Divine Harmony: Embracing the Music of the Spheres

Divine Harmony: Embracing the Music of the Spheres

Hear in your mind a beautiful, harmonious harp. That harmony, as Hildegard of Bingen pointed out, reminds us of God creating everything in all the universes to fit harmoniously with everything else. The perfect harmony is "the music of the spheres." Surely God does that because God is the divine harmony itself. The One life of the Three Persons is like the beautiful sound of a harp: Pluck three strings. Each string gives its individual note, but there's only one sound. That's how God is. Each Person lives, but there's only one Life. Perfect harmony.

Now think of us who are created in the image and likeness of God. Together, we're being created within and as part of the harmony in all of creation. Each of us is being created to hold harmony in our own hearts and minds and to find harmony with all around us. Imagine if every bit of news were about some new harmony somewhere!

Well, let’s get real. As we fall back into "the way things used to be," we might ensure our heart is tuned like that harp. If a heart is tuned well, its chords will sound a harmony. If it's not—cacophony, ugly noise. So, here's "doing God's will": it's feeling harmony in our own hearts and making harmony with all those around us. That is doing what God is doing. More than that: that is being what God is being—beautiful harmony and the infinite Source of Harmony—in whose image and likeness we are being created, remember?

Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J.