I have to admit that I as a sat down looking for music to reflect on for this month’s Spiritual Ponderings, I found it very difficult. Many of the songs that I have heard on the radio just did not speak to me and some seemed to be completely contradictory. I am beginning to think that “meaning” is leaving some parts of the music industry behind and all we get is a lot of “flesh and flash” instead. On the other hand it simply could be that I am getting a little older and I don’t understand “youth language” as well as I use to. There just seems to me that some music has become downright pornographic in that it is not meant to lift our thoughts towards heaven or at least high ideals but rather it is glorifying more animal instincts. Someone once made the distinction between the nude artwork on the Sistine Chapel and the nude photos in Playboy. The person makes the point that the human body is not bad and Michelangelo in his work give glory to God by his depiction of the naked body. On the other hand this is not the intent of the editors of Playboy. All they want to do is sell magazines. As we look at this next song let us remember what scientist and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has to say about the purpose of music: “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”


“Roar” By Katy Perry
There is a lot that I really like about this song. I think partially because it reminds me of a time in my life when “I use to bite my tongue and hold my breath; scared to rock the boat and make a mess.” Growing up, I lived in fear of messing up because I did not want my father to blow his stack and often he would blow his stack for no reason. I desperately searched for a reason for my father’s temper and his inability to control it and as a little child I came to understand the cause of my father’s temper was because I did something wrong. I grew up therefore not trusting my emotions and walking on egg shells. Now that I am older and worked out a lot of my childhood issues, I know that there are times that I need to stand up for myself even if it will get someone angry at me. This is part of why the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

An image from Fr Henry Nouwen S.J. book Reaching Out that helps me to understand this dynamic better. In his book Fr. Nouwen talks about managing a hotel. While there has to be certain amount of freedoms for a guest to feel comfortable (i.e. a hotel should not tell you what time to go to bed); there does need to be some rules for guests to feel comfortable (i.e. no nudity in the hallway). By providing good boundaries (rules for the way I wish to be treated by another) I am actually doing others a favor.

Katy Perry’s song reminds us that we all have a certain dignity and that we should not allow others to push us down. We can see many times in Jesus’ life that there were those who desired to push Jesus down and so we can see how we are to respond to those people through watching how Jesus responded to those people in His life. We see the people of Nazareth try to throw Him off a hill and kill Him but He simply slipped through their mists and moved on. He does not seek revenge or shout at them. Nathaniel/Bartholomew labels Jesus as a “redneck” when he asks the question “what good can come from Nazareth” and Jesus responds to him by offering him the gift of friendship. Finally on the Cross Jesus proclaims: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” None of these are violent but also importantly is that none of these are passive either.

Most of the time, I do sit in the back of the room and let people throw out a lot of ideas and argue over different points. Normally toward the end of the time, I will try to step us, summarize what I have heard and then present my suggestion. This is partly because I need time to think about what I want to say but it is partly because I want to hear what others have to say.

Let people know who you are by getting involved in your Church. If you have an idea; offer it. It may be the right or it may be wrong but at least you participated.