By Fr. James DiLuzio CSP 

Recently I went to see the Bob Dylan biopic A COMPLETE UNKOWN  directed by James Mangold and featuring Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and  Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. The film, its director and its three leading cast members, and its screenplay by Mangold and Jay Cocks are all nominated for Oscars. The movie is a fine, strong film biography of Dylan and the folk scene in the 1960’s. I recommend it to you. You can access a trailer of the film here: A COMPLETE UNKNOWN | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures.

A COMPLETE UNKOWN rekindled my interest in the social protest and justice songs that remain a significant part of American history. As a result, I have been listening to many of these artists’ recordings on various streaming services and I came across one of Bob Dylan’s inspirations, the singer Woody Guthrie.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Woody_Guthrie

Guthrie wrote a song about the devastating DUST BOWL (1930-1936) that hit the southwest in the midst of the GREAT DEPRESSION. The song is titled “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh.” I recall that song as part of the folk songs the Felician Sisters taught us at the heart of our music lessons throughout my eight years of Catholic School.  Give a listen to Woody Guthrie – So long it’s been good to know you  or try Pete Seeger and The Weaver’s rendition:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAG-yYELTQg

Way leads on to way, indeed, so I decided to research “the Dust Bowl,” once again, an endeavor filled with my grammar school music class recollections and thoughts of my teenage years reading John Steinbeck’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH. 

In the hope of deepening my belief in the lessons HISTORY can teach us, and with Pope Francis’ exhortations in LAUDATO SI ringing in my ears, I found this passage in the Encyclopedia Britannica online:

“Following years of overcultivation and generally poor land management in the 1920s, the region—which receives an average rainfall of less than 20 inches (500 mm) in a typical year—suffered a severe drought in the early 1930s that lasted several years. The region’s exposed topsoil, robbed of the anchoring water-retaining roots of its native grasses, was carried off by heavy spring winds. “Black blizzards”  . . . Thousands of families were forced to leave the Dust Bowl at the height of the Great Depression in the early and mid-1930s.”      Source: Dust Bowl | Definition, Duration, Map, & Facts | Britannica

Could it be clearer that human misuse of land and negation of our interrelationship with NATURE causes catastrophe? The term “Black Blizzard” may as easily be applied to the tragic dynamics of the contemporary fires in California and other devastations today. 

I trust you will find this Sunday’s readings at Mass eerily prophetic (SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME, 16 FEBRUARY 2025). The first is from the prophet JEREMIAH 17 beginning with verse 5.

“Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
         who seeks his strength in flesh,
         whose heart turns away from the LORD.
  He is like a barren bush in the desert
            that enjoys no change of season,
            but stands in a lava waste,
                        a salt and empty earth.“

The Gospel come from Luke’s citing of the Beatitudes set in Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain: ”

“Blessed are you who are poor,
                        for the kingdom of God is yours.
            Blessed are you who are now hungry,
                        for you will be satisfied.
            Blessed are you who are now weeping,
                        for you will laugh.
            Blessed are you when people hate you,
                        and when they exclude and insult you,     
                        and denounce your name as evil
                        on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.”

You can find all of Sunday’s Readings here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021625.cfm

May we continue to ponder the value of poverty to emphasize our dependence upon our patient and loving God. Indeed, we all may benefit from a more solid simplicity in the way we live. With Lent just two-and-a-half weeks away. (Ash Wednesday is March 5), contemplate, again, the many ways we interact with NATURE, on both personal, social, political, and international levels. As St. Paul wrote “NOW is the time!” to keep alert and do our part for God and Creation. There is Good News in precedent, and we still have a lot to sing about. Holy Spirit is ever-present, for God does not abandon the people. Whether intentionally or not, Bob Dylan indeed evoked the Holy Spirit in one of his most poignant and beloved songs “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.”  Give it another listen:

Blowin’ in the Wind (2004 Remaster)      Peter, Paul & Mary performance 

Blowing In The Wind (Live On TV, March 1963)   Bob Dylan’s performance