I often compose verse and music as an extension of pastoral ministry. The impulse is predictable but not fully understood. The stories of lives intersecting with divine promises draws me not only to admire but to express. That happened yesterday when I learned about the life story of a lady who died this week. I did not know her. I wish that I had. I am to conduct her graveside service for Christian burial. I always seek to interview members of the family. Their initial comments are most often the impressionistic stroke that I use. The details of life come after that: the people, the places, the times. I fill in the canvas of liturgy and homily, firstly, with the impressions. I add only a few details to the picture after that. The goal is not a eulogy nor an elegy, but rather a story, with Jesus Christ the Redeemer being the focus of the Story. Yet, to exalt Him in the story is in no way to diminish His own created child. My goal is merely to tell the story correctly, with colorful brush strokes (I do think in terms of color as I prepare a liturgy and a sermon; I chose to illustrate this reflection with a work of Edgar Dégas’s which, to me, coupled the story with an appropriate image of the redemption-point, but also with the warm pastel colors on the canvas) and to offer the Story, the familiar and yet always new tale, of a life lived from end to end with Jesus the Lord redeeming the broken parts, as an accessible epic for others.
I was deeply touched by hearing of Pamela’s gallant struggle against epilepsy and the secondary medical conditions that afflicted her all of her days.
Here is, at least, the verse to the piece I wrote, “A Requiem for Pamela.” I offer it with deepest respect for family and friends and as a story of hope for all.
Don’t let the light
Of a sun so bright
Cast its shadow upon you
Her lifelong pain
Was like a regal reign
A season of hardship transformed
Don’t hold her long
She has got heaven’s song
To learn
Don’t think the vial
Of the chemist’s trial
Clouded the faith in her heart
Love leaves a path
That pierces the black
And speaks to
The soul’s solitude
Don’t hold her long
She has got heaven’s Psalm
To learn
And though her body
Was seized
By a grim disease
Her spirit was waiting to fly
And on the day
When she passed
Beyond the earth’s
Mortal grasp
Her spirit soared to her home
Don’t hold her long
She has got heaven’s song
To learn
She’s not alone
She ascends to God’s throne
To dance
Requiem for Pamela © 2017 Michael Anthony Milton (Bethesda Music), BMI.