In our time we are apt to overlook it. We would do well to consider it with thoughtful care. To call chant into play is to remind us that there is always some sense that the church's song is an alien one. The song incarnates itself into our rhythms, to be sure, but it does not leave us in their bondage. Habemus ad Dominum -We lift them to the Lord.
Language breaks down, but it points to our goal and being.
Our response is in Christ, drawn by Christ, toward Christ's ascension where Christ leads us. We are drawn to the Sanctus and the holiness of the one who comes in the name of the Lord. That suggest three things. Once again, the highest human craft is evoked in our musical response. Bringing the slovenly or ugly or worst of our craft is surely not appropriate to this center of all centers where grace apprehends us.