Good Friday, Bad Earth Day
When I turned on my computer this morning, I got reminders from both Yahoo and Google that today was...Earth Day.
I didn't actually expect the lords of Silicon Valley to acknowledge the real significance of today. Still, it is striking that the secular world contrives to ignore a day that inspired music such as Allegri's Miserere, long a jealously guarded treasure of the papal choir, and Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, considered by many the greatest piece of music ever written. I have nothing against Earth Day, or Arbor Day, or even National Retail Bankers Month, but to treat Earth Day as more important than Good Friday is absurd, akin to treating Kwanzaa (another holiday invented around the same time as Earth Day) as more important than Christmas.
Anyway, for your listening pleasure, here are videos of the Miserere and the opening chorus of the St. Matthew Passion:
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I posted this piece written by Tom Piatak
I was reminded of Earth Day in the office lobby this morning (no mention of Good Friday). And yes I'm here at work -- today is merely a "Floating Holiday." Almost no one else is here, though. They must all be celebrating Earth Day.
An excellent piece. NPR is full of "Earth Day" news & commentary but very little about Good Friday. No doubt most of NPR's audience thinks "Good Friday" is a chain restaurant.
rcoean: That is yet another reason why NPR should be defunded. The Republicans could not even get that done, not counting defunding Unplanned Parenthood.
Thank you for drawing attention to these two treasures of Christendom on this Good Friday. The opening the St. Matthew Passion is one of the most sublime moments in all of art; while I have never particularly cared for Leonard Bernstein as a conductor or composer, I find his description apt:
"Suddenly the chorus breaks into two antiphonal choruses. 'See him!' cries the first one. 'Whom?' asks the second. And the first answers: 'The Bridegroom see. See Him!' 'How?' 'So like a Lamb.' And then over and against all this questioning and answering and throbbing, the voices of a boy's choir sing out the chorale tune, 'O Lamb of God Most Holy,' piercing through the worldly pain with the icy-clear truth of redemption. The contrapuntal combination of the three different choruses is thrilling. There is nothing like it in all music."
In truth, most of Bach's music seems to express in some way or another the mystery of the Cross, not simply in terms of setting words to melodies, but also through an astonishing use of musical symbolism. For example, the Well Tempered Clavier contains a number of fugues that seem to combine cross-like musical motifs with Bach's own 'musical signature' (in 18th century German musical notation, B-A-C-H corresponds to our B flat-A-C-B), as though he wished to take up the cross himself, following the command of Our Lord. Needless to say, these are especially dolorous pieces (listen to the c# minor and B minor fugues from Book 1).
#4
"The Republicans could not even get that done, not counting defunding Unplanned Parenthood."
Mr. Marino,
In all likelihood, the prospect of defunding such projects is simply a red cape to wave in front of their electorate. It is not a real priority for any major Washington faction.
Many thanks to both Toms for posting this. The music is stunningly beautiful, even on my lousy computer speakers.
Happy Easter!
Steve
Great silence reigns on Earth today for the King is asleep!
I also recommend Palestrina's « Stabat Mater » for Good Friday and Holy Saturday and César Franck's « Sept Paroles du Christ en Croix » (Seven Words of Christ on the Cross) and for Sunday his Offertoire « Dextera Domini », this latter which he composed specifically for Easter Sunday. (The best recording of this last is on Volume 1 of the Œuvre intégrale de Franck by Diego Innocenzi and the Solistes de Lyon - I saw them perform the Offertory for the Assumption in concert not long ago and they were MAGNIFICENT.)
Astute reflection and a beautiful post! Thank you very much for this uplifting reminder of the sacred nature of this day!
Dr. Fleming and Mr. Piatak,
Thanks for posting both the words and the wonderful music.
Our Lord put this whole "Earth" thing as well as the pagan pantheons in perspective in Isaiah 66:1 in which He says that the heaven (Uranus) is my throne and the Earth (Gaia) is my footstool, mere artifacts in His story. It would appear that moderns are attempting to become neo-pagans by discovering their "roots" through the medium of "science."
Meanwhile, those of us graced to see continue to, in humility and in awe, submit to the mystery of Easter and the Ultimate Reality and Truth which it represents.
It is also Vladimir Ilyich Iulyanov's birthday. Yes, Lenin. And it was by design.
Exquisite music. Grazie. I would only add that beautiful sorrow song, "Where you there when they crucified my Lord?"
The fun thing is that it is incredibly difficult to get recently invented holidays going and to get people involved in them, because they are simply not backed by hundreds of years of tradition.
Earth Day just passes most of us by.
The most that ever comes out of it is clips like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzYvfNOqCDE
Neither Yahoo nor Google provided a reminder this morning that today is Easter. Apparently, Earth Day is more important than Easter, too.
