Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hey!!!! MY CHURCH IS BACK !!!

Some six months ago, I went on a blogrant about my home parish, and the degradation of the music there.

Well, things have improved markedly over the past few months. The choir has been getting better and better. Yes, there is still too many '70's style hymn selections, but the execution is getting better nearly every week. And the addition of a song, always very traditional, an often in LATIN, sung by the choir as the congregation takes communion and for a few moments after, has lent a tremendous amount of reverence to the mass. The transformation is quite remarkable, really.

But today, for Christ the King, they just outdid themselves. The selections were (save for one) VERY catholic and very traditional. And they were sung - not just by the choir, but the congregation - with amazing strength and gusto.

The sung like they meant it!

Thanks be to God!

Christ the King - Christ MY King

Today, being the feast of Christ the King, has gotten me thinking... thinking about the FACT of Christ the King, and thinking how that fact manifests itself in my life - or rather how I make that fact manifest in mine.

Because the FACT of that Kingship is out there. Whether we think about it or not, it's still there. And most importantly it is a FACT right NOW - in "real time" as we say. At times, we tend to think of Jesus returning as He promised, to reign as King of this world for all eternity. But in fact, he is King RIGHT NOW.

This morning, when I arrove in Church, I knelt in prayer, and began to contemplate that Kingship. And I began to relate it to the situation of a King or Lord in the medieval Europe - and now he would relate to his subjects, and they to him. And at that moment, it occurred to me that if I were to think of Jesus in that way - as not just A king, but MY king, how much better my life here and now would be.

Now all this may sound like a very "Baptist" thing to say. Baptists in particular make much of the idea of being saved and dedicating your life to Jesus. But I am not meaning it in that way - I didn't get "saved" before mass this morning. And the validity of that whole concept is not the issue here. I mean it solely in the sense of understanding the relationship....

Jesus is MY King!!!

And I am HIS subject.

And I am astonished at the strength and clarity that single, amazing FACT brings to my soul.