November 22, 2004

Everyone knows that if you want to sell something, you say it’s “new”. Most products on the shelf at the grocery store will have that word in some fashion or other. Even mundane items like baking soda or paper towels will claim to be enhanced or renewed in some exciting fashion. Very often the only new element is the packaging. We get excited about the new adventure of mixing the juices of apricots, strawberries, and mangos together; then we find apricot-strawberry-mango yogurt coming out, soon to be followed by apricot-strawberry-mango shampoo! I recently saw green tea shampoo in someone’s house, not that I was honestly excited about it.

Why are we so excited about new things? Is it a sign of the boredom of our culture? I think it is a sign of wanting to be made new on the inside; but we keep looking for things on the outside to make that happen, like changing the logo on a box.

In the Book of Revelation we hear about the redeemed singing a “new hymn” before the throne of God (14:3). Some of you may have been in a parish where “Sing a New Song Unto the Lord” quickly became the old song at every Mass. It is evident that this new hymn is not just a matter of a great tune or catchy words, but that it is “soul music” coming from the depths of the saints who have been washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb. They have been made clean of heart, that is, new on the inside. If you ever felt like singing for joy after a good Confession, you’ve begun to faintly catch the melody of that new hymn.

Saint Cecilia, a virgin martyr, is said to have died with a song on her heart. Her purity and joy was something truly new and astounding to the world. May this patron saint of musicians help us to truly sing the new song of the redeemed by having a greater purity of heart!

Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
Community Vicar, residing at St. Joseph Friary in Harlem

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