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"Dethroning the Ego before the Altar"

Arlene Oost-Zinner and Jeffrey Tucker of the St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum call for church musicians to begin the examination of conscience regarding church music requested by Pope John Paul II.

A passage that jumped out was:

In order fully to promote an understanding of the mystery playing out before the community, it is essential that all earthly elements of the Mass achieve a harmony among themselves, so that the rich beauty of the liturgy may become a window to the eternity that is truly present. Anything less only leads to confusion, and an eventual decline in the sense of the sacred. It implies a failure to defer to the unity of the rite.

And what if the music director resists the change toward humility? If the pastor cannot persuade him with theological arguments, he should relate the practical and pastoral benefits of solemnity. There is a community within every parish that desires reform, and their needs should not be forever forced to yield to others. The pastor should not let a lack of resources or personnel prevent this reform from becoming a reality.

What happens in a situation where the pastor is the one resisting the change toward humility, whether on a pastoral, practical or theological level? Is it as “simple” as having the music director relate benefits to the pastor?

The reason I ask is that I can think of at least two instances off the top of my head where this has been the case.

Posted 12.26.2003
by Aristotle Esguerra
2 comments.
Filed under: Relevant Reading.

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2 Comments

Well, the other side of the coin is when the pastor is rightly putting brakes on an implementation of reform of this kind that is not really based on humility at all, but really represents a great deal of egoism solipsism and/or narcissism on the part of the musician(s) leading the charge. I have seen this first hand twice, and it is not pretty. I am not unsympathetic to the idea — quite the contrary — but have learned that a fine ideology married to spiritually and/or socially immature musician can be a disaster that sows the wind and reaps a whirlwind. I have witnessed music directors blaming pastors for blocking (or not supporting) their vision, not realizing that the pastor actually had the benefit of a clearer and more detached wisdom about the true nature of what was going on.

Musicians have great passion about their desiderata. This is mostly but not invariably to the good; sometimes it also makes for a certain kind of ministerial blindness, the remedy for which pastors must sometimes play the heavy.

This is true regardless of the musical preferences of the musicians and pastors in question, of course, because it is a function of human nature, not a particular ideology.

So permit me to be a little wary of ideological programmes that promise a rather utopian vision to remake the reality on the ground; a vision that ignores human realities is a vision that is likely to fail.


Liam
12.26.2003 @ 1:12 pm #

In the end, the fact remains that both pastors and musicians need to make a periodic examination of conscience. Details may vary from parish to parish, and, certainly, none of us can escape the foibles of human nature. Missteps and inflamed egos are to be expected from time to time. Without a dose of idealism to inform realisim, however, there is little hope.


Arlene
12.26.2003 @ 1:33 pm #

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