Chant, with Substance

In his book "The Spirit of the Liturgy" at page 147 his eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger notes "three developments in recent music epitomize the problems that the Church has to face when she is considering liturgical music." He goes on to diagnose the problems firstly as cultural universalisation, which is necessary if the Church is to be more than a European institution. Secondly modern "classical" music has become the preserve of an elite musical oligarchy that only the "educated" may partake of. This problem is particularly rife amongst traditionalists within the Church who in their quest for artistic perfection have lost sight of the fact that Church music should remain an aid to worship as well as being an act of worship in and of itself. These people will not condescend to have congregations join in their music making for fear that somehow their art might be destroyed. Thirdly, popular music (that is "pop music" in a broad sense) in the antithetical problem. This music is mass produced and in large part is designed to give vent to bestial passion, allowing listeners to surrender their will to the rhythm, noise, flashing lights and mentality of the mob gathered at night clubs and rock concerts across the world in a hypnotic or hallucinogenic state. Essentially, popular music often discourages listeners from exercising their reason - their most noble God-given attribute.

Noble music should have universal appeal, in this sense it is truly "popular music". It should not be the preserve of either a European and/or musically educated few. Having said this, its popular appeal is not established because it celebrates the banal, nor because it allows individuals (or even a collection of individuals joining an artificially created "parish community") to celebrate themselves but rather noble music is popular music because it celebrates something great that is common to us all - it celebrates God in whom we all live, move and have our being.

As a final brief note to my diatribe I believe that the Church faces a fourth problem when considering liturgical music at this time. Music, like many liturgical actions, is promoted as a means of "active participation in the liturgy" to the exclusion of substantial participation in the liturgy. His Holiness, Pope Pius XII wrote in his encyclical Mediator Dei at 104: "They [the faithful] should not think it enough to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice with that general intention that befits members of Christ and children of the Church, but let them further, in keeping with the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy, be most closely united with the High Priest and His earthly minister, at the time the consecration of the divine Victim is enacted, and at that time especially when those solemn words are pronounced, ' By Him, and with Him and in Him, is to Thee God, the Father almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory for ever and ever;' to these words in fact the people answer 'Amen.' Nor should Christians forget to offer themselves, their cares, their sorrows, their distress and their necessities in union with their divine Saviour upon the cross." The Pope goes on to write at 106 that physical participation such as singing or responding to the Priest are actions that "...foster and promote the people's piety and imitate union with Christ and His visible minister and to arouse those internal sentiments and dispositions which should make our hearts like to that of the High Priest of the New Testament." It is a participation from within that makes for substantial participation. Spiritual participation, the kind envisaged by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, wherein the faithful come to Mass in order to pray this is true participation with Christ in His meditation between God and man that is the Mass. Reading from the Lectionary, acting as an Extraordinary Minister of Communion, serving at the altar, even singing or playing instruments these things are empty gestures if they are done to the exclusion of prayer. Prayer is the ultimate form of participation in the liturgy and those that recollect themselves to like Mary vis-a-vis her sister Martha; they choose the better part. All the more reason then to fill our Churches with noble music - the kind that is conducive to prayer, recollection and the praise of God.

Well our musical banshee's cry continues to ring across the insipid lyrics of music that most resembles the self assessment or personal testimony of a psychiatric patient; the ravings of a "me" generation that just can't get over itself or the collection of multiple "mes" that make "parish community." Though your ears may now bleed, know this, nobility is possible even in the most humble parish church. Of course if you do loose hope remember that even our Lord drove those who defiled the sanctuary from the temple - and given the state of your ears, you won't hear the cries of protest.