"Shadowfeet"

I stumbled on this song today after a friend posted another song by Brooke Fraser on my Facebook wall. "Shadowfeet" is an incredible song, and a powerful myriad of faces appears in this video to help in the singing! Ah humanity, all of us so different, and all of us so alike in our yearning for the Infinite One Who alone can satisfy!



"Shadowfeet"

Walking,stumbling on these shadowfeet
toward home,a land that i've never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
made of different stuff than when i began
and i have sensed it all along
fast approaching is the day

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
when the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
when time and space are through
I'll be found in you

Theres distraction buzzing in my head
saying in the shadows it's easier to stay
but I've heard rumours of true reality
whispers of a well-lit way

You make all things new

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
when time and space are through
I'll be found in you

Sending Out an SOS

Suffering can set us free. Crying out can often lead to a catharsis. Sorrow affords us a chance to struggle and squirm our way out of the black cocoon of self and into the wide expanse of the world of the Other.

The song Message in a Bottle by the Police captures this journey of self-discovery through suffering. Sting, the lead singer of the former band, is a much revered icon in the music world today. He confessed to Jools Holland of the BBC that Message in a Bottle is his favorite song.

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh
Another lonely day, with no one here but me, oh
More loneliness than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh

In the late and great Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body, the Holy Father seeks to answer two questions that I feel everyone in their heart of hearts asks at some point in this life:

What does it mean to be human?
How can I be truly happy?

In the first question, he looks into our origins, our history, and our destiny to discover just what it means to be to be human. The Pope's early life was fraught with sorrows - loss of family, Nazi occupation, friends sent to concentration camps, and a Communist takeover of his beloved Poland. But he didn't let these sorrows exile him to an island of isolation. To make sense of it all, he dove into a heartfelt reflection on our beginnings as man and woman. One of my favorite reflections in his Theology of the Body centers on the idea of Original Solitude. That is the experience of Adam, in the beginning, as a being that is in fact "alone."

I'll send an S.O.S. to the world

I'll send an S.O.S. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle,
Message in a bottle...

Alas, Adam cries out, I see myriads of creatures, beautiful and diverse, but not another person I can love who can return my love! Sending out an SOS is Adam's first "prayer."

Pope Benedict once wrote that "man comes in the profoundest sense to himself not through what he does but through what he accepts. He must wait for the gift of love, and love can only be received as a gift… One must wait for it, let it be given to one. And one cannot become wholly man in any other way than by being loved, by letting oneself be loved...”

(Introduction to Christianity)

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together

Love can mend your life but
Love can break your heart

Adam falls into a deep sleep, an "ecstasy" in the original language. He realizes, perhaps, the risk involved in what lies ahead but he must make himself vulnerable; he must be open and ready to receive the gift that will make him whole. And the God Who Is Love draws a lover from his side. Only "love can mend your life." Adam receives the gift of Eve, and this love wells up in him, giving birth to the first love song, the first poem in human history!

Alas, this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!

Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone in being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home

The home we are all seeking is this communion of persons, formed by God right from the beginning! It is Love that is the meaning of life, love that can move not only mountains, but islands! As we look out on our wounded world today, at the faces in the crowd, the faces in the subways and trains and malls and marketplaces, tiny islands of solitude and loneliness, let us call out to them in love. Sending out an SOS, a prayer for everyone. Let's pray that all of us castaways might find a home in God, the source and summit of meaning and purpose and direction in life, and in relationships with others, for we are each another incarnation of His Love in the world!

_____________________________

For a video of the first live performance

of Message in a Bottle, click here!)

I Wanna Know What Love Is!

I believe 80's music is one of the proofs for God's existence. I'm serious... Just check out these lyrics from the band Foreigner. Listen to the longing for love and communion in this one!!

"Now this mountain I must climb feels like a world upon my shoulders... through the clouds I see love shine. It keeps me warm as life grows colder. In my life there's been heartache and pain. I don't know if I can face it again. Can't stop now, I've traveled so far to change this lonely life... I wanna know what love is... I want you to show me... I wanna feel what love is... I know you can show me..."

Isn't this the quest of every human heart: to find love? Isn't this an echo of our original solitude pining for communion? It drives us on and up and out of ourselves (and sometimes it drives us crazy!) But still we press on, because we believe that even in the midst of that "heartache and pain" we all encounter, there is in fact a Love that truly satisfies. The sad fact is many remain in that pain because they seek this love in the human heart alone. But no person on earth can fully satisfy us; our hearts were made for an Everlasting Love.

The good news is that this Love has been seeking us all the while. This Love has found us! Within the lyrics of this song from Foreigner we can discover the truth that it is indeed God Himself Who has placed this passion within us. Like a little homing beacon, blinking red in the center of our chests, following this desire in sincerity and truth will lead to Him! "Through the clouds I see Love shine"!

But it must always be a desire to give ourselves to this love, to break free of the gravitational pull of lust and self-centeredness. Maybe this is the weight the singer of this song is trying to escape from? This is the mission of every human being; to give love rather than to grasp at it. Just listen to the words of Pope Benedict XVI:

Eros, reduced to pure “sex”, has become a commodity, a mere “thing” to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man's great “yes” to the body... True, eros tends to rise “in ecstasy” towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing.

Through the songs we sing and in the deepest desires of our hearts, may God continue to shine His Light, leading us ever and onward to our true home.... His Heart.