Music can be the common language that bridges cultural divides

"Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy," sang those on one side of the room at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where they gathered for the April 27 for the Ecumenical Musical Day of Reflection.

"Los que sembraron con lagrimas, cosecharan con gritos lealegria," sang those on the other side.

Then, Rev. Eric Law, host of the Musical Day, sang the same verse in Chinese: three different languages joined together as one to create a unified and beautiful melody -- one body, three different languages.

This was the lesson of Rev. Law, a Episcopalian minister, author and song-writer who has created multi-lingual musical arrangements designed to draw together people of different cultural backgrounds in a spiritual, musical atmosphere.

Approximately 24 people interested in music ministry, including several music liturgists, attended the Sunday ecumenical gathering at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The same workshop was held the previous day at the Heartland Center in Great Bend.

In part, the Musical Day of Reflection was designed to suggest to music ministers how they might introduce and teach songs to their congregations that are intended to bring culturally diverse communities together. The songs, such as Rev. Law’s, "Those Who Sowed with Tears," are written in more than one language. "Those Who Sowed …" is written in three: English, Spanish, and Rev. Law’s native tongue, Chinese.

There was a haunting beauty when the song was sung in the St. Cecilia room at the cathedral – to first hear the English, then to have the Spanish join in, and finally the Chinese. One couldn’t help but feel the spiritual union as three different cultures suddenly became as one.

But getting to that point within a congregation -- that point of cultural unity through music -- is not easy. Rev. Law suggested that the music minister must allow the congregation time to learn a new song -- repeating it, and eventually memorizing it in all of the different languages presented.

"Once a song moves from the head to the heart, it can draw people of different cultures together," said Rev. Law. "Once you own a song and take it in, it has an energy that brings the community together."

Rev. Law stressed that he isn’t suggesting that the different cultural communities come together for each and every Mass or social event.

"People need to be in their own language community to be themselves," he said, adding that in the Church community, if you don’t ever come together or celebrate each other’s culture, you risk having "two towers of Babel."

The songs provide beauty in and of themselves, even if all words are sung by one ethnic group.

But when the different cultural communities join as one, such as at the Easter vigil or other event, they will, having learned the songs, discover that there can be a spiritual unity created through the gift of music.