Xristos Anesti! Christ is Risen!
Use "Start Page" as a search engine, it doesn't record your isp, like NSA connected Google.
In one particular cartoon, a CIA agent holds a gun to a store clerk's face, after he repeatedly fails to say, "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays".
I think it does a good job of showing some of the lack of proportion shown on **rare occasions** in Chronicles. Complaining about FIFA shown in sports bars, complaining about school children's calendars, complaining about Yahoo and Google, and so on.
With all due respect to the good people here, if these are the worst things that can happen to us, then we must be living in a happy world.
"With all due respect to the good people here, if these are the worst things that can happen to us, then we must be living in a happy world."
Mr. Sanjay, I know what you mean but there is a different (and I think more accurate) interpretation of such lamentations. It is not that the silly activities of Google amount to the worst that can happen. After one has done all one can do to describe and denounce the vast decay of Western civilization (and this has been the primary occupation of Chronicles for its whole existence), one is often compelled to switch gears and concentrate on the symptoms. Since so few are willing to listen when one gets down to the heart of the matter, it's sometimes necessary to dwell on the fallout rather than the underlying causes. Yes, the irreverence of the pagans at Google and NPR is only the tip of the iceberg, but maybe a few more can be awoken to the iceberg if they are first shown the tip.
Well, Greg, it's one thing to complain that Christianity is falling out in the Occident, and it's another thing to complain that people aren't keeping up to culturally Christian traditions.
That's just high standards.
I am trying to find a good analogy here, but I guess it's like saying a Roman is not being a good Roman by not participating in popular Roman festivals. Of course, he could be a bad Roman, but for entirely different and much stronger reasons? His lack of participation could hardly be his weakest point for which he could be criticized.
Or may be it is culturally American to watch Super Bowl. And if you are not one of the 200 million Americans watching Super Bowl, would you be considered a bad American for that reason?
Prateek,
Your cartoon example is reversed in reality. Happy Holidays has become the norm and government enforced, while Merry Christmas is the exception and more familiar. Your comment with all due respect to good people seems condescending and unnecessary. Surely there are purely political and libertarian sites throughout the world, why not have at least one that is a little something more?
I'm always puzzled by people who barge on a thread to tell everyone they should be writing about "something more important". You'd think if the subject was so trivial they wouldn't comment.
Agreed Robert, those little gestures are a part of the much larger problem. Saturday night there was a Lady Gaga concert and a group of churchgoing girls from my neighborhood decided it would be a good idea to go. When I asked them of they didn't think that she scheduled a concert on Holy Saturday to run it in the face of Christians, they all thought I was crazy for thinking she could do something so evil
This of course, illustrates how different the intertubes are from real life. Imagine a real life co-worker, barging into a lunchroom discussion and lecturing everybody that they'e wasting their time talking about such a trivial topic & that there are more important things to worry about.
He'd be written off as one of Dr.Fleming's "Jerks".
#20
"Or may be it is culturally American to watch Super Bowl. And if you are not one of the 200 million Americans watching Super Bowl, would you be considered a bad American for that reason?"
Mass spectator sports condition the populace to view all conflict in terms of two teams and to mindlessly identify with whoever they have been told is their "home team" (however little actual connection they have with that team). In real conflicts, there are usually at least three factions involved and no one is waiting for someone's else's turn to finish before moving. Profit-motive aside, perhaps mass spectator sports are so assiduously promoted precisely to keep the populace thinking on such a primitive level.
What are the complaints? Christianity fell out of nothing. It
was given to those who believe. There were cultures before Christ
came as well as traditions. It shook many and does to this day.
Those who laud Earth Day also had movie films to follow - The
Conspirator and Atlas Shrugged, the secularists' mindset.
Those who listen, listen and those who don't, don't.
The opportunity to comment is given by Mr. Fleming, thank you.
Google salutes Audubon on April 26. Nothing on St. Mark's head in Alexandria, Egypt on April 25.
#25 for heaven's sake jonathan, not everything is the results of programming, and people identify with a "team" for any number of reasons- some priggish, some condesending, some primitive- but non mindless.
I can accept the criticism of my character here, although I was not exactly telling everybody else here what they should or should not discuss. Certainly, I did not intend it that way.
In fact, I find the discussion interesting. It was more of a "Okay, you have this point. But does it really come to this conclusion?"
Much the same way, how would we come from "reminders from both Yahoo and Google that today was Earth Day" to "the secular world contrives to ignore a day"? How do we know if the secular world knew of the holiday in the first place, let alone conspires against the rest?
I wasn't convinced, and that's why I first said that it was an out-of-proportion statement. It wasn't aggressive apathy so much as dedicated probing.
