“In a world where where war has been banished…” Singing to the power of the Holy Spirit moving across the thirsty souls of those who look with tearful eyes through the rising tower of smoke and ashes of war, and the inexplicable pain and death that haunts the world, this song leads us to trust in “a new heaven and a new earth” to come as we know them in the promises of the Gospel. One cannot but think of St. John at Patmos being ministered to by Jesus as the disciple whom Jesus loved saw the dream of the Kingdom dashed against the rocks of that island prison. Thus, we too, in this day, perhaps even our day of sorrow or pain, look to God’s promise. We, too, believe.
Is there any more powerful force in this world than to stand against the darkness of the tomb, the cynicism of agnosticism and the pervasive spirit of evil and declare: I believe?
Yet it is not our faith but the holy object of our faith, Jesus Christ, who will usher in this new world. Yet I find in such lyrics as these that deep Edenic longing for home.
I don’t recommend it as an anthem for the offertory. I do offer it as yet another example, a very lovely one indeed, that plays to the higher ideals of Man, that there is a longing for home. The missing part of the song is the beginning of your testimony of His life in you.