JANUARY 2020 PM: Tat’s where the garment comes in…
Fr. Brown: Yes. One of my rules of publishing and presenting is that every title should be from one of the spirituals. Te song I chose is “I got shoes/ you got shoes/all God’s children got shoes. / When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes . . . ” Te next verse is “I got a robe/you got a robe/all God’s children got a robe. / When I get to heaven . . . “
Te whole notion of the baptismal garment is politically charged and very complicated when we talk about black religion in United States.
It’s not just taking a name in baptism or confirmation; among these enslaved Catholic people, they were taking theology seriously and saying, “Not only will I be who I am on this plantation; I will also be David or Moses or Joshua. So, when I am putting on this baptismal garment, I am doing something spiritually, that I am not allowed to do physically. Even though you will not let me wear shoes or real clothes because you’re afraid I’m going to run away, I will still put this on in my imagination and in my faith.”
PM: How does this relate to music in the Catholic Church today?
Fr. Brown: Black theology in the U.S. really could be called the birth of liberation theology, but it was not established by or articulated by theologians. It was articulated by the people who were enslaved and free. Tey said, “We have to have a vision of resurrection, redemption, fullness.”
You’ve got black Catholic people singing for their freedom before they were free, singing “Ain’t no grave can hold my body down.”
Today, quite often, some parish will do something special for Black History Month and sing Black (spiritual) music. However, much of the clergy don’t feel that it is very Catholic, so they’ll say,” We’re not going to use it day by day, week by week, month by month.”
PM: What do you want NPM members to take away from your plenum address in Louisville?
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Fr. Brown: Our faith makes us related to one another. In order to be fully Catholic, they will have to do same thing we Black people do—learn the culture that is foundational.
You don’t have to be Black to sing “Precious Lord.” You don’t have to be Black to understand that kumbaya—“come by here”—could be the equivalent of “Lord, have mercy.” Done slowly, meditatively, it’s “Come by here, someone’s crying, Lord, someone’s mourning, Lord, someone needs you . . . ”
It’s the most foundational song in black theology in the United States. Te whole point of the song is, “If you delivered the Hebrew children when they cried out in their oppression, then you have to call us your Hebrew children today and hear us when we call you, God.”
PM: What misperceptions keep us from truly embracing this music collectively?
Fr. Brown: It’s not about showing diversity in the liturgy. Tese songs speak to the human condition and anybody can benefit from them. And on a political level, if you sing this music in your building, and your assembly is totally white, then you might be telling me (a person of color) that you have room for me in your building. And if you sing it in a way that lets you feel more rooted to your own faith experience, and learn from it, you may have room for me in your heart.
PM: If there are pastoral musicians struggling with how to introduce black sacred music into their community’s repertoire, what would you tell them?
Fr. Brown: I would borrow from the St. Louis Jesuits: “Be not afraid.”
Kathy Felong is the editor of Pastoral Music.
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