"MUSICA E CANTI DEVONO ESSERE ALL'ALTEZZA DELLA LITURGIA"
(Da una Catechesi di Giovanni Paolo II)

"Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to give a prominent place to the music and singing during the mass. "We must pray to God - he said during the general audience - not only theologically correct formulas, but also so beautiful and dignified." We must bring back "the beauty of the liturgy and music of the song," but said the pontiff, without "uninspired musical texts which are not worthy of the occasion which is celebrated".

1. Rings out for the second time in the liturgy of Lauds Psalm 150, which we have just heard: a festive hymn, alleluia a rhythm of music. It is the seal on the whole Psalter, the book of praise, song, liturgy of Israel. The text is an admirable simplicity and transparency. We just need to let ourselves be drawn by the insistent call to praise the Lord: "Praise the Lord ... Praise Him ... Praise Him." At the opening of God is presented in two fundamental aspects of its mystery. He is certainly transcendent, mysterious, beyond our horizon: her royal abode is the heavenly "sanctuary", the "firmament of his power," similar to a fortress inaccessible to man. Yet he is close to us: this is the "sanctuary" of Zion and acts in history through his "miracles" that reveal and make experience "his greatness" (cf. vv.1-2).

2. Between heaven and earth thus establishes a channel of communication in which you meet the Lord's action and the song of praise of the faithful. The liturgy unites the two sanctuaries, the earthly temple and the infinite heavens, God and man, time and eternity. During the prayer we perform an ascent towards the divine light and together experience a descent of God that fits our limit to listen and speak to us, to meet us and save us. The psalmist urges us to be taken immediately to a grant prayerful encounter: the use of musical instruments of the orchestra of the Temple of Jerusalem, such as the trumpet, the harp, the harp, timpani, drums, flutes and cymbals. The move was part of the ritual procession in Jerusalem (cf. Ps 117.27). The same appeal echoes in Psalm 46.8: "Sing with art."

3. It is therefore necessary to constantly discover and experience the beauty of prayer and liturgy. We must pray to God not only theologically correct formulas, but also so beautiful and dignified. In this regard, the Christian community must make an examination of conscience because they always return to the liturgy the beauty of music and singing. Should purify worship from ugliness of style, from distasteful forms of expression, from uninspired musical texts, and not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated. It is significant, in this regard, the lure of the Letter to the Ephesians to avoid drunkenness and vulgarity to make room for the purity of the liturgy: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ "(5:18-20).

4. The psalmist ends with an invitation to praise "every living thing" (cf. Ps 150.5), literally "every breath", "every breath", a term which in Hebrew means "every being that breathes", especially "every man alive '(Dt 20:16; Gs 10.40; 11,11.14). In praise of God, then, is involved primarily the human creature with his voice and his heart. With her are ideally summoned all living beings, all creatures in which there is the breath of life (cf. Gen 7:22), because they raise their hymn of gratitude to the Creator for the gift of existence. In the wake of this universal invitation will put St. Francis with its charming "Canticle of Brother Sun", which invites us to praise and bless the Lord for all creatures, a reflection of her beauty and goodness (cf. Franciscan Sources, 263) .

5. At this singing must participate in a special way all the faithful, as suggested in the Letter to the Colossians: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing to God with gratitude of heart and psalms, hymns and spiritual songs "(3:16). In this regard, Saint Augustine in his Expositions on the Psalms sees symbolized in musical instruments saints who praise God: "You, saints, are the trumpet, dulcimer, zither, tambourine, choir, strings and organ , and cymbals of jubilation sounds, because sounding harmony. You are all these things. Do not you think, listening to the Psalm to things of little value, a transitory things, nor instruments stage. "In reality singing voice to God is "every spirit that praises the Lord" (Expositions on the Psalms, IV, p. 934-935). The highest music, then, is what comes from our hearts. And God wants to hear this harmony in our liturgies.
(dall'udienza di mercoledì 26 febbraio 2003)

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