I feel that most of the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” is very good, but I also agree with Catholic leaders’ decision to not include the fourth verse in our Breviary.
Welcome to article 32 of a weekly series on the formation journey of Br. Josh, MIC, a second-year seminarian at the Marian House of Studies in Steubenville, Ohio. It is the continuation of Br. Josh's previous column, "Novice Notes."
By Br. Josh, MIC
When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours, there is one hymn in the Breviary that never gets sung. “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” by Martin Luther is a powerful hymn of faith in God to overcome the Evil One and help His faithful followers through all adversity. The tune is very good and the lyrics are great; I grew up on this hymn as a Protestant, memorized it and used to sing it to the Lord during private devotions, along with other hymns.
I became Catholic in 2008 and later circled back to the hymn with opened eyes.
Anti-Catholic message?
One day, while my family was gathered together, both Protestants and Catholics, I mentioned, “You know, I think the fourth verse has an anti-Catholic message in it.”
No! My family immediately objected, both Protestants and Catholics alike. That certainly wasn’t true.
The third verse ends singing about victory over the Devil, and “one little word shall fell him.” The fourth verse starts right from there: “That word above all earthly powers — no thanks to them — abideth.”
I said, “I think the ‘word’ referred to here is the Bible, the Word of God, and the ‘earthly powers’ refers to the Catholic Church and her claim to have written and preserved the Bible from the time of the early Church to today. Luther is saying God preserved His word, not the Catholic Church.”
But my family loved this hymn and didn’t want to see anti-Catholicism in the stanza. I didn’t hear anyone agreeing with me on this occasion.
However, when I found “A Mighty Fortress” in the Catholic Breviary, I noticed that this fourth verse had been omitted. Someone in the Catholic Church besides me clearly thought this stanza was aimed at us.
Sorting the good and the bad
In my time in religious life, I occasionally heard grumbles amongst some religious that a hymn by Martin Luther made it into our Breviary at all. For myself, I am very ecumenically-minded and have been deeply involved in religious dialogues that led to some Protestants’ conversion to Catholicism. One gift I feel I’ve received is often being able to sort between the good and the bad and recognize when both are present without becoming one-sided. It is important to recognize goodness wherever it exists — even among those who wound Catholic unity and sin gravely — if we are to effectively support ecumenism and evangelism.
I feel that most of the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” is very good, but I also agree with Catholic leaders’ decision to not include the fourth verse in our Breviary.
The “unthinkable” happens
One day, in the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, the “unthinkable” happened. While I sat in my pew preparing for Morning Prayer, a Marian leader announced that we would sing the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
My eyebrows shot up. Throughout my seven years in religious life, I had never heard this one sung, and once when I was prayer leader and attempted to lead it, my superior overruled me and announced a different hymn.
I noticed a couple of seminarians appear to twitch uncomfortably in their pews, and I couldn’t tell if they were singing or not. Their voices are normally pretty quiet, but they also might have been boycotting Martin Luther’s hymn.
I feel I can understand this, for when I first became Catholic, I was very angry at Martin Luther. The wounds in my relationships with my family, along with many errors and divisions in Christianity, seemed to have resulted from his actions. I had read about many sins in his life and could see from his own writings how he hated Protestants of other denominations — delighting that Anabaptists would burn in Hell — along with “Papists.”
It took time spent praying for Luther’s soul before I was able to forgive him and start rediscovering the good in his life, such as in the hymn I grew up with, “A Mighty Fortress.”
Now, I sang it loud and clear, for the glory of God.
Later, I thanked our superior for leading it, and he exclaimed, “I love that hymn! Except for the fourth verse!”
You see, my superior’s father converted from Protestantism to Catholicism and raised his son with their hymns and Biblical emphasis. He was well aware of the importance of building ties with our separated brethren.
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