Stuart C. Henry - "Of Madness and Man and La Mancha" (April 27, 1969)

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	(whistling)	0:11
	(sacred organ music)	0:52
	(choir singing faintly)	2:56
-	Let us offer onto God our unison prayer of confession,	5:09
	and for pardon, let us pray.	5:15
	Oh most merciful Father	5:20
	who willis, not the death of any sinner,	5:23
	but rather that he should return unto thee and be saved.	5:27
	Comfort us who are grieved by the weight of our sins.	5:32
	We confess to thee	5:37
	that we have been slow to believe the good news	5:39
	made known in Jesus Christ.	5:42
	We confess that like the disciples of old,	5:45
	we have not expected great things to happen to us.	5:49
	We have doubted the power of Christ's resurrection	5:54
	in our lives.	5:57
	Forgive us for believing that the triumph of right	5:59
	is too good to be true.	6:03
	Restore us through thy pardoning grace,	6:06
	to what childlike faith.	6:09
	We pray in Jesus name.	6:12
	Amen.	6:15
	Now hear these words of assurance, of pardon.	6:18
	As the heaven is high above the earth,	6:25
	so great is God's mercy, toward them that fear him.	6:29
	Like as a father pity at his children,	6:36
	so the Lord pity them that fear him.	6:41
	If we confess our sins,	6:46
	He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,	6:50
	and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.	6:57
	As far as the east is from the west,	7:02
	so far has God removed our transgressions from us.	7:06
	Therefore, be of good courage.	7:14
	(choir singing faintly)	8:19
	There is one announcement	10:40
	that I would like to draw the attention	10:42
	of our radio congregation to.	10:44
	The second announcement in our order of worship.	10:47
	This afternoon at 02:30,	10:52
	the Mary Duke Biddle Memorial organ	10:57
	will be dedicated here in the chapel to our right.	11:01
	The dedication recital	11:08
	will be played by Mr. E. Power Biggs,	11:11
	who is one of America's most celebrated organists,	11:15
	and the public is cordially invited to attend.	11:19
	And I am happy also to inform you all that	11:25
	Mr. Walter Holtcamp,	11:28
	who built the organ, is worshiping with us,	11:31
	at this service.	11:35
	The lector at this service	11:37
	is the chaplain to the university.	11:40
-	Let us hear the reading of a portion of scripture.	11:48
	This being the first of 13 verses	11:51
	of chapter nine of the gospel, according to Saint Matthew,	11:54
	"Jesus went on board a ship and passed over	11:58
	and came into his hometown.	12:02
	Immediately, some people brought to him a paralyzed man,	12:05
	lying on a sleeping pad.	12:08
	And because Jesus saw the faith of the bearers,	12:11
	he said under the paralytic,	12:14
	'Son be of good cheer, your sins are pardoned.'	12:16
	Where upon certain teachers of the law said to themselves,	12:21
	'This man speaks profanely.'	12:25
	Jesus read their inward thoughts and said,	12:30
	'Why must you have such evil thoughts in your minds?	12:34
	Which is easier to say,	12:38
	your sins are pardoned	12:40
	or to say arise and walk?'	12:43
	But to make it quite plain	12:47
	that the son of man has authority on earth to pardon sins.	12:48
	He then said to the paralyzed man,	12:53
	'Get up, take up your sleeping pad and return to your home.'	12:55
	The man sprang to his feet and went to his home.	13:02
	When the crowd saw this, they were awestruck	13:06
	and described the glory to God for giving such power to men.	13:09
	And as Jesus went along,	13:16
	he saw a man named Matthew presiding over the tax office.	13:18
	Jesus said unto him, 'Follow me.'	13:22
	And he arose and followed Him.	13:26
	Later on as Jesus was in the house	13:29
	sitting at the dinner table,	13:32
	many tax collectors and other disreputable people	13:34
	came and sat down with Him and His disciples.	13:37
	The Pharisees noticed this	13:41
	and they began to say unto his disciples,	13:43
	'Why does your teacher eat	13:47
	in the company of tax gatherers and outcasts?'	13:48
	Jesus overheard the remark and replied,	13:53
	'It is not men in good health who require a doctor,	13:57
	but they who are sick.'"	14:02
	Suppose you go away	14:04
