September 16, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening: Amazing Grace (GC 586)
Psalm: 51—PRM C94, “I will rise and go to my father”
Presentation: Our Father, we have wandered (GC 849)
Communion: Draw Near (GC 829)
Closing: This is a day of new beginnings (GC 453)

Does anyone not love the parable of the Prodigal Son? Is there any story that hits closer to home, gives everyone something to identify with, and illustrates the sheer abundant generosity of God?

I remember this now, too--this is that Sunday near the end of Cycle C when the heavy weight of judgment, doom, and gloom in the readings lifts for a minute to remind us that as much as we screw up or ignore or forget the things we know deep in our being (the things "written on our hearts," as Jeremiah said), God's ridiculously generous and abundant love will always open arms to bring us back.

My absolute favorite author in the whole world is (and has been since I was about 9 years old and discovered "A Wrinkle in Time") Madeleine L'Engle; she has written at great length about this great and loving generosity of God, infinite forgiveness, infinite love, and through her writings I have come to understand it far more than I ever could have on my own. And then early this week I discovered that she died last week, on September 6, at age 88. I met her only once, at a talk she gave while I was in college, and yet I feel as though one of my best friends, wisest teachers, a sister, a mother, a shining light has left the world. I cried a lot this week.

But...I have a new name to add to my personal litany of saints (along with St. Johann Sebastian, St. Johannes Brahms, St. Thomas Stearns Eliot, St. Joseph Bernadin, and the like...:-)--St. Madeleine L'Engle can now be added.

The music for this week (right, that was the original purpose of this post, wasn't it?) all but picked itself: Amazing Grace is a hymn everyone knows and loves to sing, and its "I once was lost but now am found" line directly quotes the gospel. The presentation hymn, "Our Father, we have wandered," likewise directly references the Prodigal Son story, but it is set to the familiar "Passion Chorale" tune (usually "O Sacred Head.") The unconscious subtext I've always gotten from this--well, not so unconcious now that I'm naming it--is that every time we do wander away and sqander the incredible gifts given us by our loving God we crucify him again, and again, daily, moment by moment. And he bears it, aches, and yet rises up with even more love than before.

"Draw Near," as a communion song, is sort of intended to pull us into this sacrifice, this sharing of body and blood for our sake--to face the Passion and not pull back, to draw near to this prodigal father who knows all we've done and loves us still.

(Digression: from the movie Dogma--Alanis Morrisette recorded the song that's over the closing credits, and it's called "Still." It names in frightening detail the atrocities of the human race, and each verse ends with "And I love you still...I love you still..." It's heart-wrenching and in my opinion a must-hear.)

(The song, that is. Please only rent the movie if you're pretty difficult to offend and have a very relaxed sense of humor about Catholicism...and don't mind pretty horrible language and lots of violence. I happen to find it pretty funny in terms of some of the plot points and really witty dialogue--put it this way, the movie starts with two angels who once angered God by disobeying a command and were thus exiled, not to Hell, but to Wisconsin for all eternity...and George Carlin plays the Archbishop...but Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are easy on the eyes:-) (Oh, and by the way, its R rating is honestly earned, the language is pretty appalling--I wouldn't in a gajillion years let anyone under probably college age watch it.)

ANYWAY...and the closing song, "This is a day of new beginnings, " is there for twofold reasons: one, we haven't done it in a while and it was new last Easter, and we ought to get it back into people's voices; besides, there's no reason we can't sing about Easter at other times of year--Sunday is a "little Easter" every week, after all. Also, it too fits the flow of the readings and music: God is ever offering us the opportunity to start fresh: "Our God is making all things new! Our God is making all things new!" (I love the way the song says it twice...just to make a point.:-)

This is what we call getting in under the wire...Andrew is probably over there as I type this waiting to rehearse for the Saturday 5pm liturgy, so I'd best get going.

St. Madeleine of Crosswicks, pray for us!
peace,
Jennifer