While we warmed up for Mass last night, a choir member asked me why we weren't doing that pretty song that's perfect for Ash Wednesday. She sang a few notes, "You know - ashes, ashes, la, la."
And my organist said, "Yes - that one is nice."
And I said, "Well - too bad it's theologically dubious!" and went on with the rehearsal.
Funny how that works. "Pretty" means you hear the "la-la" part but don't think about how absurd the phrase "We create ourselves anew" is...
In other news, there's a marriage prep discussion over here. Teresa and I are involved in Pre-cana at our parish. I'll post some thoughts on that in the next few days.
John, the pretty melody is the way the heretics get into the minds and hearts of the faithful and weaken their belief. After all, if they wrote (and we sang), "I don't need Jesus to affirmed in my okayness," they would get the horselaugh.
Instead, they use catchy tunes to put everyone off guard and make them more receptive to the heretical lyrics. That's why we don't sing most of that garbage at my church (at least not at the Masses I program; the folkies are a different story). We do doctrinally sound hymns and songs. While the musical style varies, I don't allow heretical texts.
You should have seen the faces of the visiting protestants (and the lukewarm Catholics) when I sang a devotional song to the BVM last year. It was by Gounod, poet not credited, but it went on about Mary as the Gate to Heaven, how God planned her from the beginning as the New Eve, and so on. I sang it in the original French and printed the translation in the bulletin so no one would be in the dark.
I think you'd have to be insane to think Ashes has a pretty tune, but other than that...
I thought we were going to get away from 'Ashes' this year when I came in, looked up the song numbers on the board and saw it wasn't there. But then they sang it anyway, in addition to the songs on the board.
I blogged a little bit about "Ashes" and my favorite lenten hymn "40 days and 40 Nights". Most of my commenters didn't get what my objection to "Ashes" really is - I have had a hard time articulating it myself other than it set off alarm bells in my brain the first time I hears it - and I refuse to sing the lyrics. It is a catchy tune, no doubt. That is probably why I have it stuck in my brain from last night's service (I went to the parish behind the McDonald's in Merrimack NH - I should have realized I was in trouble when I saw that it had NO KNEELERS!)
"40 days
40 nights
where would I be without my Jesus?"
No, that's not right.
Many of these songs are theologically ambiguous and that is a problem when the people are poorly catechised.
I think Ashes is popular because it is evocative of a certain subjective mood that people bring to lent - a sense that our lives are in a shambles, sorrow over our failures, hope that repentance and the graces that will follow will bring some healing in this life and that ultimately all things will be restored in Christ. These sentiments resonate with me and, I think, most people today.
Personally, I cringe at some of the words and find the melody saccharine. Part of me is drawn into the sentiments and part of me is suspicious and resists.
Problems of this sort are deeply rooted in the Western liturgical tradition and certainly predate V2. High-brow music is not a solution. Part of the answer is Gregorian chant. I think the kind of music in the Episcopal hymnal of 1940 also works well.