October 24, 1999
Jaci Velasquez, without a doubt, is one of the premier talents in the Contemporary Christian music world, if not thee music world. An awesome voice for a brand new 20-year old. I’m sure anyone who witnessed her concert last Friday night at the Southern High School auditorium or on Saturday night at the UOG fieldhouse would certainly agree.
In the past, this listener had personally paid only passing attention to Contemporary Christian music in general until I heard her “God So Loved The World”. Now the car radio is pre-set to KOLG and the CD’s are piling up.
Surely, many were moved and touched by her performance. The depth of lyrical interpretation, the breadth of her vocal range-especially the low, even sensuous alto, the fluid oneness of an exceptionally together band, and certainly her intensely vibrant personna combined to create a rare magic moment of technical, musical wizardry and soul-filled praise.
But, at least to this attendee, the real import of the evening was her personal witness and commitment to “True Love Waits”- a program wherein young people commit themselves to remain a virgin until marriage. I don’t know if being the father of five beautiful young girls (and three handsome young boys) had anything to do with it, but I was moved to voice my full-hearted approval of such a program.
The irony though is that the virtues of virginity, and indeed the very commandment, in order to be preserved and promulgated, have to be formulated into a program and taught from the secular stage via a Christian music artist.
And thanks be to God for that. But, meanwhile, where is that same beautiful teaching to be heard and lifted up in our Catholic Churches and homes, taught from sacred stages and spaces via our priests and parents?
Please forgive me if you are the exception, but I had to ask myself when was the last time I heard anything seriously taught from the pulpit about the virtues of virginity and God’s most sacred plan for the body he created? Sadly, though a weekly (and sometimes daily) Mass-goer, I can’t remember.
It strikes me as ironic that here we are, the Catholic Church, almost the sole keeper of the flame when it comes to defending God’s absolute right to the womb, have to be reminded, or perhaps even first hear, about the fundamental virtue of virginity from the stage of a public school, from the voice of a non-Catholic 20-year old girl.
Thank you Jaci. Continue to preach this most basic Christian virtue to our children until we as parents and priests have the courage and inspiration to teach our own that “True Love Waits”.
Tim Rohr
October 24, 1999
