But Men Made Strange

Today our parish’s Youth Choir sang for Palm Sunday Mass, and one of our hymns was My Song is Love Unknown: Samuel Crossman’s words set to music by John Ireland.  I am sure that this is one of the greatest treasures of English hymnody.  There is such coiled power in these deftly-crafted words; such truth in this effortless rhyme and metre.  Crossman (1623-1683) managed to mingle profound tenderness with plain speaking, sincerity with irony, remorse with mercy and great theological learning with directness.  The remarkable mood and accomplished craft, and the understated intimacy, remind me of George Herbert: every time I read the words, there seems to be something new to notice.  And, in spite of the disarming directness of Crossman’s first person, there is nothing embarrassing about it: he speaks in such a universal way that the song has lost none of its power in nearly four centuries.  Of course, it is also true that the mystery on which he meditates is undiminished:

 He came from His blest throne

 Salvation to bestow;

 But men made strange, and none

 The longed-for Christ would know:

 But O! my Friend, 

 My Friend indeed,

 Who at my need 

 His life did spend.

This Wikipedia article gives all seven verses.

The drama of Holy Week, which has been drawing near all through Lent, is upon us.  Last week all  the statues and crucifixes in church were veiled in purple for Passiontide.  (The shocking sparseness of churches stripped for Holy Week is another, hidden reason for our usual custom of decorating them).  Today we heard the account of the Passion read, entering into the joy of the Palm Sunday crowd, only to sprinkle our tongues with the same crowd’s later bitterness and sarcasm, and to be drawn into its mad obsession with Barabbas.  Now the stage is set: the clouds are gathering and, together, with apprehension, we enter into these mysterious, shadowy days.