	and learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6	14:06
	"I like mercy and not mere sacrifice"	14:11
	"For I did not come to invite the pious,	14:17
	but the outcast to repentance."	14:20
	Amen.	14:24
	(sacred organ music playing)	14:26
	♪ Glory be to the Father ♪	14:33
	♪ And to the son ♪	14:37
	♪ And to the Holy Spirit ♪	14:40
	(choir singing faintly)	14:44
	The Lord be with you.	15:16
Congregation	And (indistinct)	15:19
-	Let us pray.	15:20
	Let us offer first a Prayer of Thanksgiving,	15:27
	for the joy which is born of sympathy and sorrow,	15:32
	for the joy of the lost soul finding love again,	15:37
	and for the joy of the angels over one sinner that repented.	15:43
	Glory be to thee, O Lord.	15:49
	For all pure comedy and laughter	15:54
	and for the gift of humor and gaiety of heart,	15:57
	glory be to thee O Lord.	16:01
	For all who have consecrated (indistinct)	16:05
	with the love of Christ,	16:07
	glory be to thee, O Lord.	16:11
	For all singers and musicians,	16:15
	for all who work and farm	16:19
	and color to increase the joy of life,	16:22
	glory be to thee O Lord.	16:26
	For poets and craftsman,	16:29
	for all who rejoice in that and make things well.	16:33
	Glory be to thee O Lord.	16:39
	For all who have loved the common people	16:42
	and born their sorrows in their hearts,	16:44
	glory be to the O Lord.	16:49
	For profits and reformers,	16:52
	who cry shame on all social wrong	16:56
	and point the way to fare a life for all the people,	16:58
	glory be to thee O Lord Most High.	17:03
	And a prayer of intercession.	17:11
	We bring before thee O God the troubles	17:14
	and pedals of peoples and nations,	17:17
	the sighing of prisoners and captives,	17:21
	the sorrows of the bereaved,	17:26
	the necessities of strangers,	17:30
	the helplessness of the weak,	17:34
	the despondency of the weary,	17:37
	the failing powers of the aging.	17:41
	O God drawn near to each,	17:45
	for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	17:49
	And a prayer of supplication.	17:55
	O thou and who's boundless being laid up	18:00
	all treasures of wisdom, truth and holiness,	18:02
	grant us through constant fellowship with thee	18:07
	the true graces of Christian character,	18:10
	the grace of courage,	18:16
	whether in suffering or in danger,	18:19
	the grace of preparedness,	18:23
	lest we enter into temptation.	18:26
	The grace to treat others as we would have others treat us.	18:30
	The grace of charity,	18:38
	that we may refrain from hasty judgment,	18:42
	the grace of silence,	18:47
	that we may refrain from hasty speech,	18:50
	the grace of forgiveness towards all who have wronged us,	18:55
	the grace of tenderness towards all who are weaker,	19:00
	and the grace of steadfastness	19:08
	in continuing to desire,	19:12
	that thou will do as now we pray.	19:15
	And as our savior Christ has taught us,	19:23
	we humbly pray together saying,	19:26
	our father who art in heaven,	19:30
	hallowed be thy name,	19:34
	thy kingdom come,	19:36
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	19:38
	Give us this day our daily bread	19:43
	and forgive us our trespasses	19:46
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	19:49
	and lead us not into temptation,	19:53
	but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom	19:55
	and the power and the glory forever.	19:59
	Amen.	20:04
-	In the name of the Father and of the Son	20:38
	and of the Holy Spirit.	20:42
	Amen.	20:44
	Taken all together,	20:52
	it was an unlikely setting of what happened,	20:55
	for 15th century Spain was no place to look for inspiration.	21:00
	In the closing years of the century,	21:06
	a group of foolhardy sailors	21:10
	with outrageous confidence	21:12
	and a magnetized needle floating in a bowl of water,	21:14
	had sailed to the west,	21:18
	and had returned with maps of Africa and the Americas.	21:21
	Almost overnight, the world doubled in its size.	21:27
	And if there was now twice as much treasure	21:32
	for the greedy and the bold,	21:34
	there was also twice as much danger about.	21:37
	For it was not long before that a curious German	21:42
	had discovered a combination,	21:45
	that would blow the roof from his laboratory	21:49
	or the head from his enemy.	21:54
