Mass - A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers I: X. Credo: 2. Trope: "Non Credo" - Leonard Bernstein

Et homo factus est

And was made man …

And was made man

And you become a man

You, God, chose to become a man

To pay the earth a small social call

I tell you, sir, you never were

A man at all

Why?

You had the choice when to live

When

To die

And then

Become a god again

And then a plaster god like you …

A God like you too …

Has the gall to tell me what to do

To become a man

To show my respect on my knees …

Be like a man

Go genuflect, but don’t expect guarantees

Oh, just play it dumb

Play it blind

But when I go

Then

Will I become a god again?

Possibly yes, probably no …

Yes, probably no

Give me a choice

I never had a choice

Or I would have been a simple tree

A barnacle in a silent sea

Anything but what I must be:

A man

A man

A man!

Possibly yes, probably no …

You knew what you had to do

You knew why you had to die

Man

Man

You chose to die, and then revive again

You chose, you rose alive again

But I

I don’t know why I should live

If only to die

Well, I’m not gonna buy it!

Possibly yes, probably no …

I’ll never say credo

How can anybody say credo?

I want to say credo …

(Tape Six.)

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio

Pilato

Passus, et sepultus est

Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum

Scripturas

Et ascendit in caelum:

Sedet ad dexteram Patris

Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare

Vivos et mortuos