Consider these questions. (You don’t have to write an essay, but just think through what your answers might be.)
- How do you like to be treated? Do you treat others in the same way?
Read through Matthew 5:7-8
(either alone or as a group). As you read, look at the notes you made when you read the Beatitudes during the first week:
- !! for that which makes you think;
-
those things you agree with, or approve of; -
those things you find difficult to believe or understand; - ?? those things which require you to go a little bit further.
A note to help you:
For most modern readers ‘heart’ is the symbolic source of our emotions, and so “pure in heart” is to do with having the right feelings. In the ancient world ‘heart’ more often stood for ‘the inner person’, your mind and your will. “The heart is a symbol of what we are in ourselves, of the source of all our reactions and aspirations. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’ will mean something like ‘Blessed are those who have a pure source of life in them.’ (Simon Tugwell).
Can you answer these questions?
- Is pure the same as ‘nice’?
- What is the connection between purity of heart and seeing clearly?
- Is it naïve to see the best and the possible in people and situations?
- Simon Tugwell has given his definition of ‘purity of heart’. What is yours?
- What do you think of Shakespeare’s famous passage on mercy?
The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Portia, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV Scene I
- Does showing mercy encourage people to take advantage of you?
- How and where have you experienced mercy?
- Should governments demonstrate mercy? How?
- Twice, in Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7, Jesus quotes Hosea’s cry that God desires ‘mercy not sacrifice’. Why is this so important to Jesus?
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Charlotte Margiono, Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson, Anton Scharinger; Nicholas Harnoncourt (cond) : “Contessa, perdonno” (Finale) – The Marriage of Figaro (1786); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, (1756-1791)
The Marriage of Figaro was a controversial choice for Mozart to turn into an opera. The play upon which is was based, by the French playwright Beaumarchais, had caused rioting when it was performed in Paris after being banned for six years by Louis XIV: the king had uttered the prophetic warning: “For this play not to be a danger, the Bastille would have to be torn down first”. Five years after the play’s first performance in Paris that is exactly what happened. The play was also banned in Vienna, where the brother of Louis’s wife (Marie Antoinette) was Emperor, but the Emperor was persuaded by Mozart (and his librettist, da Ponte) that the vicious satire which characterised Beaumarchais’s play would be removed.
The first performance of The Marriage of Figaro was vividly recreated in Peter Schaffar’s play Amadeus, later filmed by Milos Forman. In it Mozart’s great rival Salieri is portrayed as the only person able to realise the genius of the opera, that God is speaking to the world through the music of Mozart. This is what Salieri says of the final scene of The Marriage of Figaro (our music clip):
The fourth [act] was astounding. l saw a woman disguised in her maid’s clothes, hear her husband speak the first tender words he’d offered her in years. Simply because he thinks she is someone else. l heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theatre conferring on all who sat there perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man to all the world. Unstoppable.
What is sung
| Contessa, perdono!Più docile io sono, e dico di sì.Ah, tutti contenti saremo così. Questo giorno di tormenti, di capricci, e di follia, in contenti e in allegria solo amor può terminar. Sposi, amici, al ballo, al gioco, alle mine date foco! Ed al suon di lieta marcia corriam tutti a festeggiar! |
My Countess, forgive me.I am kinder: I will say “Yes.”Then let us all be happy. This day of torment, Of caprices and folly, Love can end Only in contentment and joy. Lovers and friends, let’s round things off In dancing and pleasure, And to the sound of a gay march Let’s hasten to the revelry. |
Has any other piece of music ever moved you to see God at work through its composer?
I have just seen a live production of Figaro again and once again know what ‘Salieri’ says is true. BUT – Mozart was a true lover of God – he worships the Divine Being in all his work. This opera in particular (whatever political message it began with) emphasises that we humans are flawed, often silly, fall in love with the wrong people, lie, stand on our dignity etc etc yet God still loves us. It may seem a trivial example, but I love my cat even though he is stupid, greedy and selfish – how much more must the Divine Being love me??
However, I don’t see much evidence in the ‘Christian’ churches of this attitude. They are still obsessed with ‘respectability’ and the idea of ‘not doing sex’ (whereas the latter is actually pretty boring when divorced from passion and romance, as Figaro shows). For many of us, the Jesus of the Gospels is NOT the Jesus of the churches – the latter is emasculated and non-threatening; the former is life affirming and non judging. There are so many people out here who do love Jesus but for this reason can’t ‘do church’. It’s Mozart vs Salieri ;o)
I agree that there is no more sublime moment, nor a moment in music when God seems so clearly to speak through a composer and a character of the absolutely un-earned nature of grace. That’s why it seems so ironic to me that we would just the church, which after all, is full of people who also need un-earned grace. To judge the church is to do the same thing we judge them for. Church is a group of people. As for me… I find the church a place where I have continually been taught, encouraged, and formed in the kind of forgiveness the countess gives to the count. To be able to say on the one hand “I am kinder than you” and on the other to extend forgiveness, is better than to say “i am kinder than you” and extend judgment.
So, I say let’s forgive the church when she fails, and not fail to see when she succeeds. For she has succeeded many times over, though it is true she continues to fail.