Good News, or Paul's Letter to the Romans - 1. Part One – Blessèd are the Patient

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LIBRETTO

 

 

 

 

Good News, or

Paul’s Letter to the

ROMANS

 

Oratorio

in Two Parts

 

 

 

“Do not wait for the Last Judgment;

It takes place every day."

Albert Camus

 

 

 

 

 

by

AC Benus

 

 

 

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PART ONE – Blessèd are the Patient

 

Scene One: “To Strengthen”

(Lights slowly come up until they blaze on Paul and his greetings to Rome)

 

No. 1 – Dossologia

 

CORO:

 

Now for those who are able,

Proclaim the Good News to strengthen

The words preached by Jesus Christ.

Though hidden for many ages,

The Gospel shows mysteries,

And the command of the eternal.

Praise the Lord alone as wise,

But whose glory is given through

Jesus Christ unto ages

For ever and ever to come.[1]

 

 

No. 2 – Recitativo ed Aria

 

PAUL: (Tenor)

 

[Recitativo]

To all Rome, belovèd of God

And called unto His holiness

By our Father and Jesus Christ,[2]

May grace and peace settle on you,

For I wish to be there and share

The gift of spirit, which strengthens

The common ground we share in faith.[3]

 

[Aria]

I’m not ashamed of the Good News –

The Lord’s Gospel is the power

Leading everyone who believes

Unto ultimate salvation;

First, amid the Jews,

Then amongst the Greeks,

[And now with you, mighty Romans.][4]

 

For in the Word is shown justice

And equanimity begins

In unions where it is revealed

Passing its truths from faith to faith,

Just as Holy Scripture tells us:

“The just live righteous by belief.”[5]

 

[Recap: “I’m not ashamed of the Good News” etc.]

 

 

No. 3 – Coro

 

CORO:

 

Humanity without Christ –

Whatever can be known

Is clear about God,

Since He Himself has made it so.

 

From the world’s first creation –

Realities unseen

Are powers of God

Manifest in things visible.[6]

 

 

Scene Two: “Be Humble”

(Lights dim; music in a minor key slowly builds to the revelations in Scene 3)

 

 

No. 4 – Canzone a due, e Duettino

 

BASS:

 

In former times, men’s senseless hearts

Were darkened with speculations

Serving no purpose not their own.[7]

Foolishly, they turned Creator

Into perishable creature –

Exchanging God’s truth for the lie

Of mankind as mere worshiper

Of bird, beast and slithering thing.[8]

 

BARITONE:

 

They saw not fit acknowledgement

[Through the wonders surrounding them,]

Of God, their mighty Creator.

So the Lord delivered them up

To their own nous most unseemly –

Ill-will, envy, deceit, bick’ring;

Malicious, murderers, crafty,

Filled to the brim with dark wickedness.[9]

 

BASS:

 

They boast of false religion,

While slandering like gossips,

While judging through insolence

And the haughty sense they know best.[10]

 

BARITONE:

 

They are those without conscience,

Living without loyalty,

Communing without pity

And judging without affection.[11]

 

[a due at recapitulation]

 

 

No. 5 – Aria

 

COUNTERTENOR:

 

That’s why every one of you

Who judges another

Is inexcusable.

And by your own pronouncements

Condemn none but yourself,

Knowing you err the same.[12]

 

Do you suppose you will escape

The sentence you pass on others?

Avoid the condemnation wrought

Falsely by you upon others,

While you have done the selfsame things?

Or do you presume His kindness

Will be meted to you alone

And your sham claim to righteousness?

No, your hard and impatient heart

In retribution will be shown

To all equals on Judgment Day

When you must pay back every man

For wrongs your heart did against him.

So, know God’s kindness is only

An invitation to live here

Already equaled with mankind,

For life eternal is granted

To those whose lives strive patiently

For glory, honor and the right

Done selflessly while still alive.[13]

 

Do not go along and say:

“We but pass God’s judgement,

[Knowing what he’d condemn,]"

Thinking your own actions right,

But knowing falsehood too

Resides in your black heart.[14]

 

That’s why every one of you

Who judges another

Is inexcusable.

And by your own pronouncements

Condemn none but yourself,

Knowing you err the same.[15]

 

 

No. 6 – Coro

 

CORO:

[in canone fashion]

 

For who then places themselves

Amongst false positions

Of superiority

Amongst their fellow men?

