30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A
October 25, 2020
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air 4 pm
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 11:00 AM
Jazz Vespers
Back in April, New York City was in some very dark days of this pandemic.
In the midst of that, a man named Roy Nathanson who lives in Brooklyn took some initiative. Roy Nathanson is an accomplished jazz musician and one April afternoon, he came out on his porch with his alto-saxophone and began to play Amazing Grace.
Roy Nathanson appeared on his porch at 5 p.m. the next day and kept doing that day after day. Soon, other musicians joined him.
Bass, drums, guitar, melodica, and trumpet all became part of the socially distant ensemble. In the weeks that followed, banjos, flutes, horns, and other instruments indigenous to Brooklyn’s many cultures also appeared.
David Gibson, the Director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, lives in that Brooklyn neighborhood. He witnessed all of this and began calling it “Jazz Vespers.”
Vespers, as you probably know, is the traditional title of our Catholic Evening Prayer, which is usually prayed around 5 PM. Well, David Gibson writes about this “Jazz Vespers” in Commonweal magazine.
He says: “They played through rain and wind. Street life hummed along with the instruments.
“In the first weeks, ambulance sirens were a mournful counterpoint to almost every performance. The Q train rumbled along the tracks behind Roy Nathanson’s house.
“Curious passersby stopped to listen. Some were strangers, some neighbors.
“There were skateboarders and cyclists, dog walkers and strollers. All the colors and creeds of the neighborhood would stop and listen.
“Some wept, all applauded…As the weather improved, the onlookers increased…
“In May, when the dogwood in front of Roy’s house began to bloom, lockdown life began to ease. Spirits lifted: the tunes grew more up-tempo, more diverse.
“But it was never a jam session. All was intentional, planned.
“Neighbors who knew each other by sight now knew each other by name; acquaintances became friends; friends introduced us to strangers. We began to collect money to help those without food and for local social-service groups.”
David Gibson says that those 5 p.m. concerts continued for eighty-two days and ended with a final two-hour concert in late June. But, the 5 p.m. concerts continue to bear fruit.
He writes: “The musicians created a website to raise money for community agencies helping the neighborhood recover from the pandemic. Faith and hope are wonderful, but charity is the best.”
A Response of Love
When I read about this “Jazz Vespers,” I was immediately moved by it.
I see it as a genuine point of light in the midst of this pandemic. I see it as an expression of love, an expression of the kind of love that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel.
Jesus urges us to put our talents, our gifts, our resources at the service of God and of God’s sons and daughters. To love with “all our heart and all our soul and all our mind” enables us to move beyond our fears and differences.
It enables us to comfort, support, seek out, and welcome back. “Jazz Vespers” reminds us that maybe we underestimate what we can accomplish when we act out of love.
It reminds us of what we can accomplish through a love that is centered on the needs of the other person, a love that has no ulterior motive except the well-being of the other. It reminds us of what we can accomplish through a love that is of God, who is, as the Scripture reveals, unconditional love.
