Epiphany Through Songs

By Randal J. Hruska

The word epiphany came to me as an "epiphany," as something different, catchy, and intriguing. As I received what I felt was spiritual revelation, I felt the urge to share what I had experienced, always hoping, and many times contemplating, before writing that my ideas were not egotistical but inspired.The "through songs" part of the title is more descriptive than anything else. 1

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798886441932

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Music and Dance—Mediums of Spirituality

Chapter 2: God Is Not Santa Claus

Chapter 3: Making Room for God's Love

Chapter 4: Mantras, Love Memories, Similes and Metaphors

Chapter 5: Radical Spirituality or Nonradical Religion

Chapter 6: Prayer and Peace

Chapter 7: EGO or Dying to the Ego Self

Practices for Contemplation or Presence

Glossary

Resources

Songs, Recording Artists, and Composers

References

About the Author

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Epiphany Through Songs

Randal J. Hruska

ISBN 979-8-88644-192-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-193-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2022 Randal J. Hruska

All rights reserved

First Edition

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotes are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Les Editions du Cerf, and used by permission of the publishers.

Scripture texts in this work marked (NAB) are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotation marked (NIV) is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

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www.covenantbooks.com

To those who have suffered, as I have, from shame, guilt, fear, and a sense of failure or unworthiness,

unable to earn a love that they already possessed but did realize it:

God's unconditional, unearned, relentless, and unavoidable love

Preface

Beginning in my junior high years, I started to remember songs and associate them with events in my life: for example, my first puppy love (Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter, Herman's Hermits, 1965), my first movie date (Let's Spend the Night Together, Rolling Stones, 1967), and my first swimming date (Crystal Blue Persuasion, Tommy James and the Shondells, 1969)—you get the idea. My interest in song lyrics started early in my senior year of high school with the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., released in October 1964 by the songwriters, artists, poets, and singers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. To me, it was spiritually inspiring. For the first time in my life, I felt the need to understand the meaning behind a poet's lyrics. There was so much depth, symbolism, and thought-provoking inference to biblical concepts. By the end of the year, I had written and given my interpretation of some of their songs in an hour-long presentation to our senior English class.

After high school, I continued to relate songs to events in my life: college, marriage, buying our first store, my father's death. The spiritual interpretation and application started in 2006, after we bought a ranch in Afton, Wyoming, and a lake house in Nisswa, Minnesota, while we lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming. The triangular distance between these three places was 2,755 miles—a lot of windshield time, and not the most exciting scenery once you leave Wyoming. With mindless time alongside a lovely wife of forty-nine years, but not much stimulating conversation on my part, and boring scenery, I started listening to the songs that I grew up with.

Modern technology has made musical recording and listening easy. Some of the songs started to speak to me spiritually. I was hearing, interpreting, and feeling things that I hadn't ever experienced before. Soon, I started wondering about putting these thoughts, inspirations, and interpretations into some kind of medium that could be shared with others, hoping others could/would/should have the same experience that I was enjoying and growing with spiritually.

The greatest source of insight into the interpretations in this book had better be the Holy Spirit. On a human level, American author, spiritual speaker, and Franciscan priest Richard Rohr has been the most influential person in my spiritual life and in this book-writing challenge. I have taken the liberty—and hopefully not in plagiarism or copyright infringement—to implement some of his Daily Meditations themes into this book. It is my intent, through the interpretation of these song lyrics, to invoke for you, my readers, the same spiritual encounters that Richard has allowed me to experience. Richard is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, and his daily meditations are available to everyone for free.¹

This is the first book I have ever written. I am not a songwriter, musician, or journalist. I have no degrees or college background in writing. I don't type; I hunt and peck.

The last paper I wrote on a collegiate level was in diaconate formation in 1996, and I received a C- as a grade. Professor Edward T. Oakes, SJ, who holds a doctorate in theology, commented that my writing was too colloquial and encouraged me to write another paper. I mention this because in this book, I will take the step of defining words like this. Colloquial will be defined right here, as I write, and also in the glossary at the end of the book for future reference. My dictionary source for definitions will be Webster's New World College Dictionary, the religious source for definitions will be Catholic Online: World's Catholic Library (https://www.catholic.org/), the song lyrics are copied from AZLyrics (https://www.azlyrics.com/), and the songs can be played at Lyrics (https://www.lyrics.com/).