	And it was not alone the physical world that was threatened	21:57
	and simply in matters of fair fields and firearms,	22:00
	because thanks to the invention of moveable type,	22:07
	Western man was now being flooded	22:11
	with wave after wave of printed books,	22:14
	inundating him with new notions that washed away	22:17
	at the old structures and the older ideas.	22:22
	There was no stability without,	22:28
	and there was no tranquility within,	22:30
	nor was that the worst.	22:33
	For while the explorers	22:36
	whatever pushing further and further,	22:37
	trying to unloose the very bounds of the ocean.	22:40
	And while the scholars were insistently asking that	22:43
	unanswered and unanswerable question, why, why, why?	22:46
	inquisitors under royal mandate,	22:52
	what probing into the darkest corners of men's minds	22:55
	and searching out the secret shadows of their homes,	23:00
	looking for heresy, testing for faith.	23:04
	So that sanity was remote from man's life,	23:09
	nightmare in darkness and terror by day,	23:13
	this is the way it was,	23:17
	with a man unwilling,	23:19
	even in the secrecy of his own family	23:21
	to speak his inmost thoughts.	23:24
	It was a mad world	23:28
	or more accurately it was a world of men driven to madness.	23:30
	And especially did the situation seems so	23:37
	to one Cervantes,	23:39
	who sat down to consider the matter	23:42
	and wrote his letter to the world,	23:46
	in the form of the life	23:49
	and adventures of Don Quixote of La Mancha,	23:51
	for the villages are these own region of La Mancha	23:57
	were no safer than the grand cities of Castillo.	24:00
	Nothing was stranger about this word to his generation	24:06
	than the enthusiasm with which it was received.	24:11
	Then, and later.	24:15
	Some 400 years after the time of Cervantes,	24:18
	New York was treated to a play with music	24:22
	called "The Man of La Mancha".	24:26
	It was a skill for blending,	24:29
	of the life and the career of Cervantes	24:32
	and of Don Quixote, the foolish knight who they invented.	24:36
	It was a play about compassion and pity	24:41
	and honor and virtue,	24:47
	and self-sacrifice,	24:50
	and New Yorkers loved it.	24:53
	Instead of turning their backs upon this play,	24:56
	the men of Gotham embraced it and held it tightly	25:00
	and they have done so ever since.	25:05
	Presented originally, modestly in an off-Broadway house,	25:08
	which means in relatively small and inadequate quarters,	25:13
	and as cheaply as possible,	25:17
	it was forced by public demand	25:19
	to move to a large metropolitan theater.	25:21
	And there, it has continued for years	25:25
	to play to standing room only.	25:28
	Surrounded by other productions that come and go	25:32
	in which the players sometimes confused art with the ability	25:36
	or rather the willingness,	25:42
	to act condescending and to speak dirt.	25:44
	This play continues to present itself	25:48
	to houses that are filled, night after night.	25:51
	And the houses aren't just filled	25:56
	with the matrons from Upper Montclair,	25:58
	or with children and company with their nannies.	26:02
	The houses are filled if one may judge,	26:05
	by the fetishes,	26:09
	and the dress of those who sit about him when he goes,	26:11
	the houses are filled with the blithe and the spirited,	26:15
	with the beautiful and the young.	26:19
	Surely there is a sermon here, could we but discover it?	26:23
	So let us try,	26:27
	and let us begin with the man, Cervantes.	26:29
	But his story is no chronicle of success,	26:33
	rather it is a catalog of catastrophe.	26:37
	The grotesque failure in an unsympathetic world	26:41
	where he was forced to live,	26:44
	begins with his birth and continues as his family moves	26:47
	from city to city throughout Central Spain.	26:51
	While he is still a young man,	26:55
	he enlisted in the army as a common soldier,	26:57
	and for his trouble,	27:01
	he loses the use of his left hand in a Mediterranean battle.	27:01
	Subsequently attempting to sail back to his native Spain,	27:07
	he is captured by barbaric pirates.	27:11
	And for five years he was a slave in Algiers.	27:14
	Ransom comes but tardily,	27:19
