Many are welcome.

This Sunday’s gospel reading (Mt 22:1-14) provides another take on the “All Are Welcome” theme: “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

I would have to say that “All are safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin” does not mean “In other words, ‘All are welcome!’”

One has only to read the entirety of Henry Alford’s hymn to see that the text actually reads, “All [i.e., the harvest] is safely gathered in…” And the “wholesome grain and pure,” the “fruitful ears” are not garnered until the tares have first been separated and cast into the fire.

Jesus told a number of parables about the heavenly banquet. And, yes, all are welcome, all are invited. And while this welcoming is the first step in evangelization, it is far from being the only step. In this weekend’s gospel the invitees still must put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the proper garment for the heavenly banquet. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ involves repentance, yes, but there is so much more required besides repentance in our imitation of Christ.

There is nothing in either Alford’s “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” or in Haugen’s “All Are Welcome” which espouses anything that smacks of a theology of “cheap grace.”

1 Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

2 All the world is God's own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

3 For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

4 Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

Yes, Adam, how foolish of me.

And none of that is what either hymn actually says.

And none of that is what either hymn actually says.

PGA: play the record backward!

This board is such an odd place, overall. It's the only place in the world where I'm likely to be found making utterances that sound like APOLOGETICS for songs like "All Are Welcome," if only because I'm a fierce believer of being intellectually honest.

I think Adam & Fr. K. have just summed up at least 94% of the threads on this Forum.

Good call, Salieri. "Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble....tremble."
Caritas et veritas is a two way street.

Alford's hymn has a strongly eschatological sense.

Haugen's hymn has a strongly congregational sense.

The two are totally unrelated except for maybe the word "all."

Why think reasonably through what a text actually says when you can get hysterical about what you imagine the people singing it must be thinking?

As my dad, a teacher for over 50 years, used to say, "It's not what you teach, it's what they learn."

My experience is that different people can come away with very different ideas of what "the text actually says." We all know that "look beyond the bread you eat" or "not in some heaven light years away" are (ahem) perfectly orthodox, but it's a fair question to ask how the unwashed in the pews understand it.

However the song was intended, "All Are Welcome" seems to have been taken as a sort of anthem by Christians who consider themselves "open and affirming". It's on this list:
http://www.choralnet.org/view/220898

Here, a doctrinal dissenter says it has "crystallized" "the hopes of LGBT Catholics":
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/lgbt-catholics-hope-synod-family-will-lead-welcome-all

Here, Lutherans quote it in a similar vein: http://www.zionulc.com/about.html

PGA, Fr Krisman, others,

I'm going to try to reword what I think I hear Francis (posting here, not living in the Vatican) saying:

Pope John Paul II wrote beautifully about what the liturgy should be, even as Archbishop Marini was busy dismantling both the liturgy and the Holy Father's credibility. Pope Paul VI required assent to Humanae Vitae but then reinstated disciplined priests without requiring their assent, making the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington look silly. Canon 915 says .... and yet a Cardinal who says otherwise is promoted, while one who defends the canon is pushed out. All this when the Pope is "conservative" ... makes one wonder what the enemies of the Church can do when they are handed language which allows them to license to do all manner of other, new harm.


Is that about right, Francis?

I believe in Ohio Cow Armed Forces as well. I expect the Vatican would not approve either.

As a woman if I ever went through a fake ordination ceremony, I think I would like to do it in the Extraordinary Form. that would confuse everybody.

Look at him, he dines with prostitute an tax collectors....

As a woman if I ever went through a fake ordination ceremony, I think I would like to do it in the Extraordinary Form. that would confuse everybody.

I spent the first few decades of my life quite certain that I would be able to be ordained in the Church one day; and that I would celebrate ad orientem, and that when I became a pastor I would promote the use of a great deal of Latin.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Well, nobody needs to be too censorious: that's part of my job here.

And even Saint Paul made wisecracks involving sacred rites, as when he said, "I hope the knife slips" (Gal. 5:12, paraphrased).

Sorry if it seemed sacrilegious too you, not intended. Might be Irish humour which does not translate well culturally.
Laughter sometimes gives you the courage to keep going, especially when other things tempt one to despair.

The first problem with Haugen's song is a lack of capitalization. "Let us build a house where love can dwell" should be "where Love can dwell." It's God's house, not a generic emotion or a generic virtue's house.

The second problem is that the lyric is subjunctive. Yeah, if we build it really nice, maybe God can dwell there. Maybe. Because He's not everywhere already. The only subjunctive should be, "If God allows us to build Him a house, we should get on it right away."

You can go line by line, and it's not openly heretical. But the tone is just so... off. It's presumptuous. To seek to dare to dream God's reign? Um, He's already doing that Himself, thank you. We claim the faith of Jesus? Jesus did that, and pretty bloodily too. The general tone is that Jesus did all the work, but we take all the credit. Smugness, possibly coupled with looking down on anyone outside our parish.

Also, it's just hard to sing, and the esses are in annoying places.

Finally, there's not any discernable eschatology in the song. It has no future hope, other than the hope that someday humans will seek to dare to dream to put God on a throne somewhere, since His reign is nothing but a renewable dream at present. There are hopes and dreams and visions and prophets, but these are building components and staffers, not going anywhere.

Let us build a home where the buffalo roam
and the deer and antelope play...

All are welcome....

I like my text better than his. LOL.

On a hill faraway
stood an old Chevrolet.
It was battered and covered with rust....

Isle fly aweigh Sweet Jesus, Aisle fly away in the mourning
Hwhen ah dye, hahlaylooYAW, buy, buy, buy
I'll flies a way.

Oh, brother, where art thou?
And who's the goshdarned Paterfamilias 'round hyeer, anyways, Da-nyah-beet?

So flee the cash foundation
And join the motley crew
Who live in caves down under
And drink th'authentic brew
They sing the chant of ages
And live the bygone rules
That Nu-Church has relinquished
In favor of the fools.

O give me a home
Where the scholas do roam
Where there's beer and the organists play
Where seldom is heard
Any Haugen or Hurd
Where a person can actually pray.

Faith, Hope, Charity
O when will you come back to me?
When the dogma comes back
From that wandering pack
We'll all be much better, you'll see.

rollingrj

We are going to create a very "nu" kind of hymnal! :0

In case anyone missed Fr. Zuhlsdorf's version:

The Church’s one foundation is B-I-N-G-O.
It is the one salvation from all the debt we owe.
And when foreclosure threatens we’ll play it every night,
for bingo pays the mortgage but also heat and light.

SIR

A true priest. God bless and protect him.