I graduated from Minnesota State University at Mankato in 1978 with a BS degree in business administration but didn't know what colloquial meant, or even how to spell it. I just now looked up the definition of colloquial and it is defined as characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal.

It is easier for me to understand a definition right away if I look it up while I am reading something where the terminology is strange to me. The other reason I will write this way is that I struggle with ADHD, and others reading this book might be too. I hope I do not insult anyone's intelligence by including these definitions in the text portion of the book. After struggling through four years of diaconate formation, trying to read and understand theology books, I concluded there is a major disconnect between the writer and reader of many well-intended and well-written theological, spiritual, religious, and mystical books. This book will not be one of those. I have given more homilies/sermons and taught more classes rather than writing papers, so my style will be more like talking to you rather than writing to you.

My qualifications for writing this book are experiential, not academic. I've been married to the same lovely lady since June 2, 1973 (qualification: husband) and have five children (father), four sons-in-law and one daughter-in-law (father-in-law), eight grandchildren (grandfather), a deceased older brother and a younger sister (sibling), a deceased father and mother (son), a ninety-plus-year-old mother-in-law (son-in-law), two first cousins (cousin) deceased, four brothers-in-law and four sisters-in-law (in-laws), four nieces and four nephews (uncle), and a partridge in a pear tree.

I am a recovering workaholic (admitted addiction), have gone for professional counseling, and have alcoholics on both sides of the family. One daughter is divorced and in a challenging post-divorce period. I lost my dad to mesothelioma cancer when he was sixty-two.

I've been taken before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and paid a fine for age discrimination, gone to arbitration over breaking a buy-sell agreement, and settled for six figures (been sued privately and fined by the government). I've been in the retail hardware business as owner operator from July 1, 1984–June 30, 2019 (during the writing of this book, and employed over two hundred people). I have operated a Wyoming cattle ranch from July 15, 1998 until December 21, 2021 (a true environmentalist and steward of God's creation). I was ordained a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church in June 2000, served in three different parishes in two states and about two years of voluntary ministry at the State Prison in Rawlins, Wyoming (ordained minister). On January 1, 2022, I officially retired from the diaconate.

There is nothing professional, educational, political, hereditary, or famous to make me special, just a gift of sharing our common spirituality in the hope of allowing God to share an epiphany moment (defined as an illuminating realization or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder) with you through some old and recent pop songs that may transform your spiritual life.

Introduction

Spirituality (defined as the state of having a connection to God or the spirit world; religious devotion or piety) contains multiple ideas, practices, names, and identifications, and uses many different mediums. We can all use diverse scriptures, inspired books and documents, liturgies (defined as a prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship), and mystics/holy people/mentors for inspiration and grounding. Please substitute your word or concept of the spiritual force/being/energy in your life—Yahweh, Allah, Dharmakaya, Brahman, Buddha, Krishna, Mother, Tao, Great Spirit, etc.—for my word God. There is only one Reality, which is the source and matter for all that has been created. For the sake of writing ease, I will use the word God from the Christian tradition.

We are all good people, not because we are good or do good things, but because God is good and does good things through us, for us, and in us. For the same reason, none of us are bad because we sometimes make bad choices and God allows us to do bad things. Our goodliness/godliness is, first and foremost, God's holiness and goodness, not really ours. Ours is a participation in mutual indwelling (which means God dwells in us and we in God). Because it is a participative love, it is real, certain, and secure. Indeed, we were all created good, and all remain good in God's eyes, because God is good, and God created all of us.

God said, Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.… God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–27 NAB)

It is pure genius for the author of the first book of the Judeo-Christian Bible, in the first chapter, in the first thirty verses, to give us the cornerstone, which should have been the foundational idea of who each of us is. It is imperative for us to understand our DNA is divine. We are of God, created in God's likeness. What else could likeness mean? Do you doubt me? Likeness is defined as the state or quality of being like; similarity.

DNA wasn't even a term or a science when the Jewish Scriptures were being written or translated. In fact, the term DNA wasn't used until 1944. DNA is defined as biological instructions for an organism to develop, survive, and reproduce.² It contains the scientific instructions that make each species unique. Now that is pretty scientific, but it sounds a lot like the movement of the Trinity in the true sense of Christian spirituality—in the evolutionary process of human creation.

