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I love the
First Reading. I suppose this is obvious from the fact that I wrote
the hymn, “Come to the Water,” which is based
on it.*
That was a long time ago (c 1971), but I remember it
clearly. The St. Louis Jesuits were only just forming and
we took a summer to write together out in Berkeley, CA. We
always composed music individually and then presented it
to one another for critique. For my part I wrote two
hymns, and when it was time I played them for the others.
I remember the exact spot where I stood.
You probably think one of them was Come to the Water, but
it wasn’t. I don’t even remember the names of
those two pieces. The unanimous reaction of my brothers in
Christ was, “Yuck!” “These just
don’t work!” “What were you
thinking?” These tender comments encouraged
me to file the errant pieces in the round file and try
again.
But I had learned something. I could not just “dash
off” music. I had to believe in it and believe in
what it was saying.
So I searched the scriptures and prayed. The result? A
setting of the following First Reading for this Sunday.
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
We composers and authors do not actually know what happens
when inspiration hits. I only know that I began writing
immediately, and that something inside was guiding me.
“Come to the Water” was born. I continue to
believe in it and stand behind what it says. Both the song
and the scripture passage express a solution to the needs
and aches in our bodies and souls.
 The love we received when we were children was true, in
spite of whatever wounds and reversals any of us received
then or afterwards. The inside chambers of our self are
truly and thoroughly loved by the giving God.
Jesus shows this to us in the
Gospel. He was himself aching. He had been told about the death
of his dear teacher and friend, John the Baptist. He
wanted to get away from people, to let himself feel the
loss.
But look what happened. Crowds tracked his boat and
figured out where he was headed. They ran around the lake
and waited as he pulled up to shore. Gone was his chance
to mourn, at least for the moment. Maybe he should have
told them to go away and come back later.
But scripture says, “his heart was moved with pity
for them, and he cured their sick.” Even more, he
gave them food, a tiny bit of food that multiplied so that
there was enough. If you look at it, he was doing exactly
what the First Reading and “Come to the Water”
are talking about.
His pity for them resulted in his giving them the rich
fare from the First Reading. Never mind that he was hungry
and surely thirsty. His mind was on letting the people,
who had no money, come and receive grain and eat.
He is our model and our teacher.
____________________
Press
here to listen to a sample of “Come to the Water.”
John Foley S. J.
Write me an
email! I'd like to have a discussion with you about
this.
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