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Views from the Choir Loft

Royal Stumbling Blocks

Andrew R. Motyka · November 20, 2013

HIS COMING SUNDAY Catholics, along with many other Christians, will celebrate the feast of Christ the King. In the Ordinary Form of the Latin liturgy, this year’s celebration takes a slightly different twist. The Gospel this year isn’t about the King of the Universe coming in glory (like it was in Year A). Instead, we get a different view of the King: the crucifixion.

The image of Christ crucified is crucial to Christians (unintentional alliteration? Check). It is what sets Christianity apart from every major religion: the fact that the all-powerful Creator of the universe became human and died in a slow, gruesome, humiliating way. This seeming contradiction did not escape the earliest believers, including Paul:

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (I Corinthians 1: 18, 22-25)

For believers, however, the crucifixion is not a moment of despair, but of triumph. We proudly profess our “weak” Savior, for we know that His weakness was the means of our salvation.

This year, our choir is singing an odd choice on Christ the King: Vexilla Regis, a hymn typically sung during Holy Week and for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. One verse of this hymn is particularly salient this Sunday, though:

Impléta sunt quæ cóncinit
David fidéli cármine,
Dicéndo natiónibus:
Regnávit a ligno Deus.

Translated:
Now is fulfilled what was
foretold by David in his faithful
hymn, saying to the nations:
God has reigned from a tree.

The weakness of God is our salvation, and as our Introit on Holy Thursday proclaims, we should sglory in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ: in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection; by whom we are saved and delivered.

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 Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

Random Quote

“The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular.”

— Blessed John XXIII (22 February 1962)

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