Father Murphy’s Next Christmas It is Wednesday December 14. Father John Murphy and Father Alexander Dumas have just finished their dinner and have completed their Midday Prayer. They pray it together every day. The phone rings. Father Murphy turns to his younger fellow priest. He tells him in a grave voice what he has just learnt. He adds: “The Bishop asks me to go and replace the parish priest at once. He names you moderator of the pastoral unit of Saint Victor. Do you think that you can handle it alone, especially during the Christmas season?” (Two days earlier, in an e-mail to the Bishop, he wrote: “I believe that Father Dumas has learnt in three months and a half what many priests will take two years.”) The two priests had prepared this concert since September. Musikware Incorporated would come to record it to make a CD. All the tickets have already been sold. Father Murphy adds: “Presently you are in charge here. Communicate my precipitated departure to the pastoral workers in Saint Victor, Saint Mary of the Angels, Holy Guardian Angels and Saint Andrew. You will be obliged to return to the former schedule that we had when I was alone, even at Christmas day and at New Year’s day. Tell them also that the Christmas concert will take place. Use the rectory’s phone. I’ll make my calls on my cell phone.” He goes to his office to call several persons at Ogsburg. First of all to the mortuary at the Ogsburg General Hospital to confirm the authorization to transfer Father Schaapman’s body and to make an autopsy the next morning. Then he phones to the Ogsburg Funeral Home to tell its director, Tom Jenkins, that he gives him the authorization to take possession of the body at two o’clock in the afternoon. He also asks him to deliver the coffin to the church, Friday at ten o’clock in the morning. He places another phone call to the Knights of Columbus fourth degree and the captain of the Police Department to invite them to assure an honor guard and the security in the church during twenty-four hours from ten o’clock Friday morning to ten o’clock Saturday morning, when the funeral will take place. Next he phones to the secretary of Saints Peter and Paul’s parish to inform her of what he has done so far. Finally, he phone to the Bishop and informs him also . After collecting a few personal items he drives to Ogsburg. Father Murphy does not like to take the highways such as the 20, 30 or the 40. Speed is the only advantage of these routes, he says. He prefers the older routes that run along the rivers or the Saint Lawrence River, such as the 143 and the 132. One drives less fast there. These roads serpent through villages. You can feel the pulse of the population. All at once he sees a man walking along the highway. He thinks he recognizes him. He stops his car and waits until the man is at the door’s level. He opens the window and says: “Juanario”. The walker looks up and nodds. He smiles without saying a word. “I am going to Ogsburg. How about you?” Juanario signals he does too. “Get into the car.” A kilometre farther he stops the automobile near a garage. He gets out of the car and asks for the key of the washroom. He pretends that he needs it. Next he hands the keys over to Juanario, who accepts them and indeed needs to go to the toilet. While Juanario is busy, Father Murphy phones to Ogsburg. Juanario comes back and gets back into the car. At Ogsburg Father Murphy stops to let Juanario out. He says: “David Oliver is waiting for you. Good luck.” Friday afternoon he is back at Saint Victor’s. The two priests eat quietly and relax a little, and then they go to the church for the concert. The program contains traditional Christmas carols. Both priests have good voices. Father Dumas accompanies himself on the guitar and Father Murphy at the piano. “Silent Night, Holy Night” is not sung only in English but also in the original German “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” and in the French and Italian translations. They also sing in gregorian chant such as “Puer natus est nobis”. At the intermission, the parish choir sings a few motets accompanied by the organ and the school choir executes a few carols a capella. The high point of the concert consists of two poems composed by Father Dumas who has added an original melody to the text. He has a fine mastery of writing and has already published two volumes of poems. He possesses a rather rare quality among poets, namely to pass easily from a poetic expression to a psychological or spiritual dimension. During the Renaissance, authors often made allusion to Greek mythology. Father Dumas alludes to the Bible or quotes from it. He also has the good habit of dating his poems and of having the biblical reference, and sometimes includes a short explanation. That gives it a very original look. The concert’s basic philosophy is to replace the “Jingle Bells”, the “reindeers” and the snow of the profane atmosphere by an authentic Christian spirituality. In other words, “Keep Christ in Christmas”. The crowd in the pews react in an extraordinary way. They often applaud and multiply their ovations. Even the Musikware technicians get excited on account of the electrifying atmosphere. The program was planned to last for an hour and a half but it becomes over two hours. Our two priests artists are visibly stimulated by the people’s enthusiasm. Bishop Felix Coldini, after listening to the CD, does not believe his ears. He is much impressed. These carols are a genuine “new evangelization”. They are a renewal of the Catholic faith that goes beyond the diocese and the country. “This musical and artistic ministry”, he states “is not less important than the parish ministry or another function.” The two priests have agreed with Musikware on a contract of 5,000 copies. But this company soon realizes that it must go over this number. It produces 25,000 CDs and a few days later increases this number even to 100,000. It is a thundering success. The two priests pass from being unknown to being world-wide celebrities. Orders come from as far as Europe for the next season. The Bishop invites the two priests to prepare a concert entitled “Easter at Saint Victor” and “Christmas at the Cathedral”. He encourages them even to include a Byzantine, Syriac or Copt hymn, a Jewish song and a Buddhis or Moslim expression on Christ’s birth. According to Father Murphy, the success comes from the spiritual support that the “Daisies” provide to them. He has explained this prayer and adoption movement to Father Dumas. After the last Eucharistic celebration at Saint Victor on Christmas day, a group of people approaches Father Dumas and present to him four “Daisies”, like they had done the previous year to Father Murphy. (*) At Ogsburg, the people have also heard about the concert at Saint Victor. The “Petals” of the “Daisy” that Father Murphy has in Saints Peter and Paul’s Parish come up to him to congratulate him for his success. After the concert, Father Murphy hears a familiar voice saying to him: “Wow, Super, my dear Jean Merfée”. It is his teasing friend, Father Roger Massé, who has come from far to listen to the concert and who knows quite well that his name is John Murphy. “I invite you to come one day to us at Saint Anthony on the Rock, where it is always windy.” After the funeral service, Musikware distributes a free CD to all the participating priests. The very same Saturday evening, a number of radio stations broadcast already some songs from the CD. It is Tuesday January 12. The telephone rings at Saints Peter and Paul’s presbytery. The Bishop’s secretary says to Father Murphy that Msgr. Felix Coldini wishes to see him on Thursday at 3 o’clock P.M. At 2:45 P.M., Father Murphy presents himself before his old friend and class mate. -- “So, my excellent Felix”, he says “what’s new?” The Bishop congratulates him first of all about the Christmas concert. Then he goes on: “Whom would you think will be a good successor to Father Schaapman?”
– “I then hereby nominate you the new Vicar General, with the title of Monsignor. And you may place “P.H.” and “V.G.” after your name.” Father Murphy simply bows his head. He has lived a shattering Christmas: a death, a parish transfer, a meeting with Juanario, a concert, a funeral, CDs, and now this nomination! (*) See “Father Murphy’s Christmas”: www.paxetbonum.net/Christmas_Murphy.html Translated from the French by the author, Francis de Ruijte, Sorel-Tracy, 2009 January 22-23. |
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