In an earlier post, here, I wrote about the work of Dom Daniel Saulnier and Kenneth Levy on the history of Gregorian chant, and about the great transitions in Church music that took place around the year 1000. That post also used quotations from the letters of Gerbert of Aurillac about church organs, as he is known to have played the organ and possibly to have built organs in that era. The advent of the Christianity as the state church of Kyevan Russia also dates to roughly around that time, with chants being brought from Constantinople to Kiev, and the beginning of Kiev chant.
Here is a quote about organs from Symeon the New Theologian, who was a monk at that time from Constantinople, and who is considered an important saint in the Orthodox Church. Using church organs as a metaphor to describe his role in guiding younger monks and providing spiritual guidance through his writings, in a discourse called "On Works of Mercy", he wrote:
"I ought never to have ventured at all to address you, nor occupy the place of a teacher in the presence of your charity. As you well know, an organ built by a craftsman does not play of its own accord. Only when its pipes are filled with air and the fingers of the player touch [its keys] in due order will it make its sound and fill the ears of all with sweet music. So too in my own case you must remember to ignore how poor an instrument I am. Rather, look to the grace of the Spirit, which from on high inspires and fills the souls of the faithful, to the very "finger of God" (Luke 11:20) that plucks at the strings of the mind and incites us to speak. Listen with fear and trembling (Eph. 6:5) to the sound, as it were, of the Master's trumpet, or more correctly, to the King of all things as He speaks to us as through an instrument. Listen with understanding and in great quietness!"
- Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses, Discourse IX.
It is interesting, first of all, to see references to organ music in writings from this era. It was an important instrument to their worship, as it is to ours, although their organs were quite simple as compared to some of the massive, complex machines we have today.
But the point he is making is a more timeless one, a simple point written in beautiful language as he introduces his ninth discourse, on the topic "On Works of Mercy". This is the Discourse's first paragraph, introducing it as spoken through the power of the Holy Spirit although he, himself, is a "poor instrument".
It brings to mind Scriptures using different metaphors to describe similar concepts:
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- "When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
- and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power,so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God." (I Cor. 2:1-5)
"But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us." (II Cor. 4:7)
In his role as a teacher, he describes himself as a poorly made musical instrument played by the Master's hands, filled with the air of the Spirit, and asks his readers to listen, not to him, but to the sweet music they hear when the Holy Spirit "fills the soul of the faithful" and the fingers of God have control of that poor instrument.
Elsewhere, Symeon uses other metaphors to describe the workings of the Holy Spirit: fire, lamp, light, sun, and water, among others, are mentioned by Orthodox Archbishop Basil Krivocheine in his book about Symeon, The Light of Christ. Here, the Spirit is the air that fills the pipes of a mediocre organ played by the Master's hands.
The concept of his own brokenness echoes those letters of St. Paul quoted above. It also conveys a message about his role as a spiritual guide and spiritual father -- one that he may not have always followed as well in life as he might have wished, but that is true of all of us.
In his book on spiritual guidance, Soul Mending, Orthodox historian and theologian John Chryssavgis writes of the theme of brokenness, drawing in part from Catholic theologian Henri Nouwen. Chryssavgis wrote that "all Christians are called to 'ministry' in one form or another", and it is easy for us to "become distracted from the centrality of humility and the significance of vulnerability in the Christian life." Yet, ministry arises precisely from that "and leads to the cross." So, in accepting and admitting our own brokenness, rather than pretending to be whole, being "broken for others and shared with others", we offer more of God. Henri Nouwen, quoted by Chryssavgis, wrote, "Making one's own wounds a source of healing . . . does not call for a sharing of superficial personal pains but for a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition which all men share." (Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer)
That, I think, is basically what Symeon was saying here. Rather than pretend to be more than he was, he sought to teach what he knew of God through his brokenness, beginning as a "poor instrument."
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