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Views from the Choir Loft

A Father Who Keeps His Promises

Fr. David Friel · April 9, 2012

Have you ever made a promise? Have you ever broken a promise? Any human being asked those two questions would have to give the same, sorry answer. The simple, sad fact is this: we all make promises, and we all break promises.

Jesus made promises, too. Think of some of them. He said:

• “Ask, and you shall receive” (Luke 11:9).
• “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
• “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
• “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).
• “If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).
• “I will be with you always, even until the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

These promises are actually some of the reasons He was put to death, because He made promises that only God could make.

But there was one promise He made that was almost impossible to believe. He once said to a bunch of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Even the people around Him when He first made the claim objected to it. The Gospel of John records, “The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’” (John 2:20).

Surely, it would be an impossible feat to rebuild in three days what had taken decades to construct. But, as we know now, Jesus wasn’t actually referring to the temple building in Jerusalem. Instead, “the temple He had spoken of was His Body” (John 2:21). And that actually makes His promise even more unbelievable! He had promised that, if they should kill Him, He would rise on the third day.

Preposterous! Impossible! Ridiculous!

No one in the history of the world had ever come back from the dead. And yet, it happened. Jesus kept His promise.

My friends, our world is filled with broken promises. Politicians and lawmakers break promises; friends and neighbors break promises; husbands and wives break promises; priests and sisters break promises; all of us poor sinners, sadly, break promises.

But God never does. Through Christ’s Resurrection, this “world of fragile peace and broken promises” becomes the Kingdom of everlasting peace and enduring promises. The Gospel of the empty tomb—our entire celebration of Easter—teaches us that God is a Father Who always keeps His promises. He actually rose from the dead on the third day. He really brings eternal life to those who follow Him. And He will remain with us until the end of time.

These are the promises the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“These French offices represent a new case of the old tendency towards local modification—which the Council of Trent had meant to repress. They are commonly attributed to Gallican ideas and are supposed to be not free from Jansenist venom. Some of these local French uses survived almost to our own time. They were supplanted by the Roman books in the 19th century, chiefly by the exertions of Dom Prosper Guéranger (d. 1875).”

— Dr. Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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