Homily on the Occasion of David Graham's 40th Anniversary
The following homily was preached by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ at Farm Street Church on Thursday 5th August 2021. The occasion was a Sung Mass to celebrate the 40th anniversary of employment of the Director of Music, David Graham, at the church.
“I’ve seen them come, I’ve seen them go, and I’ve seen them come back”. David Graham’s own words to describe his time at Farm Street. Over those 40 years David has indeed been a pillar of this church. As Jesuits have come, have gone, and have come back. As our rich diverse Farm Street family has come, has gone, and has come back, David has always been here, right at the centre, in the engine room, producing what we need to function so well. The music in this church, music of the highest quality, serving for the greater glory of God the greatest thing that we do here and which is the epicenter of our lives here, the celebration of the Mass and other liturgies.
Whenever I am in conversations outside of Farm Street about who we are, invariably people identify us with our music. As parish priests and congregations change, as projects and focus drift in and out, as paintings appear and altars are dedicated and shrines reflect our prayers and concerns around the world, people come through our doors for the Solemn Latin Mass, they get to know us because they were married here, have been to memorial services here, and have found themselves a home here through the medium of music which in its wafting changelessness captures all moods, times, seasons, and touches lives deeply at such critical moments.
Without David Graham where would be? As couples are pastorally, sensitively, guided to choose their music at weddings, as music is chosen weekly and seasonally to capture those drifting moods, as often at very last minute David is at the end of a mobile ‘phone on his teaching days at the College or even on the other side of the world, to respond immediately to get together singers and make himself free for a funeral or another occasion that wasn’t pre-planned. Jumping to it, I know from how David speaks of it, because for him, without using the words, is surely a calling, is a vocation, and he is not just a professional musician – which we all know he is and which I leave to the professional musicians to address – but for me I know I can count on him as a key part of a pastoral team which not just observes our comings and goings and does a great job but contributes to our vocation as Farm Street Church, to welcome, to nurture, to celebrate life and to gather around the eucharist.
The reading from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chosen by David for this Mass of thanksgiving sees Paul calling the Christian community back to a life marked by good moral and ethical values and to practice what they preach. But how does he end? It is as though everything is summed up by the praise given to God in the Liturgy they celebrate, marked by the praise of God St Augustine spoke of as “praying twice”, as we raise our voices to God and make music which soars to heaven. The liturgy enshrines our life as Christians. It is the epicentre from which our life flows. It is our work expressed in ritual action and sound. And through music it takes on that shape more powerfully and worthily, drawing us more closely into prayer and worship and so also preparing us to live our Christian lives more closely attuned to our own calling by Christ himself.
As an action of the whole Church we are drawn more closely together as the human family in Christ, in this church gathered from around this city and now, increasingly through the gift of technology, from around the world. And yet, 2000 years on, the Liturgy is timeless. We are linked to Ephesus and so to Paul and to Christ and the apostles. We are linked to the past in this place, to David’s own great influencers who have been directors of music here, we are linked not just back to July 31st 1981 when David started here, but to the Feast of St Ignatius 1849 when this church opened its doors to a public now free again to do the greatest thing a Catholic can do and which enshrines our whole life, celebrate the Mass with all that is its due with beautiful music for the greater glory of God, which has always been at the very core of what we’re about here at Farm Street, in our Church, in our Christian community going back to Christ himself.
This evening is a celebration of thanks to David Graham and we will continue that afterwards in the Arrupe Hall. And I want to say, on behalf of Farm Street, sincere thanks again for all that David has done, is doing and I hope and pray will do for us for many years to come. But here in the Mass itself it is about much more than that. Through David’s ministry, and the ministry of all our musicians, especially the Farm Street Choir, it is an occasion to give thanks to the God in Christ worship of whom is enhanced and enshrined in the ministry of sacred music. We are celebrating 40 years – and much more to come I hope – of using such wonderful gifts and talents for God’s glory. We are celebrating the fruit of those gifts in the work we are able to do here in this church as a place of welcome and community and service in God’s Kingdom. As we celebrate such great gifts and such great fruits how can we not wonder how much greater is the giver of such gifts? How can we not be moved to celebrate Christ at the very centre of our life and be renewed to work for his greater glory and give praise to him always?
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