Music for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

In today’s gospel, Jesus calls on his disciples to “take up their cross” and follow him. The responsibility of Christian vocation denoted in this passage self-emphasizes as a consequential and difficult burden to bear; yet the first reading frames the call of God as a blessing and providence. Indeed, the symbolism of the cross associated with suffering and condemnation during the life of Jesus has come to impart a message of hope and comfort in Christiantiy. As today’s readings foreshadow the upcoming Feast of the Holy Cross, today’s music reflects this duality: the fact that we must all “carry our cross,” and that in doing so, an immense weight is also lifted from our shoulders.

All of us carry something difficult with us through part of or all of our lives, a quality that differentiates our human experience and binds us together. Such is the outcry in the first line of the chorale on which today’s opening voluntary is based: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, for I know my misdeeds and repent,” a paraphrase of Psalm 51. The text of this psalm is penitent, seeking forgiveness for the fault that is inherent to all humanity. This brings to mind one of the elements I most appreciate in studying historical repertories: that the context, assigned meaning, and interpretation of art may transform over time, but (at least to my judgement) the human emotions behind it do not. This chorale depicts the weight of the “misdeeds” with heart-wrenching chromatic turns and a highly affected galant gesture often associated with weeping. Its anonymous author employs the theories of rhetoric and ornamentation associated with late-18^th century Germany to great effect; this is one of my favourite unknown settings which I found in unpublished archives during my masters’ studies.

Perhaps the answer to the suffering-salvation dichotomy lies in the second reading, which is often read at celebrations of matrimony. The text defines the experience of love as everlasting, instructing that one “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” Charles Piroyé’s Symphonie bears no title but “l’Immortelle,” yet I have always imagined this to refer to human love – fiery, unbridled, at times irrational, and everlasting.

–Abraham Ross

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.