The Pope’s unusual homily

There are many things the Pope has done lately that deserve attention.

But this one is easy to miss. Yet, it affects us very tangibly.

In front of more than 40,000 people, Pope Leo addressed his homily to…

choirs!

That choice is intentional.

Because for millennia, music has been an integral part of the liturgy; never a side feature of mass. And the pope is issuing a reminder.

But why remind us?

In this generation of ugly post-modern art, church music has been affected or, at the very least, neglected. We struggle to recognize true beauty because we’ve been glutted on fast-food substitutes: fast music, shallow poetry, instant emotions…

Stuffed with all this noise, we became anesthetized.

The cure? To be once again exposed to true beauty. But that culture seeped into the liturgy! And beautiful chants are rarely to be heard.

Look around, the people are not singing along. They’re barely mumbling. And you are distracted, irritated, or merely tolerating. You find yourself fighting to pray.

But good chanting is supposed to put you in a posture of relaxed surrender, penetrate your soul, and transport your heart upward in sigh and wonder:

Yes, Frank, that is why beauty is an essential part of our liturgy: God uses it to draw your soul out of itself and into Himself, He who is source of all beauty. That is when you discover deeper mysteries not revealed by words alone.

So, we need beautiful hymns and many parishes are not offering them.

“Okay, but what actually makes good liturgical music?”

First, remember that mass is not a concert and Calvary is not a concert stage. “Worship and praise” megachurch songs were written for concerts, not for the liturgy. This kind of music is not the most suitable because it creates clear dissonance: it uses diluted poetry and feel-good pop music as a “cult of the banal”, while the mass is trying to transport you to calvary. Sacred music has rules to it. It is neither pop nor rock.

Second, it should leave the soul feeling refreshed, light, and elevated to God. It is very different than worldly music, which does the exact opposite: leaves the soul drier, weighed down, and attached to the things of this world.

And finally, beautiful liturgical music is objectively beautiful:

“OK Frank, how do you recognize a good choir from a bad one?”

Saint Augustine gives the first and hardest rule: “Cantare amantis est… Non enim cantant nisi qui amant.” (cf. Sermo 336,1), that is, “singing belongs to one who loves... For only those who love truly sing.”

Authentic liturgical song comes from a heart that truly loves God. Singing fully expresses divine love only when a true lover of God is singing. Singing without love is mere noise (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Therefore, as a first rule, we need our singers to be particularly docile to the Holy Spirit. This is a Marian posture of the soul (Luke 1:28): open, receiving, and unresisting. This interior posture is transferred into the singing and felt by the people.

Second, musicians and singers should also have an intuition for the power of silence. Silence is another forgotten instrument, and perhaps more important than sound. Too often, choirs leave us disoriented and restless because they fear leaving a good moment of silence! They impatiently (and breathlessly) churn out song after song like a factory line. But this only creates more noise which makes it harder for us to hear God’s voice. It requires humility for a choir to realize when they should disappear.

Third, a good choir does not distract or bring attention to itself. Skill matters. Amateurism and noticeable mistakes can become distractions that divert the people from the true subject of the mass: Jesus. More importantly, singers should aim to disappear in humility. They must allow God to sing through them (John 3:30). God’s graces pass more easily through a humble singer than a self-absorbed one. Think of the sun shining its rays on a transparent glass vs a stained glass…

And the simplest way to figure out whether a choir is good? It bears extraordinary fruit.

It causes real spiritual transformation.

People return to mass.

The music opens their eyes (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Their hearts are stirred with awe and wonder.

Often a hymn accomplishes what ten homilies cannot. It lifts the exhausted soul above the frantic urgencies of ordinary life. It seizes a drowning soul and carries it above the surface long enough to gasp, “At last… I can breathe.”

That breath is lifesaving.

And that is why the Church needs better choirs.

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