In Heaven, Everyone's in the Choir

02-03-2019Weekly Reflection

The song of the angels, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” resounds from our lips at every Mass. There was a widespread belief in the first religions of the world that God stirred creation into being by a word, a song, a musical note. Music and a sense of God’s presence have always been inseparable.

In the liturgy, your voice is invited into this song as the priest names the reasons for our praise. “Heaven and earth are full of your glory,” and we are not passive onlookers, but participants in this glory. Catholic prayer no longer assigns this angelic hymn to a choir but gives it to you to sing. Even if your voice is thought to be suitable only for a well-insulated shower stall, you are called into this song.

We are born to sing—just listen to a baby testing the full range of newlydiscovered vocal abilities. Soon we get shushed and hushed into quiet, and given lots of messages that our voices are unwanted and that we need to raise our hands in order to be heard. All of that is overturned in the liturgy, the place where God waits to hear us come alive in the song of all creation. In heaven, everyone’s in the choir; why not start practicing now?