"Amazing Grace," Not So Amazing

 

            When I was a little girl I attended mass with my parents and brother. At a young age it was hard to enjoy mass because I thought it was “boring.” However, when the song “Amazing Grace” was played I became excited because I knew the song and loved it! It was not until much later in life that I had the change to re-examine the origins of this song and realized, there are some serious problems with singing this song at a Catholic mass. Below: lyrics of the song.

 

Amazing Grace Lyrics

John Newton (1725-1807)
Stanza 6 anon.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Vidmar writes,

“Traditional Catholic teaching can be highlighted by contrasting Luther’s moral outlook with that of St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas saw moral life as a coexistence with God. God is good, and therefore we are good insofar as we share in his goodness, which we do imperfectly. Morality, in other words, is part of our being. Since God made us in his image, the more “human” we are, the closer we are to being Godlike. Ockham (and Luther after him) held that morality is not the perfection of human nature (which has no reality), but conformity on the part of an individual to God’s laws, which is external to us and arbitrarily laid down by him. Goodness, therefore, is not a property of being, but something as it ought to be, just as a knife is a good knife if it does what it is supposed to do. Since God’s will  determines what a thing ought to be, or do, thus the notion of goodness is tied up with that of will. We are good, therefore, if we conform to God’s will. We are good if we do what we are supposed to do and God decides what we are supposed to do. Human action is good not because it is in conformity with our nature, but because it is in conformity with God’s will.” Pg 186.

 

In the first stanza of Amazing Grace we can see the presence of these beliefs when singing, “That saved a wretch like me.” Catholic teaching does not say that we, in our fallen natures, are wretches. The Catholic Church does however teach that we are inclined to sin in our fallen nature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses this as concupiscence, “Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit."³⁰² Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins.^” Luther’s belief is hidden in this one word which deems us human beings as a filthy being that is separate from God. In reality though, we are far from separate from God.

In the second stanza we sing, “How precious did that Grace appear. The hour I first believed.” Again, we are presented with another problem. Grace does not appear to us when we chose to start believing. Grace is a gift of God, freely presented to us by Him and Him alone (also through the sacraments).

I thoroughly enjoyed the “picking apart” of this song because it is very important to know the truth. However, I did find it difficult to find out that a song that I use to love so dearly is tainted with incorrect theology. In addition, the melody of the song certainly does not help us “get out of our emotions” and focus on the facts. It seems as though it is very easy to get swept away by the melody and the tune and forget to focus on WHAT the song is saying.

 

Work Cited:

 

-          Catechism of the Catholic Church

-          songlyrics.com

-          Vidmar, John. The Catholic Church through the Ages. New York: Paulist Press, 2005.