BAPTISM & THE CALL TO MINISTRY
Whenever we encounter this anew, we become convinced that it is exactly what others need, even though they may not recognize it…this conviction has to be sustained by our own constantly renewed experience of savoring Christ’s friendship and his message.”2
5. In other words, our lives, every aspect of our music ministry, must show Jesus. He is our guide, our teacher, and living him requires that we have a relationship with him. We need to constantly join ourselves to Christ and offer ourselves with him to God. In the Eucharistic Prayer, we join ourselves to the Bread and Wine and offer our entire beings to God. Just as the Holy Spirit is called forth to transform bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, so too the Holy Spirit is called upon us so that we might become one body, one spirit, in Christ.
6. Our ministry is one expression of our discipleship. And in our ministry, we worship God like Christ the Priest, we announce God’s Word to God’s people, we help our assemblies voice their words to God in order to go forth in service like Christ, the Servant-King.
It is through our Baptism that we are joined to Christ, so that we can learn to live him and assist the rest of the Body of Christ in living Jesus each and every day. Baptism enables us to celebrate the Church’s sacraments and to empower our sisters and brothers to do the same. In other words, that Confirmation candidate got it correct when she or he answered, “Baptism” to the question about what the most important sacrament is.
What does the importance of our Baptism mean for ministry
as liturgical musicians? 1. It broadens our vision about who needs to be considered in choosing music and in how we do our ministry. What do I mean?
a. First, we need to have an awareness of every member of our liturgical assembly. Are we a homogeneous community? Are we a diverse community? Is that diversity related to culture,
ethnicity, age, ecclesiology? What music and traditions help our community to enter into worship?
b. Second, we need to discover how to approach the members of our community. Tis means that we take the words of Pope Francis seriously: we smell like the sheep. We spend time with people. We listen to their stories, especially their stories about worship and devotion. We open our ears to hear which music speaks to their hearts. If we are attentive, we can tell when something touches them deeply. Tey participate more fully. When an instrumental or choral piece touches them deeply, there is a kind of reverent silence that comes from the assembly. Tey are practicing an internal active participation. Both external and internal participation are tangible when we have ears to hear and eyes to see.
2. As Sing to the Lord notes, we see ourselves, our instrumentalists, our choirs, our cantors, our . . . (fill in the blank), as members of one assembly. We are not separate from the worshiping community. We have distinct roles to play in the service of our community, but we are never separate from it.
a. Tis means that we model how to participate fully in the Sunday liturgy. Even if it is our third Mass of the weekend (or fourth or fifth), we participate as fully as if it were our first or only Mass. I know that this can be difficult. We get tired. We can go on automatic pilot. We are tempted to walk out when we are hearing a homily for the second or third time. However, for that assembly it is their first and only Mass of the weekend. Tey deserve the same attention that we give at our first Mass.
b. We see ourselves as serving our people, our family, the rest of the Body of Christ. Sometimes that means we need to be leaders who serve, as Fr. Elmer Pfeil of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee used to say. At others it means that we need to be servants who lead. At all times it means that we need to pay attention to all, including ourselves, in order to foster the full, conscious, and active participation to which the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy has called us for sixty years.
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