Singing to the Lord

Do you remember a time when you were hesitant to jump into a swimming pool or wade into the waves at the ocean?  A friend or family member, already in the water, perhaps called out to you, “Come on in; the water’s fine.”

Sometimes we approach the Mass a bit like that body of water.  We know that jumping in is the only way to really enjoy it, but we’re still hesitant to make the leap.  Perhaps we are shy by nature and inclined to play the wallflower.  Perhaps we don’t really like to sing or don’t think we have a very good singing voice.  Perhaps we participate well most Sundays but just got up in a bad mood this morning.

There can be a lot of different reasons we hesitate to jump in, but the only way to fully benefit from the liturgy is to enter into it with our whole selves.  We are invited by Christ to share in his worship with every part of ourselves – mind and heart, body and soul, eyes and ears and voices.  We need to worship the Lord with both our interior disposition and our external expression.

When the Mass begins, we are called to offer our praise to God by joining in the opening song.  This song often expresses the theme of the feast or the season we are celebrating, helping us to enter into the mood of the celebration.  Sometimes it may be more general, speaking simply of beginning our worship.  In either case, it calls us to move beyond the limits of our own little world and become part of something much larger.

It is important to realize that our liturgy is the common action of all of us who have gathered.  Mass is not a time for private prayer, but a time for communal prayer.  The entrance song reminds us of this fact, because the song itself draws us into a communal act of praise.  Each of us contributes his or her own voice to one musical sound. 

This is the most important function of music in the Mass.  It unites us in a common act of worship.  It is a unifying element that recurs again and again throughout each Mass, continually calling us to worship as one Body in Christ.

Music also adds a sense of solemnity to our celebration, lifting it out of the ordinary and expressing our joy and our thanksgiving.  Music can lift our minds and our spirits as we lift up our voices to the Lord.

All of this works, or course, only if we join in the singing.  It takes all our voices together to give God the praise that God is due.  It takes the cooperation of each person in the assembly if our music is to be as prayerful as it can be.  If you think your voice isn’t that great for singing, so what?  As Deacon Mark is fond of saying, “If you think God gave you a bad voice, you owe it to God to give it back!”  Don’t let any fear or hesitation keep you from joining in.  Come on in; the water’s fine.