Shadrach is the thirteenth track on the Beastie Boys’ second album, Paul’s Boutique. The chorus is, “Shadrach, Meshach, Abendego,” the names of the three men put into the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, who remain untouched and unharmed by the flames. (Daniel 3) The song doesn’t tell the story of the three men, nor the angel they were talking to in the furnace. Instead it recounts the genius of the Beastie Boys and extols their ability to rap, drive cars, and appeal to women.
One of the lines is, “Because I got more stories than JD’s got Salinger / I hold the title, and you are the challenger.” When I heard this I was 18 years old and I’d heard of JD Salinger. But at that point, I hadn’t read anything by him. (He wasn’t assigned in high school and I was still reading A LOT of science fiction and fantasy.) I remembered one of my friends talking about The Catcher in the Rye, and when I realized it was by the same man that was in the Beastie Boys rap I decided I needed to read it.
So I read The Catcher in the Rye and enjoyed it, and soon read everything else by J.D. Salinger except Franny and Zooey. I didn’t like the title, which is a silly reason not to read a book. I was also mispronouncing Zooey; I thought it was pronounced Zoo E, not Zo E, and I thought Zoo E was a dumb name. I was 19 by then but I was 19; rational thought was not my forte.
I eventually got around to reading Franny and Zooey when I was in college, and it was Franny’s part of the story that especially intrigued me. Franny is reading a book called The Way of the Pilgrim; it’s about a Russian peasant who wants to learn how to pray without ceasing, as Paul instructs us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The pilgrim meets a spiritual guide who teaches him the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.”
There are variations of the Jesus Prayer; many people add, “Son of God the Father,” or “Son of Mary.” It’s a prayer meant to be said without ceasing, to the point that we are breathing the prayer in and out of our lungs, that our heartbeats match the rhythm of the prayer, and we enter a trance-like state where we achieve oneness with God. Franny (remember her) is trying to pray the Jesus Prayer in imitation of the pilgrim so that she can escape the phoniness of her upper-class college society. Her efforts largely involve smoking a lot, not eating and taking baths, if I remember correctly.
It turns out that the Jesus Prayer isn’t a quick fix or easy way to escape superficiality. It’s not something that happens overnight; in The Way of the Pilgrim the peasant is on the road for years, working to learn from different spiritual masters the best way to fully integrate the prayer into his life.
I ended up reading The Way of the Pilgrim and its sequel, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, both of which were written in Russian and translated by an Anglican priest (I read the translations).
The Jesus Prayer has been part of my prayer life since 2001; it’s never become part of my breath or heartbeat, but it has been a HUGE help when I’ve sat in the dentist’s chair or been cut off in traffic. It all started with a B-side track from a band most people think of as a joke. But it led me to a prayer that is foundational in my life.
God is working all the time, through all things, but we don’t often see it until the event is long passed. This isn’t a huge God moment, but it’s a fun one, and one I’m glad to have it in my life.
— Fr. Jason