Patterico's Pontifications

7/14/2019

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 164

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 9:25 am



It is the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet” (You, who call yourselves of Christ).

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 10:25-37:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words, which call to mind the story of the Samaritan:

You, who call yourselves of Christ,
where is your mercy,
by which one recognizes Christ’s members?
It is, alas, all too far from you.
Your hearts should be rich with love,
yet they are harder than a stone.

We hear, indeed, what Love itself says:
Whoever embraces his neighbor with mercy,
shall receive mercy
as his judgment.
However, we heed this not at all!
Still our neighbor’s sighs can be heard!
He knocks at our heart; it is not opened!
We observe him, indeed, wringing his hands,
his eyes, flowing with tears;
yet our heart resists the urge to love.
The priest and Levite,
that walk to one side,
are truly a picture of loveless Christians;
they behave as if they knew nothing of another’s
misery,
they pour neither oil nor wine
upon their neighbors wounds.

Only through love and through mercy
will we become like God himself.
Hearts like the Samaritan’s
are moved to pain by another’s suffering
and are rich in compassion.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

3 Responses to “Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 164”

  1. Apologies for the lateness of the post. This is a great accompaniment to the lesson, though. I hope it was worth the wait.

    Patterico (522dfb)

  2. He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” This is a beautiful reminder to me to maintain the correct order in one’s spiritual life. First comes this continual prayer and meditation throughout our days – to love God with all hear, soul and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves, and then, everything else will follow and fall into place. Because even in the circumstances beyond our control and the big, frightening unknowns, there is a correct order to follow when beseeching God for direction. Everything stems from this. It’s the believer’s rendition of not putting the cart before the horse…

    Dana (bb0678)

  3. This parable is familiar to many of us. It is surely one of the clearest in the Christian religion, and among the most urgent.

    In its spirit, I impose on our host’s good will, therefore, to reprint here a long comment I left yesterday that was almost (but not quite) off-topic from Dana’s original post, in case this parable and this post and its accompanying music inspire any readers here to “do likewise” right now, today:

    —-

    As for the “excellent care” being provided to migrant families in detention on the border:

    My oldest daughter, having earned her R.N. about seven weeks ago (with two more years of post-R.N. specialized training yet to complete at the UT School of Nursing in Austin), is using her new credential and her break between academic years to volunteer for the Catholic Charities shelter in Laredo right now. (Our family isn’t Catholic but of course most of these migrant families are.)

    I’ve read her first-hand accounts and I’ve seen her photos. If anyone doubts that there has been, and remains today (notwithstanding the recent emergency appropriation from Congress), a genuine humanitarian crisis on the Texas border right now, please read this, which she posted yesterday on Facebook:

    They arrive wearing hoodies and raincoats. It’s 90°+ outside, but they’ve just come from “La Hielera,” the freezing cold environment of the ICE detention camp. One man weeps as he recounts spending the night in a CBP van with his daughter and having to strip off his own clothes to wrap her up in an effort to keep her warm.

    A woman brings her daughter to see me in the clinic. The three year old is fussy and miserable, crying and clinging to her heavily pregnant mother as I check her temperature. She has a 104° fever. I spend the rest of the day checking on her and trying to keep the fever at bay. She sleeps fitfully and her mother tells me, in tears, how they were separated from her husband and don’t know if they will ever see him again.

    Today we are waiting for a woman whose toddler was found dead near the border with the bodies of two other children. We have licensed counselors, air conditioning, food, showers, clean clothes — none of it will be enough.

    Please don’t look away.

    This isn’t about being Republican or Democrat, or pro- or anti-immigration (legal or not). This is about people who are in crisis. A three-year-old with a 104° fever is not political.

    She posted this link to an Amazon wish list prepared by the shelter some weeks ago for things they need, that if you are so inclined, you could buy on Amazon and ask to have delivered to:

    Catholic Charities Diocese of Laredo
    La Frontera Shelter
    1616 Callaghan St
    Laredo, TX 78040

    And if your assistance is purchased through the Patterico’s Pontification Amazon app in the sidebar, Amazon will even throw a little cash from its pocket to our host.

    My daughter wrote yesterday by way of update:

    We need boys’ undies, dramamine, and Pedialyte. It’s not on the[ wish list], but we are almost completely out of children’s cold/cough meds, and many of the kids here have upper respiratory infections.

    Asked by a friend what brands of cold & cough medicine she recommends, she replied:

    Honestly any generic with guaifenesin, dextromethorphan, and/or acetaminophen.

    No one need fear your boys’ undies, your cough medicine, your Pedialyte, will be skimmed off by some fraudulent fundraiser. If you order it today, and have it delivered in two days by Amazon directly to Laredo, your gift will clothe or help heal a desperately needy child within hours of its receipt.

    Beldar (a5097b)


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