Folks, The Catholic Education Resource Center published today an article by the distinguished author George Weigel, titled, Heretical Hymns? where he took aim at much of what passes for Catholic hymnology today. I found the article right on the mark until he spoke against one of my favorite hymns, I am the Bread of Life, which I have sung ever since I learned it in Spanish long ago. This is what Mr. Weigel said:
Next to go should be those "We are Jesus" hymns in which the congregation (for the first time in two millennia of Christian hymnology) pretends that it's Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you/Care for each other, I have cared for you/Bear each other's burdens, bind each other's wounds/and so you will know my return." Who's praying to whom here? And is the Lord's "return" to be confined to our doing of his will? St. John didn't think so. "Be Not Afraid" and "You Are Mine" fit this category, as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life...
I once held the opinion that for a congregation to sing in the divine "I" wasn't kosher, until I stumbled upon hymns in the Byzantine tradition that used that device. Then I began not to care that much about that "defect."
I love "I am the Bread of Life." To sing it is to sing Scripture. Just as a reader doesn't become Christ when s/he proclaims Scripture in the divine "first person," a cantor or a congregation is not at fault when they do the same. If the hymn proclaims Scripture in a sense that agrees with Tradition, I no longer care if it is in "the first person."
And since I've seen--and sung--Byzantine hymns making use of this device, well, perhaps the whole matter should be evaluated from this view point instead than making a blanket appeal to Latin Tradition.
I might be right, I might be wrong, what do you think?
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