Should some (Catholic) hymns be laid to rest?

The Tidings ^ | August 8, 2003 | George Weigel

[NYer]

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.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.

[SoothingDave]

Over time, these abuses do confuse people. The liturgy then no longer is seen or experienced as an offering to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, but rather an event that the "community" produces.

I know. Let's get the ordinary parts of the Mass done properly and then we can worry about the hymns.

SD

[saradippity]

He did more than that,he called a few people that he believed would see the idiocy and arrogance of the pastor. He and his group were able to prevent that pastor from making at least half of his intended innovations and novelties over his succeeding five years. But they could not stop him from ripping out the altar rails.

I think he was able to rally that many people because the affront was public and humiliating from a man who was always talking about the dignity of the human person.

[rogator]

He did well.
Considering how "progressive" your recent bishop has been, I am surprised he got anywhere.
He would'nt have gotten anywhere (IMO) with our bishop (one of the original Bernardin Boys).

[saradippity]

Interestingly enough,our very progressive bishop did permit 24/7 Adoration and three or four parishes had/have it,three, for over 8 years. I believe that that saved some of the parishes from devastation. There is great,incredible power in prayer.

What diocese are you in? Do you have Perpetual Adoration in any of the parishes?

[american colleen]

Just running in and out here as I am going to work. I had a thought as I was preparing supper for the family before I take off...

Shouldn't we go by what we know regarding hymns? When Jesus was asked by the disciples how we should pray, He gave us the "Our Father" - no "us" speaking in the words of God in that prayer! OK, I know Jesus didn't say to sing, either, but that seems like it would be a moot point.

My point is that the "Our Father" is completely penitential - almost begging in nature. Unlike the "smiling Jesus on velvet" that we've come to know and love since the wild and wacky 60s. Admittedly, at the moment I am reading (it's purgatory) a very progressive book "Joshua" by Fr. Girzone which is lauded by the Weakland types - what I am getting out of it is that we are at the same level as a smiling, loving Jesus/God/Holy Spirit. Sorta like all those feel good, speaking in His voice as a community hymns that we have.

[rogator]

"Interestingly enough,our very progressive bishop did permit 24/7 Adoration" - I am amazed!! I used to travel to Phoenix frequently and was appalled by the loosey-goosey liturgies. This was before our present bishop arrived (Portland, OR diocese).
Neither of the three parishes within an approximately hundred mile radius of my home have perpetual adoration.
We do have weekly adoration.

[saradippity]

Recognizing patterns is one of the seven qualities examined in standard intellgence tests,as is the ability to analogize. This is just a passing comment on a review of Free Republic threads,interjected here because I was moved to do it. Kind of like the guy who wrote "Ode On A Grecian Urn",or some such poem.

[maryz]

Admittedly, at the moment I am reading (it's purgatory) a very progressive book "Joshua" by Fr. Girzone which is lauded by the Weakland types

Why?

[Desdemona]

Let's get the ordinary parts of the Mass done properly and then we can worry about the hymns.

How about service music? Not hymns, but still musical and fall under the artistic title. Much of the contemporary stuff is unsingable. The chant, OTOH, is fairly easy and the congregation catches on pretty quickly.

[Desdemona]

I have been in/around several church choirs. At no time does a choir member think that they are God.

What choirs have you been singing in? Not the same ones as me.

That is reserved to the Director of the choir. In three cases during my life, that was, (ahem) I.

Yeah, yeah.

You'd be amazed what one can do with a properly-handled baton.

Do sparks fly out of the end of yours?

[SoothingDave]

How about service music? Not hymns, but still musical and fall under the artistic title. Much of the contemporary stuff is unsingable. The chant, OTOH, is fairly easy and the congregation catches on pretty quickly.

Unfortunately I don't know the names of the settings we usually use. There are three or four common ones and I realy don't find them to be unsingable or lacking in anything. My parish even has the priests singing much of the canon at times.

I'm sure that the die hards will fulminate over the fact that there is music being played to accompany the priest and would find it to be a sacrilege.

But, I'm sorry. I don't find anything wrong with a well-sung Eucharistic prayer, even if the English language is a bit clunky for it.

SD

[Desdemona]

I was thinking more in terms of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei.

It's time to bury the Mass of Creation, IMO.

I have no problem with a sung Canon or even a Credo or the Our Father. In fact, I prefer it sung. Chant sounds best.

[SoothingDave]

I was thinking more in terms of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei.

OK. My parish has for a few years now done those elements in Latin chant during Lent. The Agnus Dei is real simple to learn. The Gloria obviously is omitted. The Sanctus I could follow along with mostly, except some of the beginning seemed to be too fast to keep up with. Kinda like your complaint earlier. By the time you get to "qui vient in nomine domini" there's a nice feel to it.

Like I said, I don't knwo the names of the settings we used, except for the Mass of Glory. Which I actually like, it's got a very joyous, upbeat feel to it. I wouldn't use it in Lent or anything.

I have no problem with a sung Canon or even a Credo or the Our Father. In fact, I prefer it sung. Chant sounds best.

Sure. My point was, though, that there is musical accompianment to the singing in some of the settings we have used. Which is not exactly kosher.

SD

[ninenot]

RE: baton-handling. The carefully sharpened point can draw blood from singers, who are generally deserving.

Also can swat and kill a fly at arm's length, one shot.

[Desdemona]

The carefully sharpened point can draw blood from singers, who are generally deserving.

You must be talking about the altos.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

As with many other controversies in the Church, the debate over sacred music for Mass is not necessarily a question of "the Spirit of Vatican II" being wrong doctrinally, in some cases it is just a matter of taste and common sense.
It would certainly help if a more orthodox crowd got involved with the whole music ministry circus.

Bad New Agey music, if it offends even one Catholic, is something which deserves vigilant pastoral attention. Like minimalist wreckovation architecture - it's just a pointless artistic experiment in questionable taste. The Vatican II enthusiasts talk about lay involvement being important for the Church. Let's poll the laity on what they think about this kind of music. Should provide some interesting insights. I don't recall any priests or bishops asking me for my lay opinion on the subject too recently.

[irishtenor]

Hey, Steve, don't forget that old time favorite "Dropkick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalpost Of Life" :>)

[TotusTuus]

Anton: Actually, I think Lord of the Dance should be tied to a chair and shot. But that's just my opinion.

Des: Well, since it's a shaker hymn...yeah.

Hey, I understand that the shakers build excellent chairs!

[drstevej]

And the classic...

RHYTHM GUITAR
Written by T. A. Hill

Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus
Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band.

[irishtenor]

Not me, I'll sing harmony:>)