12.26.2007

Musical Musings: "Let It Be" The Beatles

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be, .....

This is a beautiful song, one I grew up hearing thanks to a mother who LOVED the Beatles. I once heard a friend play it on the piano, changing it from a vaguely Catholic song into a Protestant one (instead of Mother Mary, it was the Holy Spirit, if I recall the changes she made correctly).

If it were possible for The Beatle's music to experience a resurgence (if it ever lost popularity enough to need a resurgence), then certainly the film "Across The Universe" would help provide the momentum necessary for surge in popularity. For those unfamiliar with the film, it was directed by Julie Taymor (the woman responsible for the Broadway adaptation of Disney's "The Lion King") and is the story of a young man in 1960s America, told through the music of The Beatles. Jim Sturgess is Jude, and Evan Rachel Wood plays his Lucy.

In the film, this song is sung at the graveside of two different people; a young child killed in Detroit, and Lucy's boyfriend, killed in Vietnam. This song has always been beautiful; as a funereal anthem, it is stunning and moving, carrying a new weight. It is a plea for peace, both in our own hearts as we try to understand the seeming cruelty of life that would seize two young people with so much ahead of them, but in the larger sense of the world as a whole... for peace in place of war.

I am not Catholic by faith, and I don't believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, provides guidance to me... that those who have walked the Earth come back to guide those still struggling our way through life. That said... the advice voiced through Mary here is excellent.

We all have questions; the heartbreak of life that raises doubts and uncertainties is common to us all. We ask ourselves the same thing: "If God is so loving, then why does He allow suffering. If good exists, then where is there good in the suffering of innocents? Why do the good die young?" There are more questions, more doubts, more uncertainties that plague us in the dark night of the soul, when we are at our most vulnerable. It is our nature to want answers to our questions, to want to understand why things are the way they are. We want to understand before we trust, to weigh our options before leaping in... faith is a hard muscle to exercise and use.

That's where this advice comes into play. You have questions you can't answer: Let them be. Let the questions remain; answers will come in time. Faith comes when you let the questions remain and trust that life is worth living, God really is good, and understanding will come as it is needed. When you don't understand why you must suffer, let it be. Trust that justice will be done, that wrongs won't go unanswered, and just let it be.

This is a prayer that God's will would be done, a declaration of faith, a plea for peace. It's the English translation of the Hebrew word "amen". Each time we end a prayer with Amen, we're invoking the Peace of God to transcend our problems, the Grace of God to overcome our weakness, the Justice of God to right our wrongs, and the Faith to survive it all, arriving safe into the arms of the God who can provide the answers we lack.

I don't understand it all. I can't provide adequate answers for why we suffer, why we lack, why injustices are done. I can't answer all your questions, and I can't understand all the mysteries of the faith (don't ask me to explain the trinity; I know it is, but I can't put it in words adequately). But I know I don't have to. I just have to let it be. I have to trust that my God has the answers I need... that in my long dark night of the soul, my God will come and whisper the words of wisdom I so desperately need.

Let it be. Let it be. There will be an answer... but for now, Let it be.

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