Bishops Issue Hymnal Guidance; OCP Hardest Hit
Dear friends,
Last September, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released a report, "Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: An Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics" [link is a PDF]. This guidance document warns of theological tendencies in some modern hymns which make them problematic for worship.
Their first point is that Scripture and the worship of the church are connected, and that the language of worship, including both ritual prayer and music, should be drawn from and closely connected to scriptural language.
There is a necessary direct relationship between the living Word of God and the Church’s worship. Thus, the sacred texts, and the liturgical sources which draw on the living Word, provide something of a “norm” for expression when communicating the mystery of faith in liturgical poetics, or hymnody.
The use of contemporary idioms and ideas in hymns, while it may seem relevant, runs a risk of becoming disconnected from that "living Word" which animates the Church.
Additionally, hymns should clearly reflect the theology of the Church. Here the document outlines several categories where modern hymns sometimes communicate things other than authentic Catholic teaching:
- The doctrine of the Eucharist
- The doctrine of the Trinity
- The nature of God, and his relations with mankind
- The nature of the Church
- The Jewish people, and their involvement with Jesus's death
- Christian anthropology
Read the whole article if you're interested. I'll summarize a couple of the headings I found especially interesting.
1. Eucharistic doctrine
As an Anglican, I hold a slightly different understanding of the Eucharist than that taught by the Roman Catholic Church; namely, I do not believe that bread and wine actually cease to be bread and wine in any sense when in the Eucharist they become the Body and Blood of Christ. However, neither are they merely---or even primarily!---bread and wine, a communal meal, or a "symbol" of something other than what they are, such as love or community. Anglican liturgical usage follows the ancient Catholic tradition of using scriptural terms (Jesus's own words) for what is received in this sacrament: "Take, eat, this is my body," etc.
Surprisingly, a number of Eucharistic hymns popular in U.S. Catholic churches reflect an inadequate or even inaccurate account of what the Catholic Church teaches about this sacrament. The bishops write,
Catholics nurtured on a steady diet of certain hymns will learn from them that at Mass we come together to share bread and wine, which remain bread and wine, a common meal, even if under special circumstances. They will learn that the bread and wine signify in some vague way the presence of Jesus, but they will not be given a basis to understand the Catholic belief that the Eucharistic elements can be worshipped because under their appearance is a wholly unique, substantial presence of Christ. These hymns correspondingly also downplay or eliminate entirely reference to the sacrifice of Christ, his priesthood, and his status as both priest and victim, as well as to the role of the ministerial priesthood in the Church. A steady diet of these hymns would erode Catholic sensibility regarding the fullness of Eucharistic teaching, on the Mass as sacrifice, and eventually on the Church, as formed by that sacrifice. (Page 3)
Examples of such empty carb hymns include "All Are Welcome" by Marty Haugen, which includes the lyrics, "Let us build a house where love is found in water, wine and wheat; A banquet hall on holy ground where peace and justice meet." The faults of this lyric are manifold. In terms of Eucharistic theology, it fails to recognize the divine action in and through the sacramental elements; that (in terms of Roman Catholic theology) the bread and wine become irreversibly transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also focused on the action of the worshipping community, "us," rather than on the action of God which creates that community through the sacraments. It is not we who build the house; rather we are built into the house of God through our participation in Christ (cf. 1 Peter 2:5), which is instantiated by God through the sacraments.
2. The Trinity
The tendency of some modern hymns, seeking to avoid the masculine names of the Father and the Son, is to substitute other terms often reflecting divine actions or functions. The Father is often identified as the "Creator" and the Son as the "Redeemer," for instance. This is misleading because all three Persons of the Trinity are equally present and wholly participant in all God's works (e.g., creation or redemption), albeit, it could be said, in characteristic ways.
3. God's relations with humankind
Another inexplicably popular song addresses "God beyond all names," claiming "All around us we have known you / All creation lives to hold you / In our living and our dying we are bringing you to birth." This song is a target-rich environment for theologians, but the bishops note that, first of all, God has revealed names by which he may be truly worshipped, and that these are sufficient. Additionally, the work of God is not contingent on his creation, or on the actions of human beings. "We are bringing you to birth" makes it sound as if "God" is a product of human action, or desire, or dialectical process, or something, when God stands outside of and distinct from all such things. Ironically, the lyricist, who I assume was trying to express God's transcendence, ended up doing the opposite.
4. Ecclesiology
The bishops are concerned about "hymns with a view of the Church that sees her as an essentially human construction." An appropriate ecclesiology of the church is found, for instance, in the lyric, "The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord / She is his new creation, by water and the word." This reflects the fact of the Church as a divine institution and a living body belonging to Christ. On the con side is the song "All Are Welcome" quoted above, in which the Church is depicted as a house that we build, or another song which urges, "Sing a new Church into being, one in faith and love and praise." In context, this latter is a hymn in praise of diversity, addressed by the worshipping community to itself, not actually to God.
Reflections
It has surprised me to learn how the Catholic Church, of all places, has been overrun by this dreck, given how much more careful its leadership is about theology than their Episcopal Church equivalents. I did a pastoral internship at a Roman Catholic institution where they used the Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) missal and hymnal, which is, in my opinion, fit only for burning. It's bad in every way, including the shameful newsprint-quality paper. Among its other sins, the hymnal is intended to be disposable, reissued every year! OCP is also responsible for the preponderance of the hymns specifically called out by the bishops' guidance. But apparently their use is widespread in American Catholicism.
By contrast, the Episcopal hymnal incorporates the best of 2000 years (literally, more if you count the Psalms) of Christian hymns, with dozens of entries by ancient hymnwriters such as Ambrose and Fortunatus, medieval hymns and sequences, and of course the relatively modern hymnody of the Protestant Reformation and beyond. It's not perfect---there are still some eyebrow-raisers in there (Xed out in my personal copy lest I make the error of selecting one for a church service!)---but on the whole I'm very grateful for it.
Sincerely yours, Peter Schellhase