Today’s Communion Antiphon says,
Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear.
Behold, our God will come, and he will save us.
At personal, local, national and international levels, there’s a lot to fear, isn’t there? The virus, economic shakiness, rumbles of war, natural disasters—we can’t open the paper or hear the evening news without alarm. The Church itself is still in turmoil, reeling from ongoing revelations about clergy sexual abuse and financial misdealings.
But the reading from Isaiah challenges us: “The spirit of the Lord … has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.”
How is the Lord sending us, the members of the music ministry, to bring glad tidings to the poor? How are we supposed to heal the brokenhearted? Liberty for captives and release for prisoners—how does that speak to us?
When we sing at funerals, our music can touch the brokenhearted in ways inaccessible to mere words. When we sing and internalize, songs of God’s justice and mercy, we minister to the poor—and, hopefully, challenge our communities and ourselves to serve the poor in practical ways.
In time, when our community takes part in giving shelter to the homeless, when we provide rooms for 12-step meetings, where those enslaved by addictive behaviors can find healing and hope—that’s where we start, not where we end.
As Mary replied to the angel,
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53)
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from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
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