	and thereafter through the rest of his life,	27:22
	Cervantes is in and out of prison	27:26
	as he is in and out of debt,	27:29
	and in and out of favor with the inquisition.	27:32
	And yet the spirit which informs his word to the generation	27:37
	is broader than the bitterness of any one man could ever be.	27:43
	It's deeper than the despair that would ever be allowed	27:48
	to a single individual.	27:51
	Consider if you will, a question that he raises,	27:55
	not for himself, but for the whole mad world	27:59
	and for all the people who are trapped within it.	28:05
	He is speaking in the play,	28:10
	he is awaiting the hooded inquisitors of rat and state,	28:12
	and he is jailed with less rather than more justice,	28:17
	but he speaks.	28:21
	"I have lived 50 years, and I have seen life as it is.	28:23
	I have seen misery and pain and hunger	28:30
	and cruelty beyond belief.	28:35
	I have heard the singing from taverns	28:38
	and I have heard the moans from bundles of filth	28:41
	lying inert in the street.	28:44
	I have seen it all.	28:47
	I have fought in battle	28:49
	and seen men die in the field,	28:50
	or worse, under the slow lash in Africa.	28:53
	I have held them in my arms in the final moments,	28:57
	and they died despairing.	29:01
	There was no glory,	29:03
	there were no gallant words,	29:05
	only the confusion and the agony and their eyes	29:08
	and the whimpering question, why?	29:11
	And I do not think they asked why they were dying,	29:14
	they asked why they lived	29:17
	in a world where life itself is lunatic,	29:22
	who can say where Magnis lies?	29:25
	And so Cervantes set out as a service to his generation	29:29
	to give a word to the men of his time.	29:35
	He knows of course,	29:40
	that there has never been a time	29:41
	when the world was free of heartache	29:43
	and of despair.	29:46
	Never a time when the world was free of agony,	29:48
	and he knows that there was a time	29:52
	when men believe that knights might ride out gallantly	29:54
	to slay dragons,	29:59
	to deliver maidens,	30:01
	to break open prisons,	30:03
	to lift up the fallen.	30:05
	But that time has long since passed.	30:08
	The knight's armor is tarnished,	30:11
	the plune is the bedraggled.	30:14
	The knight (indistinct) in his cumbersome armor	30:17
	is no match for the swift evil of his own time.	30:21
	And perhaps, just perhaps,	30:25
	the very notion that the knight ever was significant,	30:29
	is an idea that is now being exploded with the new notions	30:33
	in the printed books.	30:36
	And so Cervantes sets out to write a parody upon knighthood,	30:38
	and to say to his generation,	30:43
	that whatever else an age of grief and misery needs,	30:46
	it does not need a knight,	30:50
	for the time when he would be relevant	30:52
	has long since passed.	30:55
	And yet, because Cervantes is wise,	30:59
	he chooses not to preach, but to entertain,	31:03
	knowing that martyrdom lends dignity to a cause,	31:08
	but well aimed raring can kill it.	31:12
	And so Don Quixote is himself a ridiculous character	31:16
	a veritable lunatic.	31:21
	Toothless and wheezing,	31:24
	this mad knight rides out	31:26
	on a swayed back verminous charger,	31:28
	imagining himself a titan of romance	31:31
	and too silly even to be pathetic.	31:35
	Hard by his warm side there is a warped misshapen peasant	31:38
	far better fitted for tending cabbages and swine	31:44
	than for acting the part of the squad.	31:48
	But the two go out,	31:50
	(indistinct) pick a rose if ever there was one.	31:52
	Realism has their way with these two.	31:57
	And with his lady, Dulcinea,	32:00
	for she is no more than a common slacken,	32:04
	and her breath is redolent of garlic and onions.	32:08
	And yet the story is not vulgar,	32:13
	the story is not commonplace,	32:18
	the story is not irrelevant.	32:21
	These earthy creatures rise up out of their clay	32:25
	and they challenge comparison with ancient and worthy folk.	32:30
	They become the very embodiment of our own selves	32:35
	and they speak to us.	32:38
	Just as the novel spoke to Cervantes' own time,	32:40
	and just as the play, "The Man of La Mancha" speaks to us,	32:45
	he set out to write the story of a ridiculous night,	32:50
