Benedictus

Karl Jenkins

Hoshiah-na! Blessed is he who cometh in the Name of God.

These are the words—quoted from Psalm 118—that the populace of Jerusalem shouted in euphoria when Jesus entered the city for the Pesach pilgrimage through the gate of the eastern wall, also called the Golden Gate or Gate of Mercy. He was celebrated like a king, the people waving palm branches and laying their garments on the ground before him. Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and word of this outrageous miracle must have spread like wildfire throughout the land. It only took a few days, however, and the same populace fiercely clamored for his torture and execution on the cross.

Benedictus is Latin for “Blessed is he” (Baruch hu in Hebrew), which is a formula of praise and glorification. The Benedictus is part of the liturgy in connection with the Sanctus, the Kedushah, the highest prayer of sanctification and glorification of the Divine (found in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4). As such, it is included in any Mass and eucharistic celebration.

In Karl Jenkins’ choral masterwork, The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, the Benedictus is the 12th movement. It stands out in its serenity, luminosity, and immense effect on the listener.

Jenkins wrote the Mass for Peace based on the traditional Mass architecture, but dramatically expanded its context to include passages from writers and poets like Kipling, Tennyson, and John Dryden; from other scriptures such as the Koran and the Hindu Mahābhārata; and from a Māori prayer and testimonies from Hiroshima.

By the time the Benedictus arrives in Jenkins’ Mass, the listener has passed through a great deal of war-torn, grief-filled emotional darkness: the stomp of marching armies, the anguish of Kipling’s Hymn Before Action, the mourning of the movement that evokes the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. That is why the Benedictus is the most memorable part of this composition, one that in the midst of defeat signals the presence of an altogether different reality that comes from way beyond the human condition: Blessed is He who cometh from a Divine Realm.

Blessed are those who come in the name of peace.