Liturgy is central to the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI – and music was central to his vision of liturgical renewal. In an address to the eighth International Church Music Congress, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: “The liturgy is supposed to be opus Dei, God’s work, in which he Himself acts first, and we become the redeemed precisely because He is at work.”
Because he viewed liturgy as the work of God, Benedict held that liturgical music must foster the right relationship between the spirit and the senses, and that it must draw upon the whole tradition. Like liturgy itself, liturgical music is not something we make but something we receive, originating in Christ as Logos and ushering us into the liturgy of Heaven.
Consider Benedict’s discussion of the ancient Greeks’ distinction between Apolline and Dionysiac music. Apolline mu-sic elevates the human person by bolstering the intellect, and by holding spirit and sense in proper balance, allowing a well-ordered society. In contrast, Dionysiac music dulls the intellect and permits the triumph of disordered passions.
“The free expansion of human existence, toward which man’s own hunger for the Infinite is directed, is supposed to be achieved through sacred delirium induced by frenzied instrumental rhythms. Such music lowers the barriers of individuality and personality, and in it man liberates himself from the burden of consciousness. Music becomes ecstasy, liberation from the ego, amalgamation with the universe.” This kind of music exists today in many forms of praise and worship music, in which one is hypnotised by the repetition of the words, simple musical patterns, and Dionysiac rhythms on guitars and drums. Such music does not form us in the right relationship between faith and reason. Thus, Benedict asked the question: if many popular styles of music are not fitting for the liturgy, then what music is?
“Music truly appropriate to the worship of the Incarnate Lord exalted on the Cross exists on the strength of a different, a greater, a much more truly comprehensive synthesis of spirit, intuition and audible sound … ranging from Gregorian chant and the music of the cathedrals via the great poly-phony and the music of the Renaissance and the Baroque up to Bruckner and beyond … The greatness of this music is the most obvious and immediate verification of the Christian image of man and of the Christian faith in the Redemption which could be found. Those who are truly impressed by this grandeur”, he concluded, “somehow realise from their innermost depths that the faith is true.”
Whence comes such music? Benedict rejected the modern idea of artistic originality in favour of biblical principles: “Today creativity is understood to be the making of something that no one has made or thought of before … In comparison with this, artistic creativeness in the book of Exodus is seeing together with God, participating in his creativity; it is exposing the beauty that is already waiting and concealed in creation.” Participation in this creativity necessarily leads to Christ as Logos, the creative force at the centre of the universe. We are invited to enter into the Logos through the lifting up of our hearts: the sursum corda of the Eucharistic prayer. Here we encounter the cosmic dimension of the liturgy, which is illustrated in Benedict’s description of a 12th-century Tyrolean monastery:
When the monks of Marienberg saw these frescoes, they certainly thought of the Rule of St Benedict: “Let us reflect upon how we should be in the presence of God and the angels, and when we sing let us stand in such a way that our hearts are in tune with our voices … The liturgy is not a thing the monks create. It is already there before them. It is entering into the liturgy of the heavens that has always been taking place.” Earthly liturgy is liturgy because and only because it joins with that is already in process, the greater reality. Thus, the meaning of the frescoes becomes completely clear. Through them the true reality, the heavenly liturgy, looks into this space; they are the window, as it were, through which the monks look out and look into the great heavenly choir. To sing with this choir is the essence of their calling: “In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise.” Through the frescoes this ideal stands forever present before their eyes.
Though he now does so through another window, Benedict continues to teach us how to enter into the presence of God – that the Mass is God’s work. “True liturgy sings with the angels, and true liturgy is silent with the expectant depths of the universe. And thus true liturgy redeems the earth.”
Dr Sara Pecknold teaches music at Christendom College, Front Royal, VA
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