What were we ever singing for?
I’m gifted the trust of the pulpit at a local congregation this Sunday. Earlier today I was working on my words. In the background, a M*A*S*H marathon. The episode, “Dear Uncle Abdul” caught my attention. During surgery, the main characters wonder why there is no song for the Korean War. Fr Mulcahy decides to write a Korean War song. At the end of the episode Fr Mulcahy, sitting at a piano in the Officers Club, sings what he has written. Seems fitting for such a time as this.
There’s no one singing war songs now like people used to do,
No “Over There,” no “Praise the Lord,” no “Glory Hallelu.”
Perhaps at last we’ve asked ourselves
what we should have asked before,
With the pain and death this madness brings,
what were we ever singing for?
Fr. Mulcahy’s Korean War Song
(from episode “Dear Uncle Abdul”; sung by Fr. Mulcahy)