	a parody on knighthood,	32:54
	but his generation hears him speaking something else.	32:57
	And so does ours.	33:02
	Now, why?	33:04
	How did the miracle happen?	33:06
	How is it that this madman, becomes a kind of saint	33:08
	and this tedious peasant becomes a sort of model?	33:14
	We are not the first to ask the question.	33:21
	In the play, Aldonza, that poor wretched, derelict,	33:24
	whose lips that kiss the flesh of a dozen races,	33:30
	"Aldonza." Asks Sancho,	33:35
	"Why do you follow after Don Quixote?	33:39
	Why do you follow him?"	33:43
	"I don't know," says Sancho, "but I like him.	33:46
	I really like him."	33:51
	"Why? You don't get anything out of it." Resists the girl.	33:53
	"I know, but I can't explain why I really like him."	33:56
	You see the question asked more than the words inquire,	34:03
	and the answer is more significant than it first appears,	34:07
	for Aldonza's doubt and Sancho's faith,	34:11
	will introduce us to a similar experience.	34:17
	What his answer translates to is this,	34:20
	I really like him because he likes me,	34:24
	but it is more than this.	34:29
	You see, the world has always loved the fool,	34:31
	the fool no less than the rest of us	34:35
	is caught in a world of madness	34:37
	and he is subjected to the misery of circumstances	34:40
	that he can't control,	34:43
	but he behaves as if they weren't true.	34:44
	The fool of course, looks through the facts and beyond them,	34:48
	and so he evades the facts and dissolves events.	34:52
	And in the end, he finally cast doubt upon the fact itself.	34:57
	Do you see, it is only the fool who can treat the king,	35:01
	like a coloner,	35:06
	and yet the fool by his behavior may demonstrate	35:08
	that the king is less than noble?	35:12
	And so we like the fool,	35:15
	but what we like him for most of all,	35:17
	is that he ignores the fact	35:20
	of what we seem to be.	35:22
	My neighbor says, "(indistinct) think that I am nothing,	35:25
	but if you will, the keeper of a pig sty.	35:29
	But Don Quixote sees through the fact,	35:33
	he sees me.	35:36
	And he sees me because he knows what I am.	35:39
	And because I understand that he knows me,	35:43
	somehow I know myself a little better,	35:47
	or at least a little differently.	35:50
	I like him because he likes me."	35:53
	Now, surely it is at this point,	35:58
	that Don Quixote has something in common	36:00
	with Jesus of Nazareth,	36:03
	for much of the appeal of the historic Jesus,	36:05
	lay in the fact that he persisted	36:08
	in looking through the facts that people were,	36:11
	and appealing to them because he saw them	36:14
	as something else.	36:17
	He looked at a band of ragged, ignorant fisher folk,	36:19
	and he says, "I need to for my friends,	36:23
	I love you.	36:27
	Will you follow me?"	36:28
	Or talking with the outcast of the village he said,	36:30
	"You really aren't what you seem to be,	36:34
	go and be what you are."	36:38
	Now this is the meaning and the thrust of the lesson	36:42
	that was read in our hearing,	36:45
	not the critical analysis of it,	36:47
	not the linguistic explanation,	36:50
	but the meaning, the thrust,	36:52
	for there is by vitality in paralysis.	36:55
	And the scribes and the Pharisees are thus,	36:59
	and they bring down due upon our heads	37:03
	and so did the publicans and centers not have so much	37:05
	that we have made them this,	37:10
	but that we persist in thinking	37:12
	that they are nothing else than this	37:15
	and they are unwilling to let them be anything else.	37:18
	Are you only what your ID card reveals you to be?	37:22
	How much more you are than this,	37:29
	only you and God dare admit,	37:32
	but fools like Don Quixote	37:36
	move in the direction of seeing through our credentials	37:39
	and knowing what we are.	37:43
	The breathtaking appeal of Don Quixote	37:46
	is not the diversion of a fool	37:49
	who mistakes windmills for giants,	37:51
	or a flock of sheep for a marching army.	37:54
	No, the shattering characteristic about the man	37:57
	is that he persists in insisting,	38:01
	that sorted fact will yield to idealism.	38:04
	And so this silly knight goes out on his errands,	38:10
	but every knight must have his lady.	38:14
