Music Tuesday: Imagine (by John Lennon) But the Fr. Francis Version

You know the John Lennon original, “Imagine.”  He and his wife Yoko Ono wrote it and produced it in 1971.  It’s a good song but one that irritates me.  While it imagines a world of peace and materiality, it also imagines a world without religion, as if religion were the cause of unrest.  It has become an anthem for atheists.  Here are the lyrics.

 

 

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today... Aha-ah...

 

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace... You...

 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

 

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world... You...

 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

What’s silly about the song is to expect that peace and disparity can only come by the removal of religion from the culture.  While it’s true there are some religions that promote violence and selfishness, the only way that peace and prosperity can come is through Christianity, true and self-sacrificing Christianity.  We who are Christians know this.

Along comes Fr. Francis Maple OFMCap, a Franciscan Capuchin friar from England who has recorded many Christian hymns and written quite a few books which can be found on Amazon.  Keeping with good Franciscan humility, Fr. Francis doesn’t say much about himself on his website, which contains a wealth of Catholic information and his homilies.  If you go to YouTube and search his name, you will come up with a whole host of videos of his recordings. 

I came across Fr. Francis’s music from the Time for Reflections blog, authored by Victor S E Moubarak, who is a frequently comments on my blog and I sometimes comment on his.  I have highlighted a couple of Victor’s books on my blog: The Priest and the Prostitute and his collection of short stories, Feline Catastrophes.  Both are very funny.

Occasionally Victor, who has known Fr. Francis for a long time, embeds Fr. Francis’s song videos on Time for Reflections.  I never thought about asking if Fr. Francis was a real person.  Victor is great at creating characters (such as Fr. Ignatius, who is a fictional character in several of Victor’s novels and stories) and I jumped to the erroneous conclusion that Fr. Francis was another creation and that it was Victor himself singing in those Fr. Francis’s videos.  Well Victor set me straight when he posted Fr. Francis’s version of John Lennon’s Imagine, and I asked about Fr. Francis.  Fr. Francis Maple is real! 

So I want to share Fr. Francis’s version of Imagine.  Of course it is the opposite of an atheist’s day dream.

 

Father Francis changes are just in the first two stanzas.  Here is what Fr. Francis did with the lyrics.

 

Imagine there's a heaven

It's easy if you try

There’s a hell below us

You’d better choose before you die

Imagine all the people

Finding the right way... Aha-ah...

 

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

The love of God shines through

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace... You...

Now that is so much more appealing than the original version.  It eliminates the distasteful part of the song and makes God shine through!  Now whenever I come across the original Imagine, I will remember the Fr. Francis version.  Thank you Father Francis!