I must differ with the person who had nothing against Earth Day. It is an absurd celebration since no one observing it intends to give up his vehicle or turn off the power in his house or at work. We use energy, lots of it. We intend to go right on doing so regardless of Earth Day. So it is a fraud. We should stand against all fraud.
Since when is "live and let live" a bad policy. If people wish to be absurd, let them. It is nobody' business but theirs. And, poor dears, they have no other religion. I fear that if one once begins to "stand against all fraud," there will be little time for anything else. Never make the mistake of wasting a lot of time on what you don't like, because there will be no time left over for what you do. Mankind in general is made up of fools, and perhaps the greatest act of folly is to worry to much about your fellow-fools.
Earth Day is always followed by Secretary's day. I just looked on my schedule and saw today is Secretary’s day…..just thought I’d let the dear readers know. It is one of the few secular holy days that I try and observe out of Christian contrition or gratitude for having put up with me for another 364 days.
A Political Correction: 'Administrative Assistant's Day'! ('Secretary' carries offensive connotations of subservience, suggesting that the role has been historically dominated by females. The neologism promotes understanding and blurs those nasty distinctions that keep obstructing progress.)
Greg,
Thank you for the correction. It is probably in fact more acccurate to include Administrators and their assistants. Or to paraphrase Achilles after slaying Ajax, "Is there anyone else?"
Thank you for the youtube links, Mr. Piatak.
I once won a $500 scholarship for an Earth Day essay. I bet there aren't many Good Friday essay scholarships.
Dr. Fleming,
I am not a busybody. I did not mean to suggest that we should march around the nation attempting to eradicate folly. I do realize it would be futile. Live and let live has been carried too far. If I don't say what I did about Earth Day, I have no right to expect those yet to make up their minds (the young, for instance) to be able to make an informed decision. We have sex in the schools and in the White House, and violence everywhere, not to mention all the other perversions to which man is tempted because we default to live and let live. I cannot agree that it is always an acceptable position.
"Mankind in general is made up of fools, and perhaps the greatest act of folly is to worry to much about your fellow-fools."
Dr Fleming sir, it's long been my conviction that the greatest of all burdens is to be wise when, as you know well, the world is and must always be comprised of fools. The average man, of our own kind no less, is astonishingly brutish, stupid and corrupt.
Friend Jeff's just complaint of fools (which of us isn't a fool?)deluded and ruined by their own vagarious and obscure faculty of Reason (freedom of private judgment) must be understood in light of almost five hundred years of the wicked and unchristian relaxation of the paternal authority of the Church, the Crown, local elders and priests, and of the Paterfamilias. Doctrine teaches that the ecclesiastical hierarchy is founded in imitation of the celestial hierarchy, and that since Christianity is the totality of a sacred system of dispositions and rites, neither incoherent nor imperfect as are human philosophies (e.g. Islam, Judaism, Liberalism), natural offices as those of husband, father, alderman or clan chief are exalted into being types of the Divine majesty. Disobeying one's superiors - superior by sex, age, rank, intimacy and proximity of their relation to you, etc - is a sin. However, at the same time we owe superiors reverence and submission, they owe us protection and guidance.
As for universal corrupter Google's Earth Day, when we contemplate the cult worship paid to the philosophies of Felix Adler, Boas, von Mises, "Ayn Rand", Friedman, Rothbard, professors named Caplan or Kaplan, etc we ask ourselves when have Americans not followed the Pied Piper off the cliff.
P.S. I'm conscious that it may be impertinent, and frankly I don't watch television or go to the picture theatre as those media as much as computers and the internet are profane brutalising influences, but I would relish reading a review of "Any Rand's" film Atlas Shrugged from a Chronicles gentleman.
Openly contemptuous of the nasal-gazing and thumb-sucking of Libertarianism (a.k.a. Liberalism Version 1: we're now up to Versions 3 or 4 of Liberalism) I fancy a review would set right many victims of this sect who subscribe to its atheistic opinions of non-discrimination, non-coercion, promiscuous and faithless voluntary contracts in place of consecrated natural ties, and of market forces determining the value of the human life's goods.
See"Christ is Risen in Arabic at a mall in Beirut" on youtube, I would recommend to all. In a good and bad way, they seem like Americans, except better dressed. The mall seems extremely upscale and shopping on Easter is questionable, but it is worth a visit. Christ is Risen in Arabic is "al Masih-qam" sounds much like the Hebrew "moshiach" for Messiah.
If people saw this, we could save 30 Billion in foreign aid.
This is what Mr. Nicoletti is referring to:
The Easter joy is infectious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7cl6u4DjA
God Bless, Mr. Piatak. Xristos Anesti! It is in part Greek as well.