	And so he selects Aldonza.	38:17
	know most from the moment he cups eyes upon her,	38:20
	he insists that she is not Aldonza,	38:24
	but the Lady Dulcinea.	38:27
	He writes her a letter	38:30
	and the faithful Sancho brings it to her.	38:31
	"What's it say?" she asks	38:34
	Because of course, Aldonza cannot read.	38:36
	"O lovely, sovereign and high born lady." Sancho begins	38:40
	and continues ponderously.	38:48
	"O fairest of the fair,	38:50
	O purest of the pure,	38:53
	incomparable Dulcinea."	38:56
	"My name is Aldonza." She says.	38:59
	"My master calls you the Lady Dulcinea."	39:03
	"Why?"	39:08
	"I don't know, but it won't do any good to ask questions.	39:09
	Knights have their own language for everything,	39:14
	and it will only get you into trouble to question him."	39:17
	And yet Aldonza persists,	39:22
	later asking of the mad knight himself.	39:24
	"Would you just want," she begs	39:28
	"look at me as I really am and see me for what I am?"	39:31
	And Don Quixote, looking into her pleading eyes, says,	39:37
	"I see beauty,	39:42
	I see purity,	39:44
	I see Dulcinea."	39:47
	It is a long and plenty exchange.	39:50
	Dulcinea rails and lashes at him.	39:54
	He has shone up the sky,	39:57
	but what good is the sky to anyone	39:59
	who will never do anything but crawl?	40:01
	What good does it have to see ambition	40:04
	when you are hopelessly bound in the earth?	40:08
	There is no meaning left to life.	40:11
	The worst crime of all is being born.	40:13
	And when she attempts by his standards	40:16
	to minister to his and her enemies,	40:18
	then they degrade and ravish,	40:22
	and ridicule,	40:25
	and abandon her.	40:27
	And yet,	40:30
	and yet in the end,	40:32
	the knight wins.	40:35
	For when his embarrassed family have safely rescued him	40:37
	and brought him home again,	40:41
	to spare him from further spectacle before the world,	40:44
	and to save their own purse.	40:48
	When he has made his peace with God,	40:50
	and when he is ready to die,	40:53
	he goes out and departs of the world like a knight.	40:56
	And Cervantes has proven his point.	41:01
	Knighthood is no longer an option,	41:04
	but Aldonza has fallen and she stands close by his bed.	41:07
	Even the redoubtable Sancho so filled with proverbs	41:13
	is defenseless in the mute presence of death.	41:18
	And he sobs out in Pathos, "He's dead.	41:21
	My master Don Quixote is dead."	41:27
	"No, Sancho." Says Aldonza.	41:31
	"He is not dead.	41:34
	Don Quixote is not dead.	41:36
	Believe Sancho,	41:40
	and in (indistinct) he turns to her,	41:42
	"Aldonza."	41:45
	"My name," she replies "is Dulcinea."	41:47
	Now something of this transformation	41:53
	was accomplished in Cervantes himself.	41:56
	Do you see he set out to write the story	42:00
	of a ridiculous knight, but in the course of the story	42:02
	the knight turns more nearly into the sage,	42:06
	not so much by what he says,	42:10
	but by the reflected light that shines	42:13
	and the gentle character	42:16
	and the persistent ideal of the man.	42:18
	The character of Don Quixote changes	42:21
	and one can only guess,	42:24
	that the character of Cervantes himself had changed,	42:26
	changed because he too was exposed to the knight.	42:31
	Do you see in the play?	42:35
	One has Cervantes thrown into jail by the inquisitors,	42:37
	and so he tells the prisoners the story of Don Quixote	42:41
	and the scene shifts from the story of Don Quixote	42:45
	to the scene in the prison back and forth, back and forth,	42:49
	until it is no longer possible to tell	42:53
	where Don Quixote leaves off	42:55
	and where Cervantes takes on,	42:57
	until in the end, it is impossible to separate Don Quixote	43:00
	from Cervantes or the death of one	43:06
	from the death of the other,	43:09
	but in their fusion and death,	43:11
	a new man is born, The Man of La Mancha.	43:13
	And he it is who has a word for the madness of his own time.	43:17
	He is the holy wanderer.	43:23
	He is that strange combination of spiritual gifts	43:27
	and spiritual frailties,	43:30
	that is nothing more nor less than charity and action.	43:33
	And it is course for this reason that he is misunderstood,	43:38
	though it wouldn't bother Don Quixote for an instant.	43:43
