Strings to a Harp
Today’s official of reading offers us a wonderful passage from St Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Ephesians. It provides an image of the Church by way of musical metaphor. ‘It is fitting, therefore, that you should be in agreement with the mind of the bishop as in fact you are. Your excellent presbyters, who are a credit to God, are as suited to the bishop as strings to a harp. So in your harmony of mind and heart the song you sing is Jesus Christ. Every one of you should form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through harmony of hearts, and in unity taking the note from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he will listen to you and see from your good works that you are members of his Son. It is then an advantage to you to live in perfect unity, so that at all times you may share in God.’ To live in this way, and to build up the community, we all need a capacity for careful listening that presupposes inward silence, the silence above all of self-will.
