Indeed, He is risen!
Happy Easter! I had the privilege this morning of attending the traditional Latin rite Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in New Orleans. How beautiful! The celebrant, Fr. Stan Klores, truly inspires me, and I hope I can strengthen my will over the course of my life to be as inspirational to others as Fr. Stan is to me. After Mass I was thinking about how a few weeks ago I wrote about Catholic music and how that in our culture rooted in commerce it would be hard to perpetuate a style of music that is specifically Catholic, one reason being that the Church does not buy into the new for the sake of newness; the Church is not blown around by every new whim of society. Because commercial endeavors succeed when able to sell something new, a music rooted in Catholicism would have difficulties because the strength of the Church is not in dwelling on the new, but in tradition. The Church gives you everything you need, for free and all at once.
But the glorious Easter celebration this morning reminded me of an aspect of Christianity that does dwell on the new - the constant renewal of our faith and the day-to-day conversion we continually face. This is a renewal of the spirit, not a renewal of things.
So it seems to me, that for Catholic artists and musicians to be able to support themselves in a commerce-driven society, where the new paintings they paint, new music they compose, and new sculptures they sculpt afford them (the artists) the ability to make a continuous living, then the newness on which they should focus is the newness of spirit, the renewal of their faith. This renewal can then be translated into every new brush stroke, every new musical note, and every new striking of the chisel.
So if you are feeling stuck in your work as an artist, focus on this one thing: the renewal of your faith. This is where the newness will come from - this is where the springtime of the Church will find traction and fill the Earth with the message of Easter: Indeed, He is risen!
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