On the Road for Jesus

“Jesus was not cool. Christianity is not about cool… And it doesn’t really matter.”

Those are not the words you’d think would come out of the mouth of someone who makes his living touring around the country performing songs about faith. If you see the Catholic musician, Matt Maher, who said those words, it becomes even harder to believe because, well, he’s pretty darn cool.

Instead, said Maher in an interview with Catholic New York, the key is being relatable and authentic.

To do that, he asks himself the question, “How can I hear what is going on inside my own heart?”

The answer is active listening, which is how he begins his music-writing process.

“The people that you really love, you spend more time listening than you do talking. Prayer is learning how to listen, really,” Maher said.

“For songs, it’s really the same thing,” Maher said a few days before he performed live at the Beacon in Manhattan March 3.

The two-time Grammy-nominated artist has popular Christian hits including the songs “Lord, I Need You” and “Turn Around.” His latest single, “Because He Lives (Amen),” reached 4 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs list. He received the 2008 Catholic Album of the Year for “Empty and Beautiful.”

Maher’s latest album, “Saints and Sinners” was released March 17.

A mixture of rock, blues and worship music, each of the songs resonates with the soul and showcases a bold message of faith.

“I can’t make anyone have a spiritual experience with one of my songs,” said a modest and humble Maher. “It’s really up to the Holy Spirit,” he said. If anyone’s relationship with God grows deeper, it’s not because of him, he said. “The music becomes a medium for it,” he said.

Born in Newfoundland, Canada he attended Roncalli Elementary, a Catholic school. As a second grader, Maher told CNY, there was one particularly stirring moment. He recalled singing with a classmate of his to the song “City of God,” or “One Bread, One Body”—the song itself is hazy. What remains entirely clear is as he and his friend sang in unison an overtone was created.

Young Maher thought angels were singing along because of the beauty of the harmonious tone. “I knew that music was my calling,” he said, “It’s what God made me to do.”

Maher is a gifted songwriter who is unafraid with his lyrics. “As an artist, you are vulnerable, but the emotion becomes the connecting point. I think sharing insights about my life and my faith life…becomes this intimate very real shared experience with the listener,” Maher said.

In 2008 during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI he performed at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie at the Youth Rally for a crowd of 25,000 and just last year he sang at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during Advent. He played in 2013 for Pope Francis during World Youth Day in Brazil.

He has also played at venues across the country to a varied audience. “Christians from all denominations come to my concerts,” he said. He noted that one of the joys of his music ministry is that he is involved in an active Catholic ministry alongside other denominations.

He reflected on the fact that Jesus prays for unity. Quoting St. Augustine, he said, “He who sings, prays twice.”

“What we can do in a very tangible way, we can pray together. That’s what I am doing, and that’s what my music does for Christians—to pray together,” he said.

Maher currently lives with his wife, Kristin, and their children in Nashville, Tennessee.

He uses those life experiences as he contemplates his next song.

Such things as the stomping around of his son on the floor become part of the texture of the music.

“I didn’t go into a monastery. I am a parent. I have kids. It was really about inviting God into the rhythm of my everyday life and having him reveal himself to me,” he said.

“It’s been an amazing journey.”