An Open Letter to Catholic Musicians
Dear Catholic musicians,
This message is for you: The world needs you, perhaps more than ever before.
We live in a time of great darkness, of ugliness, of violence & hate & hopelessness. “Where can God be found in all this?” the hearts of so many cry out without knowing it.
I believe one place to start is through beauty.
God often reveals Himself to a soul through beauty. Many saints & theologians have noted this throughout history. The Bible, too, speaks of this: how many psalms speak on the beauty of creation & how this beauty praises its Maker? Who can forget Song of Songs? Or the beautiful imagery of God coming as the daybreak in Zechariah’s canticle?
God as Creator has endowed in each human the ability to create. This, perhaps, is the most stunning way in which we are made in His Image and Likeness. We are not the Creator; we cannot create from nothing, we cannot will into existence that which does not exist. That is not for us to do. No, instead we create from what God has created for us, reflecting His Image in this way.
And for us as musicians, God has given us a particular talent for creating through music. Whether we perform, teach, or compose, we get to pass this gift on to others. Music has the power to be an instrument of healing for the human heart! What a humbling thing to realize that this has been entrusted into our hands.
Musicians, we have a mission to be Christ to the world not only through the unique witness of our lives, but also through that which we create and pass on to others. Whether we do this to glorify God explicitly or implicitly, we have a mission to bring Christ revealed in all His Beauty to those we share our craft with.
The fight against the darkness consuming the world is our fight. We do not fight evil in the way one might envision. No. We fight in unexpected, joyful ways, so we might surprise the enemy.
We fight with gentleness.
We fight with the work of our hands, from our hearts.
We fight through abiding in the creative love of God.
We fight by offering all our work up as a prayer to God.
We fight by offering the light of Beauty through our created beauty as a remedy to the darkness.
Christ is inviting us to join Him & surprise the already-defeated enemy desperately trying to hang on by stirring up chaos & the cloud of darkness.
Will you accept His invitation?
Sincerely,
A fellow Catholic musician
“Enemy-occupied territory---that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” - C.S. Lewis
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” - St. Teresa of Avila
