I haven’t identified myself as any sort of Protestant since high school. I can’t stand much of the happy-clappy worship that happens in evangelical churches today. But, I can’t help but retain an affection for “Amazing Grace”. Despite its perhaps questionable theological language, the simple message of divine grace coming and saving a wretch like me still has an impact on my heart.
In our house American Idol is watched. Not by my choice. American Idol is an amateur singing competition. Tonight the songs selected were by pop-folk songster Neil Diamond. Who won or lost is unimportant for this post. What is pertinent was the moment when Mr. Diamond himself came out and performed his version of “Amazing Grace”.
It’s amazing how a little rearranging of the words and the addition of new, peppier music can totally change a song. “Amazing Grace” was changed from an expression of Protestant piety into a “pretty amazing” celebration of…I’m not sure what. I guess the song could still be construed to be about repentance. It could also be construed to be about a girl named Grace. But isn’t that to be expected, when popular culture, the World if you will, appropriates something meant to be sacred and makes it something rather secular?
Of course, “Amazing Grace” has already been appropriated by the Zeitgeist so many times that it lost all of its original meaning. So perhaps this was a bad example. But I think that if “Amazing Grace” is dead, what Mr. Diamond did was desecrate the corpse.
By the way, this is not a commentary on any of Mr. Diamond’s other songs, and I apologize if I’ve offended any Neil Diamond fans in my readership.
This morning, after I put on my contact lenses, I sensed a familiar sensation of discomfort indicating that there was something in my eye. Closely inspecting under my lower eyelid, I spotted the eyelash that was the source of a moment of irritation. With little effort the offending hair was expelled, allowing ocular comfort to return.
Now, if such a tiny hair could interrupt my morning ritual, albeit for a few seconds, why don’t my little sins, which are really more dangerous than an eyelash, bother me in the same way? In other words, why isn’t my nous, the eye of my soul, as sensitive as my body’s right eye?
By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.
It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
My Parish Website recently underwent an update worthy of 21st century technology and 11th century Orthodox aesthetics. Here is a group photo of our humble parish. I’m the unworthy one holding the icon of the Holy Cross.
The best moments on earth are those during which we meditate upon heavenly things in general, when we recognize or defend the truth, that heavenly dweller and denizen. Only then do we truly live. Therefore, the essential interests of the soul require that we should oftener rise above the earth, upwards to heaven, where is our true life, our true country, which shall have no end.
–From My Life in Christ, by St. John of Kronstadt, page 277.
Love does not reflect. Love is simple. Love never mistakes. Likewise believe and trust without reflection, for faith and trust are also simple; or better: God, in whom we believe and in whom we trust, is an incomplex Being, as He is also simply love. Amen.
–From My Life in Christ, by St. John of Kronstadt, page 265.
