The Gospel According to U2

This past Sunday, which also happened to be the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known colloquially by its Latin name Corpus Christi, I had the great privilege of seeing U2 live in concert.  The event was rescheduled from last year's original date, which was to bring the Irish rock legends to Spartan Stadium... before Bono threw out his back.  The co-occurrence of this concert and the liturgical fest is of no small import, as I will explain below.

But first, permit me to say that I believe U2 to be one of the most positive forces on the artistic scene today.  Anyone who is even slightly familiar with their music knows that it frequently speaks to spiritual, even explicitly Christian, themes.  Consider lyrics such as "You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains/ Carried the cross of my shame/ O my shame, you know I believe it"?  Or, "The real battle just begun/ To claim the victory Jesus won/ On Sunday, Bloody Sunday"? 

Lest anybody doubt the Christian commitments of the U2 front man, I recall an excerpt I read recently from his interview-style biop.  When asked about his own religious convictions, Bono responds with candor and no small amount of theological depth: 

I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.... The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven. (From Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

Um... wow.  

So what does U2 have to do with the most Holy Eucharist (despite goofy Anglican attempts to integrate their music into worship)?  I would suggest that the lads not only preach a very Eucharistic message, in the form of their music, but live a very Eucharistic life.  


The great gift of the Eucharist is not only the opportunity for real, physical and spiritual communion with Jesus Christ, but also the grace that empowers us to be Eucharist for others.  Christ, in His humility and love, comes to us in the form of bread and wine, to be our spiritual food and drink.  As He did two thousand years ago on Calvary, when He gave up His own life that we might have life, so He continues to do today, wherever the Mass is celebrated.  In the Eucharist, Jesus says to us, "Freely you have received; freely give" (Matthew 10:8).


This message of Christ is also the message of U2.  Bono is one of the greatest philanthropists in the world.  Consider the ONE campaign to cancel Third World debt, and the RED campaign for AIDS relief in Africa, each founded through the magnanimity of Bono.  I would suggest that it is not coincidental that Bono, who is a committed Christian, is also so giving.  Charity is the heart of the Christian life, and Bono has learned that virtue in the school of the Eucharist.  

The Catholic Priority of Truth

I recently had a conversation with my English professor that reminded me of the prevailing attitude toward Pope Benedict XVI, especially among intellectuals. I had met with him to discuss my research paper, but somehow the conversation turned to matters of faith. My professor commented on the pontiff's perceived unconsciousness of his political influence. He mentioned (predictably) the recent opening of the canonization process for Venerable Pope Pius XII, frequently accused of indifference toward the Shoah, and the lifting of the excommunications on members of the Society of St. Pius X, including Bishop Williamson, an infamous Holocaust denier.

I explained that Pius XII harbored hundreds of Jews within the walls of the Vatican itself, and instructed religious houses across Europe to do the same. So grateful was the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, that he converted to Catholicism, taking the name Eugenio, Pius XII's baptismal name. Regarding the Williamson debacle, I explained that while the illicit ordination of bishops is an impediment to full communion with the Church, stupidity is not. Since the members of the SSPX have repented of that crime, canonically, the excommunications must be lifted. Still, he countered, I could not deny that these actions were impolitic. Perhaps.

However, as I left his office, that stubborn and most Catholic of questions weighed on my mind: But is it true? Is it just to deny Pius XII beatification merely because of the slanders against him? Is it fair to deny full communion with the Church to those who have repented of the sin for which they were excommunicated in the first place? Ultimately, it's a matter of differing priorities. For secular intellectuals, many of whom deny man's ability to know truth with certainty, the priority is political advantage in some form or another. Not so for Catholics. Sebastian, in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece Brideshead Revisited, observed that "everything they think important is different from other people." For Catholics, who vehemently affirm man's ability to know truth with certainty, the priority is the proclamation of that truth which sets us free (John 8:23).

If one desires to understand the mind of the Church and its priorities, Pope Benedict's new book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Sign of the Times, is an excellent guide. As eminent theologian George Weigel writes in the Preface:

World political leaders see the flow of history in terms of interests, alliances, and power. Intellectuals of international repute perceive humanity in terms of their philosophical, historical, or scientific theories.... Popes, if they have the wit and the stomach for it [Benedict does], see the whole picture.... (ix)

This broadness of vision derives not only from the Holy Father's close and frequent contact with bishops and faithful from around the world, but from his grounding in Christ, the Truth whom we can know personally. He explains how Christ-who-is-Truth frees us from the "dictatorship of relativism":

The truth comes to rule, not through violence, but rather through its own power.... [Jesus] does not defend the truth with legions but rather makes it visible through his Passion and thereby implements it. (51)

And this, brothers and sisters, is the essential difference between Catholicism and every other philosophical system: the proclamation of the Truth through Love. It is the bent-but-unbroken logic of the Cross.

The Heart of the Matter

Though we are now more than half-way through June, it would pain me to let it pass without sharing my special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to which this month is dedicated (the Feast of the Sacred Heart falls on the first Friday in June).

We may well ask, What is the Sacred Heart? I suppose it is, in the principal sense, the actual physical heart of our Lord, and, inasmuch as He is the Word made flesh, it deserves to be worshiped as a member of the body of Him who was both human and divine. However, the Sacred Heart is much more than a human organ. In a general sense it is a symbol of the love of God, who "so loved the world that He gave his only Son," who Himself "was pierced for our offenses" (Isaiah 53:5). In another, more definite, sense it is the love of God Himself; it is the God who is love itself (1 John 4:8).

I think a personal testimony is appropriate here. Since I was born (or so it seems) I only ever wanted to attend Michigan State University; the first song I learned was the Fight Song and Sparty was among my earliest heroes. Consequently, when the time came (in my Senior year of high school) to apply to colleges I chose just one, MSU. This, in itself, was a leap of faith; one might say blind faith. Frankly, I had mediocre grades, minimal community involvement, an application essay that was (to put it charitably) less than stellar, and no other means of working the system (Irish Catholic not being far enough removed from the WASP category to qualify as ethnically diverse).

Thus was I brought, quite literally, to my knees... to pray. Bypassing the entire communion of saints (not a practice I would generally recommend), I appealed directly to the love of Christ in the form of the Sacred Heart. Every night I knelt before an image of the Sacred Heart, pleading for acceptance to my college of choice, State. When I received a letter from the Admissions Office requesting my spring mid-semester grades, I tucked it behind that image. Then, after weeks of anxious waiting and fervent prayer, I was accepted.

Of course, one may well argue that it was not divine intervention but my own effort and merits that opened the doors to those ivy-covered halls. Experience, however, would suggest otherwise. As time passes I see ever more clearly the love of Christ working in my life. I have grown immensely in these past two years; I have, by turns, known a despair that has suffocated my soul and a love of which I though myself incapable, and yet, in everything, the steady rhythm of the Heart of Jesus, which beat wholly for me. That Heart beats for you too, forever saying "come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest... learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Matthew 11:28, 29).

May you forever rest in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This video explains in greater depth the history and theology of the Sacred Heart Devotion. Enjoy!



In His peace.