Mtr Mary Trainor

“Your lips may be near, but darling, where is your heart…*

Dear friend,

In January of 1953, I was a newly minted 6-year-old, and little did I know that my favorite song was about to wend its way to my ears and into my heart. Forever.

The Song from Moulin Rouge, from the1952 movie Moulin Rouge, was being recorded for single release by vocalist Felicia Sanders, whose voice continues to mesmerize. Your lips may be near, but darling, where is your heart?

***

Listeners are left to wonder, is she sensing some two-timing, some duplicitousness? On that theme, maybe Albert Einstein addresses it more clearly: The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

That’s a pretty heavy quote from Einstein, all the more heavy when I confess how true I find it. And even more so when I recognize hollow words coming from my own mouth.

***

“Lip service” is on Jesus’ mind today when he engages a group of Pharisees and scribes in Chapter 15 of Matthew’s Gospel.

But first, that group chides Jesus because his disciples eat with dirty hands, a violation of tradition (human-made,) but not of law (God-given.)

Jesus flips the table on them by saying they favor tradition over the Fifth Commandment. He says disrespect of parents is at the root of a practice of some to claim giving money to the temple obviates them from financially supporting their parents.

A clear manipulation of God’s expectations. Jesus says they offer only a hat tip to God’s requirement.

Ms. Sanders might inquire: Where is your heart? Or, as Jesus and Albert Einstein might say: you offer only lip service to an ideal.

—Mtr Mary

*Listen here (don’t give up, Ms. Sanders’ vocal contribution comes later in the performance)

Song from Moulin Rouge. Percy Faith & Felicia Sanders recorded it as a single in early 1953. It became the No. 1 Billboard hit that same year.