Letter: Michelle Branch brought the word of God

Dear Michelle,

Our names are Enzo Randazzo and Matthew Malicki. We’re two seminarians at St. John Vianney Seminary which is on the campus of the University of St. Thomas where you just performed on Saturday night. We want to thank you and let you know that we were deeply moved that night because of your show. One reason is simply because of the genuineness of your music, a pure expression of what’s on your heart. On top of this, we had a very long discussion with another seminarian named Juan who is from Mexico originally (now studying at St. Paul Seminary, the other seminary on the UST campus – yes there’s two seminaries on one campus!) We talked about evangelization.

Both of us had attempted to speak with you after the show but we obviously weren’t successful (hence the letter!) We had our minds set that we were going to ask you to go grab a cup of coffee with us, we wanted to hear about your life and share ours with you. You are a pretty down to earth person and might have just said yes! We wanted to talk to you about the two bookends of your performance. In the beginning, you mentioned you went to Catholic school and at the end you said “Peace be with you.”

It seemed as though you were trying to relate to us because we were on a Catholic campus. What really got us was the fact that you said “Peace be with you” and not something like “Peace out” but it was explicitly “Peace be with you.” That’s a response from the Catholic Mass which gets it from Christ. You brought us his word.

When he appeared to his Apostles after he rose from the dead he said to them “Peace be with you” and breathed the Holy Spirit on them (just like God breathed his spirit into Adam at creation, so Christ breathes the Holy Spirit into us who are spiritually dead with his resurrected life.) The early disciples received the life of God into their being; we have received that same gift.

You brought us a gift. You shared your gift of music; your talent for songwriting and singing are beautiful and we thank God for them and we thank you for sharing them. You shared your gift and you spoke peace on our lives. That is beautiful as is your music.

You have music in your heart. The heart longs for what is true, good and beautiful. This is mainly why we are writing you this letter. We want to remind you why your heart seeks beauty.

Your heart is Imago Dei, made in the image and likeness of God. God’s heart is beautiful and all creation is beautiful. All beauty is a reflection, an echo, of his heart. All hearts are beautiful, yours is no different, nor ours, nor any other person on this planet. However, sometimes we marr that beauty, we fall, we make mistakes, we sin – sin is a denial of who we are and the beauty that is within us and it a rejection of the beauty that calls us.

You may not know it, but your music was used by God tonight. Anything that is good is used by him to bring him glory and to bring the truth to his people. Your songs which are about love, they are reflections of the love relationship between God and us. For example, your song “Everywhere” really touched us tonight.

It seems to be about faith, about God being everywhere even though we can’t see him. We can’t see him when we’re awake “’Cause every time I look you’re not there,” but we sleep in an ocean of love at night “And every time I sleep you’re always there.” I especially like the lyrics “And when I touch your hand it’s then I understand.” It reminded me of St. Thomas the Apostle who doubted that Christ had risen from the dead. However, when he encountered Christ’s real presence Jesus told him, “Take your hand and put it in my side, do not be unbelieving but believe.” Thomas had said before that he wouldn’t believe unless he put his hand inside the nail marks to prove that Jesus had indeed risen.

This desire for resurrection that Thomas sought is a desire that all human hearts have. We all feel our fallenness. The doctrine of original sin is the only doctrine that the Catholic Church teaches which every human being will readily admit. There is something essentially not right with us, something off, something fallen. We’re not OK. But we’re also not alone.

We stood there in the back of the crowd and we were looking at all these people and wondering what was going on in their lives. What are these students going to be doing after the show? What motivates these students? After the show, will they make fruitful or rather dangerous decisions? Do some of them have broken hearts right now? Do they have broken lives?

The Gospel message speaks directly to that. Christ has entered into our shame, our loneliness, our pain, our fear. He took our sin and nailed it to the tree of life, so that just as sin entered the world through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so now life comes through the tree of the knowledge of love and mercy.

This is Christianity, this is hope. There is a way out of our fallenness, and in fact, that way is a person: Jesus.

This is why we are studying to be Catholic Priests. We have encountered him; we don’t simply intellectually assent to the fact that God exists, we’ve experienced that God exists and we want others to experience his love, too. His love is real. That is our message to you today.

We want to thank you for coming to the University of St. Thomas. We want to thank you for sharing your gifts. We want to thank you for being a mirror and a conduit for Christ. Whether you knew it or not, you brought us closer to God.

Thank you and peace be with you as well,

Enzo Randazzo and Matthew Malicki