The song, “My Spirit Lives” began as a meditation on our lifelong relationship with Jesus. The verses are in the style of a “call and response.” Throughout our lives we call out to God who hears and responds, calming our fears and strengthening our resolve to remain faithful to living out the promises of our baptism. Perhaps because of the lifelong process that is discipleship, I always envisioned a combined choir of our parish’s children and adult singers singing these phrases of Christ: “I am here,” “I won’t let go,” “come to me,” and “my spirit lives and breathes within you.” Each of the phrases in the verses (some of them lifted from the scriptures or familiar lines from Catholic prayers like the “Hail Mary”) are meant to suggest situations in our common life as disciples of Jesus and his compassionate and reassuring response to all that we experience as we strive to follow him.
Some of you who know me also know that music is my avocation. In my profession I serve as a chaplain for one of the hospices in Atlanta. I spend my days listening to patients or their family members describe what they’re going through and what their life and approaching death (or that of their loved one) means to them. I struggle sometimes to squeeze all of these stories into the rooms of my heart. I bring all of it to prayer seeking to comprehend the enormity of the pain of loss and the depth of feeling that emerges as life ebbs within and around me. I believe that my faith in a God who is loving creator, who is Jesus- obedient son and selfless savior, and who is indwelling Spirit is what finally restores order to the chaos that can accompany death and dying.
Then, the refrain is an attempt to merge into one the ”I AM” statements of Jesus from the Gospel of John which we hear every year during the seven Sundays of the Easter Season. My hope is that those who listen to or sing this song with us will be drawn into a deeper relationship with Christ: the sacrament of God now clearly revealed as the great “I AM.” Known by many names, he is the narrow gate, the loving shepherd whose keen eye finds beloved sheep who are forever getting lost. He is the bread of life, the light of the world, the way and the truth and the life.
