We do not end the liturgical year with a whimper, that is sure. We end, rather, on note of triumph. We are bold and talk of Kings and Kingdoms, realms and all that.

Though Christ Himself declared it, “Yes, I am a King,” when Pilate asked Him, it was only in 1925 and Pius XI that we got around to making something of it in a feast day.

The trumpets blare in St. Peter’s: “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat,” Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ reigns.  He does, indeed.

It says so in the Preface of the Mass of the day:

As King He claims dominion over all creation that He may present
to You His Almighty Father an eternal and everlasting Kingdom:
        a Kingdom of truth and life,
        a kingdom of holiness and grace,
        a kingdom of justice, love and peace.

Good question.

Jesus answered that and said, “It is among you, within you. It is here now.”

And we would say, “We are working on it, with You. It is here now. We promise You.”

And that’s true, of course. It is here. It is on the way. It is coming.

And we expedite the coming. Are involved in it. How?

Obviously, by music. By chant. By song.

I call your attention to it. If it borders on the absurd to make cheese and cake and fudge for the Kingdom, and we do, I call your attention to what is worse than that:

We sing for it.

This is a house of music, of song. Seven times a day we gather to sing songs.

To God.
To Christ.
For us and for the world.

I beg you, enter into the poetry of this beautiful truth.

We sing for the coming of the Kingdom. And it is perhaps the most significant contribution we could make.

What else surpasses it in beauty and meaning?

Seven times a day we gather to sing to God for the world. How practical! How down to earth!

We’ve been doing it since we got here December 21, 1848. The song began the next day, December 22, and has never ceased.  Praise God!

                                                       Be it noted how beautiful the song:
                                                       A thousand years old – much of the chant.
                                                       Quality music: the human voice,
                                                                             in many modes,
                                                                             in haunting melodies,
                                                       day by day,
                                                       week by week,
                                                       year by year,
                                                       on and on until the end.

We live in a house of music. If a world around us is destroyed by an unending output of rubbish, we are immersed in a climate of music, in a house resonant with music, which is at once superbly beautiful, pure, elegant, involving the whole person and the whole community one way or other.

But it is also healing, healing for us and for all the world.

It is at once communal and anonymous. In unison and highly personal.

          For this music is of the head –
                                   of the heart –
                                   of the gut –

         > head:  for it is based on scripture and the events of God’s life,
         > heart:  because love is involved: love is the gist of it: love for Christ, love for  one another, love for all the world.
         > gut:  for emotionally this music is powerful, but in a deep, deep way. Far beyond mere noise and din in the way of
                   the world. Hence, it is chaste music, discreet and benign.

We live in a house of music, of song. And all are affected by it, be they directly involved or not. For all in some way achieve it, make it possible. All share in it for the world, each a center of peace, the whole a presence of peace.

For the chant has power and heals. You cannot  sing to God day after day and still be governed by anger, resentment, fury, frustration or contempt. You cannot continue. You submit to healing and accept it. Hence chant is healing. And a house of chant is healing.

For us and for the world. For we are Catholic. And so we build the Kingdom.

It is coming. And we hasten the coming. We expedite it.

An expert on chant claims that a major aspect of the development of a Christian culture in medieval Europe was chant. The mere sound of it was productive. It permeated society. And for good.

In a wild, sordid, noisy, violent world, we sing. And we sing old songs, rich in history, rooted in it, graced by God. For healing. Ours and the world’s This is the heart of Gethsemani, its point, purpose and meaning for the building of the Kingdom.  Amen.