Songfacts®:

• Craig Finn's worldview was very much influenced by being raised as a Catholic, and this song reflects his religious upbringing. He explained to American Songwriter: "I wasn't raised in a super-strict Catholic house. But we spent enough time in church and also going to all the [Sunday school] classes. So that's kind of how you learn. By turning you over to the church, that's one way your parents attempt to teach you morality. So it affects a lot of things in the way I think."
  
  "In this case, I'm obviously playing with the idea of the son being Christ and the son being someone's actual son. I thought that song was about someone wrapping up their life and trying to get some closure on things."
• This is the opening track of Craig Finn's second solo album, Faith In The Future. Much of the record was written in 2013 when his mother passed away and the first line of this song directly addresses that loss ("There's a darkness in my body"). Finn explained: "I was somewhat thinking about mortality there and leaving this Earth on a good place."
• The third verse finds the song's character looking back on all those things that he's been searching for during his life including joining a Manson Family-like cult. Finn explained: "He's been moving around and trying things and never quite getting there. He's trying to throw a Hail Mary, almost at the very end."