Let Faith Provide a Supplement for the Failure of the Senses
As a Catholic child attending Catholic grade school, I loved attending Stations of the Cross and Benediction on Fridays during Lent. Singing Tantem Ergo, the rhythm of "We adore thee O Christ and we praise Thee," recitation of the Divine Praises I felt were beautiful and other worldly. I think that is where I encountered Christ as a young person. I loved meditating on Jesus' death and suffering.
Today I attended daily Mass. On First Fridays, the high school students, the grade school students and members of the parish recite the rosary, have Mass and have Divine Mercy Chaplet with Benediction. While there, I was filled with thoughts of Joe Hall, his parents and his dying. In my head, I was praying, begging Jesus to heal Joe. I felt so weighted down by his illness and the skeleton he has become. I think about the agony of his dear parents and feel heavily burdened for them.
I felt Jesus speak to my heart saying, " It is not your burden." This brought tears to my eyes. Of course, it is not my burden- healing Joe is not up to me. Caring for his parents is not up to me. Watching his friends and family suffer as Joe slowly slips away is not for me to decide or determine when, how, where. But I want to. I want to tell God what he should or must do, because he really needs my help. He is a cruel God, requiring suffering and death- if only he listened to me and conducted him self better. He treats his favorites so poorly, as St Theresa says, "No wonder he has so few friends."
There was the gospel reading, " Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons... So when Joseph came up to them,
they stripped him of the long tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry..." Joseph of the Old Testament being sold into slavery- of course the reading had to be about a Joseph.
And the responsorial psalm:
Remember the marvels the Lord has done.When the LORD called down a famine on the landand ruined the crop that sustained them,He sent a man before them,Joseph, sold as a slave.Remember the marvels the Lord has done.They had weighed him down with fetters,and he was bound with chains,Till his prediction came to passand the word of the LORD proved him true.Remember the marvels the Lord has done.The king sent and released him,the ruler of the peoples set him free.He made him lord of his houseand ruler of all his possessions.Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
The tears and sadness and emotion can remain, but the thought of Joe Hall, like Joseph, going before them... the king setting the imprisoned free... this is a beautiful thought. Joe has modeled this to the young people in the Youth Group. And the burden of turning over to God the control of Joe's healing or dying, though extremely difficult is, is the only thing that can be done. Joe has given himself away to the Lord, and the Lord is disposing of his life.
Literal translation of Tantem Ergo
- Hence so great a Sacrament
- Let us venerate with heads bowed [cernui]
- And let the old practice [documentum]
- Give way to the new rite;
- Let faith provide a supplement
- For the failure of the senses.
- To the Begetter and the Begotten [both masculine gender],
- Be praise and jubilation,
- Hail,[6] honour, virtue[7] also,
- And blessing too:
- To the One proceeding from Both
- Let there be equal praise.