Please take notice that I am referring to what many call the Old Testament as the Hebrew Scriptures and, going forward, will refer to what many of us call the New Testament as the Christian Scriptures. Testament is defined as a statement, act, etc., testifying to the fact, validity, or worth of something; testimonial. The reasons behind using these different terms are several. Labeling something as old in today's culture is generally interpreted by most people as rendering it out of date or no longer relevant. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first book of the Hebrew Scriptures was written around 1400 BC/BCE, and the last book of the Christian Scriptures was written by John around 96 AD/CE.

A comment here on the use of BC vs. BCE and AD vs. CE. I use both as an example of our need to let go of something that really doesn't matter—i.e., do you think God really cares or has an opinion? Yet so much negative time, energy, and conflict are spent defending or arguing about things that don't really matter in God's world of reality. I am trying to start the process of helping the idea of letting go and letting God become a part of your lives. Opinions and traditions are fine, but obsessions and preoccupations with them are not.

Now the background.

The BC/AD system was introduced in 525 by the Roman Catholic Monk Dionysius Exiguus to replace the Era of Martyrs system. BC refers to the era before the birth of Jesus—in Latin, Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi—and the English BC stands for Before Christ. AD stands for the Latin Anno Domini, meaning the year of the Lord. The use of the phrase Common Era (CE) can be traced back to 1615, when it was first used in a book written by Johannes Kepler. It was used in the mid-nineteenth century and became popularized in the late twentieth century by the scientific and academic communities in their publications. These scholars desired to emphasize a sensitivity to non-Christians. Hence, they used BCE (Before the Common/Current Era) and CE (Common/Current Era). Today, the Common notation system is the world's most widely used. If this change brings about unity and common ground amongst people of different religious beliefs, great. If it does not, great; it doesn't change the nature, love, mercy, and forgiveness of God.

The big bang took place around 14 billion years ago, and some form of human life appeared about 50,000 years ago. I am not a biblical scholar, historian, or anthropologist. I'm just trying to help us get a perspective and reason for changing our ideas about certain words and terms to be more meaningful going forward. For roughly 1,500 years, the books of the Bible were written to cover a story that started 14 billion years ago, while humanity has only been involved for about 50,000 years or 0.000004 percent of that time—I think that is called a nanosecond! The bottom line is that old and new are irrelevant terms.

My final term here is the word scripture, defined as any sacred writing or books; any writing regarded as authoritative and inviolable, with inviolable defined as something unable to be broken or dishonored. The Bible is not a history book, not a documentary, not a godly resource, to quote a one-liner which has been taken out of context to prove a religious bias and not the religious justification of any act of violence, hate, revenge, war, injustice, or the condemnation of homosexuals.

It's a little-known fact (to quote an often-used phrase of Cliff Clavin from the television comedy show Cheers) of scriptural revelation that God uses the number three often. God approaches Samuel three times before being recognized; the first three of the Ten Commandments pertain to our relationship with God; God's relational Being is triune (Father–Son–Holy Spirit); Jonah is in the belly of the whale for three days; Jesus takes three apostles up on the mountain for his Transfiguration (Peter and the brothers James and John); Peter denies Jesus three times on Holy Thursday; Jesus is in the tomb three days; and Jesus asks Peter three times, after his resurrection, Peter, do you love me? It seems, biblically speaking, it takes three days or three times for something to register or make an impression on us. Three times is the charm of the Bible and may be why I repeat themes, ideas, and reflections three times.

There are over fifty versions of the Bible written just in the English language. My purpose in writing this book is not to prove, argue, or manipulate any of your religious beliefs. The Bible is a text in transition, a story of the human struggle, of a certain race and creed of human beings struggling to realize who they are and who/where/what their source of life and existence is. Unlike most books, the Bible is unique in the fact that it is a story, a revelation, which is something disclosed, something not previously known or realized. It is a revelation about a people who were enslaved, dominated, oppressed, nomadic, and conquered; a people who had their land occupied. Yet somehow, through all these circumstances, they were trying to follow a God whose name was too sacred to say. Of all the tribes, cultures, countries, and peoples through history, the Jewish people of the Hebrew Scriptures were never the strongest, richest, most powerful, best educated, or most historically influential, making contributions to advance the human race. We need to understand, acknowledge, and appreciate the people that God chose, in early human history, to reveal Godself to.

Most Christians have spent their entire religious lives asking the what questions: What do I have to do to go to heaven? What do I have to do so God will like me? What do I have to do so God will forgive me? What will I have to give to the church so God will bless me?

The real questions for us should have been the who questions: