ILLUMINATIONS by Anthony Esolen
A Musical Work of Mercy
I'm fond of noting the final corporal work of mercy, to bury the dead. It shows the high regard Christians have for the body, which isn't a husk to be shucked away, but the flesh that our Savior took on and sanctified, and which will be raised again.
Contemporary praise'n'worship songwriters don't often think of funerals and burials. In Catholic churches, the most popular hymn for funerals is the effeminate "On Eagle's Wings,"which transforms the soldierly strength of those who trust in the Lord into the insubstantiality of a puffball borne upon the "breath of dawn," whatever that's supposed to mean. That at least is an attempt at sacred music. But some people request the secular to commemorate their loved one's passing to judgment before God: "Danny Boy,"for instance, or Frank Sinatra's obnoxious "My Way."
A good rule to follow: If Satan could sing it, it doesn't belong in church.
Tenderness & Trust
But Christian poets have never been cowed by the prospect
of death. Let's look at one hymn for the departed, one that combines tenderness with a confident trust in the mercy of the Father. It's John Ellerton's "Now the Laborer's Task is O'er" (1870), set to the extraordinarily peaceful melody Requiescat:
Now the laborer's task is o'er;
Now the battle day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.
Father, in thy gracious keeping
Leave we now thy servant sleeping.
The last two lines are the refrain for each of the stanzas, with the word "sleeping," sung at the tonic note, middle C, taking up a full six beats—music and meaning thus in harmony. The now of the sorrowful moment in the church or at the graveyard is also the now of an event we cannot see: the arrival of the voyager, the wayfaring Christian, upon the farther shore.
Here we weep, but not there:
There the tears of earth are dried;
There its hidden things are clear;
There the work of life is tried
By a juster judge than here.Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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