 

For false charges under sin

Are the wicked’s dominion,

As it says in scripture:

 

[in parte fashion]

 

“There is no just person –

No, not even one –

Who thinks they understand

While they search for God.

 

For all take the wrong course,

All alike, worthless,

When one acts unworthy –

Yes, that’s even one –

Their throats, like open tombs;

Their tongues, false idols;

 

Venom glosses their lips

Curses bitter their breath;

They’re quick to choose bloodshed,

[Yes, that’s every one –]

Strew the course with ruin,

 

Delight in misery

As they wend their way.

 

They know no path to peace,

[No, not even one –]

Fear not what they see

As the true, living God

[Before them in each other].”[16]

 

 

Scene Three: ”Three Things That Last”

(Bright and celebratory)

 

No. 7 – Recitativo ed Rondò

 

SOPRANO:

 

[Recitativo]

“Now I will show you the way

That will surpass all others.”[17]

 

[Rondò]

If I speak with human and angelic tongues,

And have faith great enough to move mountains,

Or comprehend all shadowed things,

But have not love in me, I am nothing.

Love’s patient; love’s kind; love is not jealous;

Love does not rejoice in wrong, but in truth;

There is no limit to love or hope’s trust,

No faith where love has no forbearance.

I’ve put aside childish things, rejecting

Sight as if through a dark mirror’s reflection,

For now I know in the end three things last:

Faith, hope and love, and love’s the greatest of these.[18]

 

 

Scene Four: “Now of His Love we may Boast”

(The celebration continues and builds right to the climax of Part One)

 

No. 8 – Recitativo ed Quartetto

 

PAUL: (Tenor)

 

[Recitativo]

Now that we’re justified by faith,

And at peace through God with Jesus,

We can boast of hope for glory,

And even tout our afflictions,

For it’s by our imperfections

We have been tested for virtue,

And through endurance, found great hope.[19]

 

BASS:

[Quartetto]

 

And hope will not leave us disappointed

Because through the Holy Spirit is poured

God’s love to the very center of us

[So we may pour it on others again].[20]

 

COUNTERTENOR:

 

At the appointed time, when powerless,

Christ sacrificed himself for godless Man,

And we may boast of this inequity,

Knowing he gave his life for all others.[21]

 

BARITONE:

 

For if we were once thought God’s enemies,

The death of His son reconciled us,

And now His love we may boast as well,

[Seeking to let all men know they are saved].[22]

 

SOPRANO:

 

We have been linked to Christ through his death,

Baptized through blood with spirit on our heads,

And through this baptizing, we were buried,

[Laid in his tomb, awaiting our new life].[23]

 

[BASS and SOPRANO a due at recapitulation, then BARITONE and COUNTERTENOR a due as well]

 

BASS; COUNTERTENOR; BARITONE; SOPRANO:

 

If with likeness to death we’ve been with him,

And bodily placed with him in his grave,

So too we rose on the third day with him

[Filled in our hearts with love for all Mankind]![24]

 

 

Fine della Parte Prima

 

No. 9 – Recitativo e Coro con Tenore

 

PAUL: (Tenor)

 

[Recitativo]

Therefore, offer not your bodies

To be the weapons of evil.

Offer yourself unto God

As men who’ve come back from the dead.[25]

 

[start Coro – male voices only]

“Thanks be to God, though you were once slaves to sin,

You are now free under the rule of grace.”[26]

 

Sin will no longer have power

Because you are under His grace.

 

[males continue their verse in canonic fashion; enter the female Coro, singing:]

“Free of your sins, you’re now bound to justice,

And can teach others this freeing doctrine.”[27]

 

The wages of sin are but death;

But God grants life through Jesus Christ.[28]

 

CORO:

 

In you, my brethren

Has died sin through the body of Jesus Christ,

And we who have

Risen in his tomb with him must go on

To bear suffering

That others may reap of the fruit.[29]

 

PAUL: (Tenor)

 

[Solo]

Now we have been released from Law,

Dead to the things that enslaved us,

And we must serve the new spirit,

Not the antiquated letter.[30]

 

[Recap: “Thanks be to God, though you were…” etc. fugato-style]

 

 

[End of Part One]

 

 

 

 

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