy Oat Bran
Diversity in liturgy is no problem for me
Yummy Chocolate Chip and also Blueberry
I am the true paschal pastry
Eat of me and you will be set free
Chorus:
All the best liturgists fully approve of me
Chocked full of nuts like their liturgies
Pop me right out of that muffin tin
Enjoy the life of the muffin within
Chorus:
And here is another offering sung to Here I am Lord, and if you don't know the music that goes along with it - then count your blessings.
Here I am, Bored
Masses with guitar licks.
Heretical insipid fare.
Let me listen to you.
Fill me with despair.
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
This song is everlasting.
Pop music of I tire.
A total tonal bleakness.
Couldn't you all just retire?
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
Lyrics that are just plain dumb.
Hear my cry for help.
Hear me using these three words,
Gregorian Chant Now!
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
Here I am, bored.
Here I am.
Music that is a disservice, here I am.
Get rid of "Kumbaya" forever!
This is most certainly true.
My wife, who is not Lutheran, can not understand why I don't feel at home unless there is a loud organ and hymns in the "old fashioned" style.
I've tried to explain to her the significance hymns have to the Lutheran liturgy, but it falls on deaf ears (probably from the last organ solo).
I just keep my mouth shut during those "We are Jesus" songs. I know my husband is tired of me elbowing him every time our choir sings a song I don't like. :o)
The angel is saying: the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee
AWFUL SONG
Tune: "Awesome God"
Our song is an awful song,
It's filled with empty fluff--
Of Christ, not near enough--
Our song is an awful song.
SHAME, CHURCHES, SHAME
Tune: "Shine, Jesus, Shine"
Shame, churches, shame,
For this brand of "creative worship."
Lame, music, lame--
That's what you admire.
Spine, churches, spine--
Blending in isn't so "courageous."
Check out your roots,
Church, and sing some real hymns.
I once held the opinion that for a congregation to sing in the divine "I" wasn't kosher, until I stumbled upon hymns in the Byzantine tradition that used that device. Then I began not to care that much about that "defect."
I love "I am the Bread of Life." To sing it is to sing Scripture. Just as a reader doesn't become Christ when s/he proclaims Scripture in the divine "first person," a cantor or a congregation is not at fault when they do the same. If the hymn proclaims Scripture in a sense that agrees with Tradition, I no longer care if it is in "the first person."
The rest of the article is right on the mark.
Don't forget the shaggy-bear Tom Conry, who loves to write Communist anthems for church settings, among others. He and his contemporaries at Oregon Catholic Press are responsible for a lot of the dumbing-down of Catholic praxis.
thanks. I figured with the thread being about bad hymns and all, it was "shush."
Their name is legion, for they are many.
Great link .... just curious, but have any RC hymns infiltrated the Byzantine Church? (Father has a few reserved for certain seasons).
And Marty Haugen is Lutheran -- why do we have to put up with his mass of cremation? The fifty year ban isn't long enough.
LOL
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