You will have noticed, I am sure, the great unity amongst the musicians of an orchestra. Many different players with different instruments, different music scores, are all following the rhythm and directives of the one conductor. All first-violinists play with up-bows and down-bows simultaneously as do the second-violinists. From a diversity of players and music scores the composer has created one great harmony, signified by the root meaning of ‘symphony’, a sound together. St Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ, with different members. Some are apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers. All work in harmony, like one great orchestra under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ‘for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith …’. The goal is unity and it is a work in progress. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The family is called to be the Church in miniature, looking to the example of the Holy Family as the perfect model. And like an orchestra it has different members. The goal too is unity in a harmony of relationships, mirrored on the unity of the Holy Family, permeated through by the Holy Spirit and the Unity of the Trinity.
There are a number of readings in our Advent and Christmas Seasons where we see the work of the Holy Spirit producing a melody, a Divine Song. There is Elizabeth who, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognizes her cousin Mary to be the ‘mother of my Lord’. In reply, Mary, espoused to the Holy Spirit, bursts into song proclaiming ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’. We continue her song each evening at Vespers as we sing her Magnificat. The priest Zecharia, father of St John the Baptist, having been made dumb because of his doubting the word of the Angel Gabriel, now filled with the Holy Spirit prophecies ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel …’. His ‘Benedictus’ Canticle we now sing each morning at Lauds. Today we have Mary and Joseph bringing with them the Child Jesus to the Temple to present Him to the Lord and for the completion ceremony of Mary’s purification and offer sacrifice according to the Law. At the same time, the holy and righteous old man Simeon, who is not a priest, is inspired by the Holy Spirit to go up to the Temple. On seeing the Child in Mary’s arms he immediately recognizes who this Child is, takes him in his own arms and sings his song: ‘Lord now lettest thy servant depart in peace …’ And now his Canticle, the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ we sing each evening at Compline. On Christmas morning, repeated again on the 7th day of Christmas (if not a Sunday) and on the 2nd Sunday after Christmas, we have the prologue of St John’s Gospel, the highest mysteries of our salvation, the Incarnation and Birth of Our Saviour and of the Church, proclaimed in Divine Poetry.
St. John Henry Newman described the history of the Church in terms of three different ages of spirituality. The second is the scientific age brought about by the Friars, represented by St Dominic; the third is the practical age represented by St Ignatius of Loyola and the advent of the Jesuits; but the first age is the monastic, represented by St Benedict, monks and nuns, which he described as ‘poetic’. Of course all three appear in all ages. The greatest teacher of the moral life, Our Lord Jesus Christ, was also the greatest poet. One has only to recall the Beatitudes to see this. He was a great poet who lived out His poetry. His whole Life was a Poem. Many of the saints have imitated Him in this way, thinking especially of St Francis of Assisi. We could say that the task of the poet is to bring back people from a sickly imagination to the concrete. Jesus contemplated ordinary life in such a beautiful and vivid way. The Beauty of His Divine Truth in His parables captivated His hearers. The poet embraces you, takes you into his heart through his words, his imageries, and also his actions all set in delightful proportion. Jesus showed us how to make living, how to make loving, an art. This was the object too of St Benedict and his monastic rule. The monastic life is rooted in a harmonious melody centred on the Liturgy which can only be truly lived out with a most fervent love – ferventissimo amore – as he wrote in his Rule. We could also say that the life of the family should be poetic. It is a balanced life of prayer, work, sleep, table fellowship, recreation, thanksgiving, forgiveness and silence. And Like the orchestra, like the Church in miniature, rooted in a life being transformed by the Holy Spirit, the relationships between all the members of a family must be harmonious. St Paul gives an ordering to the relations, which may seem rather out dated in our society. But they are not. They are especially relevant for our times, given the great attacks on family life we now see. Further, we must remember his great admonition today above all else: “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Certainly there are great challenges we have to face, beginning with our own conversion. We come to realize the beauty and poetry of this family life when we truly experience that, as St Francis de Sales wrote: ‘Love makes lovers equal’.