It was in 1981 an awesome challenge to create a lyric to fit a long established and well-loved melody like the classic “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius, but my desire to help preserve such expressive pieces of music with power and relevance for the present generation motivated me to try. When writing any lyric to existing music, I try to listen, with an ear as unprejudiced as possible to any previous suggestion, to the “idea” that lies imbedded in the music itself, much as the sculptor who sees already hidden in the block of marble the masterpiece, he/she must liberate by chipping away the encasement that imprisons it.
This music was originally performed on July 2, 1900, as a statement of support for freedom of the press in Finland and of resistance to the increasing pressure of Russian influence.
The strength and tenderness that gave this wonderful music its tension seemed to me to parallel the tension in commitment to relationships that are worth the struggle to persevere, whether those relationship be between spouses, siblings, parents and children, neighbors, the family of human persons or, ultimately between each of us and our God. It is this ultimate relationship—the one between us and God—lived out with integrity, that is the liberating key that releases us from the prison of our self-made hang-ups and teaches us, heals us, equips us and models for us how to be in relationship with each other.
As the new year lies ahead, I now reread these lyrics. Little did I know in 1981 what the dawning of the year 2022 would bring—the cultural climate of the world and our own country, the reshuffling of the various communities and denominations of the organized church, the economic crises resulting from a global pandemic, or the political upheaval of established assumptions worldwide.
Needless to say, the circumstances of this moment in time—more than 40 years later and now more than two decades into a new century—demanded that I search my heart to see if I am still as convinced of and committed to the aspirations of this lyric, inspired by music written in 1899. As I knew then, the words were easier to write that to live. Am I any further down the road of my spiritual journey now? Am I better living out the clear, yet gently insistent, mandates of the gospel that so long ago captured my heart? And, assuming I have made some progress, how now do I live the next mile of this journey of faith?
