Listen! The silence of the inner life is pierced by heavenly music! The English poet, John Keats, recorded this: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.” The ancient Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, understood the muted harmony as coming from the earth, sun, moon, and stars; all moving together in elegant mathematical permutations to create celestial melodies throughout the cosmos. The 17th century German mathematician and astronomer, Johannes Kepler, saw no conflict between science and religion. The devout Kepler perceived God’s glory through musical intervals, defining planetary movement. St Francis of Assisi heard and sang, too, along with all creatures of our God and King.
With the unheard music of God as accompaniment, a mysterious door opens into the inner life when we ask: “What is my purpose? What part do I sing?” Psalm 8 answers that God invites us to join the choir by allowing him to embrace us:
When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars that you set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet, you have made him a little lower than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
The inner life seeks refuge in the ever-widening mystery of God’s love, vastly deep and always at work within us. If we can welcome the encirclement of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, awareness of the mystery grows, gradually opening into harmony between natural and supernatural.
However, sweet notes are sparse in notation made by the modern secular sciences; there is little room for choice, virtue, charity, or forgiveness. While psychology may improve relationships and help with misunderstandings, it is not a cure-all for human ailments. Worse, when it excuses selfish bad behavior, psychology’s sound is just cacophony, rather like a cowbell.
There are other more reliable resources. G.K. Chesteron’s article, The Ethics of Elfland, charts the benefits of good stories, fairy tales, and fables as childhood indicators of morality and the road to heaven. Christian spirituality longs for a ravishing counterpoint that combines two independent musical lines into a harmonious whole. The ways and notations of the mystery are found in The Interior Castle by St Teresa of Avila and The Ascent of Mount Carmel by St John of the Cross. Their unique voices sing of the mystical union with God, and the Church harkens; both saints are recognized as doctors of the Church.
Instead of taking the inner life by storm, we might just quietly listen. True musical notation is written for us by our Lord Jesus in the glory of God’s creation, through daily miracles, within Sacred Scripture, and by the practice of prayer amidst ordinary life. Was it St Augustine who noted: “He who sings, prays twice”? While awaiting the coming of grace, even as lightening flashes in the heavens, might we not also expect the music of the spheres, as accompaniment to the long-locked thunder of the Cross?
Ruth D. Lasseter
SDC Associate
Indiana, USA