	Rejection of some wounds him, but not of the intellectuals.	43:47
	This one is a man of faith and of action,	43:52
	"For mere scholars," he says to Sancho,	43:56
	"to reject me	43:59
	or scholars who have never tried the path of chivalry,	44:01
	I despise that criticism." He says.	44:05
	"I laugh at it."	44:07
	Which is only another way of saying	44:09
	that the solution for the problem of his time	44:11
	or up any time,	44:15
	lies in orienting one's values to the eternal.	44:17
	We have done it just the other way around.	44:22
	We have shaped the next world if there be one,	44:25
	by our confused creations.	44:30
	We judge the goodness of anything	44:33
	as to whether it accommodates itself to our here and now.	44:35
	The standard American question is always, will it work?	44:40
	Will it last a season?	44:44
	Is it practical?	44:47
	And yet, the majestic creatures of Don Quixote	44:49
	are just this,	44:54
	because they insist upon searching for an ideal	44:56
	for which they find or will ever find	45:00
	any earthly counterpart.	45:03
	And so they rise out of the folly,	45:06
	which en-meshes them	45:08
	and their own folly becomes their deepest wisdom,	45:11
	and their pursuit of it becomes their recompense.	45:15
	Sheer madness of course,	45:20
	utter madness for his time or ours,	45:22
	but would you hear once more, his testament of faith,	45:26
	his rule of light,	45:31
	to dream the impossible dream,	45:35
	to fight the unbeatable foe,	45:40
	the bear with unbearable sorrow,	45:44
	to run, where the brave dare not go,	45:48
	to right the un-rightable wrong,	45:52
	to love pure and chaste from afar,	45:56
	to try when the arms are too weary	46:01
	to reach the unreachable star, this is my quest,	46:04
	to follow the star, no matter how hopeless,	46:08
	no matter how far,	46:11
	to fight for the right without question or pause,	46:14
	to be willing to march into hell for the heavenly cause.	46:17
	And I know if I'll but true to the glorious quest,	46:23
	that my heart shall lie calm and peaceful.	46:28
	I know,	46:34
	to dream the impossible dream	46:36
	and the world will be better for this,	46:40
	that one man,	46:43
	sore and covered with scars,	46:45
	strove with his last ounce of courage,	46:48
	to reach the unreachable stars.	46:52
	Sheer madness, of course,	46:56
	but the world needs some mad men now,	46:59
	see why the sane ones have gotten us.	47:02
	Let us pray.	47:06
	Almighty God,	47:12
	give us the honesty and the wit,	47:17
	to understand what we have been,	47:22
	the grace to acknowledge what we are,	47:29
	and the indwelling spirit to be what we may become.	47:36
	Through Jesus Christ our Lord.	47:42
	Amen.	47:45
	(calm religious music)	47:55
	(choir singing faintly)	48:31
	(calm music)	51:36
	(choir sings faintly)	52:36
	(calm music)	53:31
	(choir sings faintly)	53:41
	(calm music)	54:47
	(choir sings faintly)	55:09
	O God, Father of all mercies,	58:25
	receive this offering which we present to thee	58:28
	as part of our worship,	58:30
	may these gifts be the symbol of our consecration unto thee	58:33
	and to thy son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.	58:38
	Amen.	58:43
	And out of God's gracious mercy and perfection	58:45
	do we commit you.	58:51
	May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly,	58:53
	may it keep you strong and tranquil	58:59
	in the truth of His promises through Jesus Christ our Lord.	59:02
	♪ Amen ♪	59:07
	♪ Amen ♪	59:10
	♪ Amen ♪	59:15
	♪ Amen ♪	59:19
	(choir sings faintly)	59:24
	(calm music)	1:00:30

Item Info

Title:

Stuart C. Henry - "Of Madness and Man and La Mancha" (April 27, 1969)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z31sq41

Date:

April 27, 1969

Speaker:

Henry, Stuart C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0480
ref6165_zo1
uachapelsermaud
duke:628157
dcrau002471
ark:/87924/r4z31sq41
048c3432-3c79-4e88-973f-65af67ebe835

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Stuart C. Henry - "Of Madness and Man and La Mancha" (April 27, 1969)

Transcript

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Duke University Archives

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