Come creator. When the Spirit becomes song and prophecy
Reflections by Fabio Trimigno of the ZACCHEO Network, queer Christians from Puglia
COME, CREATOR SPIRITUS. The song of Come creator (9th century), has resonated for centuries in the Pentecost liturgy and in Christian assemblies as a prolonged invocation to the Spirit. Rich in suggestive images, imbued with poetic strength and prophetic mission, the Come creator still today it appears to be a grandiose fresco on the third person of the Holy Trinity: the Spirit, from the feminine Ruha in Hebrew, it is switched to neuter Pneuma in greek, and then ending in masculine Spiritus in latin.
But how did our christian community come to masculinize even the person of the Holy Spirit, as well as imagining for centuries An all-male god? how Can we say that God is only father?
Was it not that a man from Nazareth called him Father because it was the only way to identify, in the Jewish society to which he belonged, the pinnacle and highest point of the family structure, or the one who had the power of life and death over the members of the family?
Wasn't it perhaps Pope John Paul I who, in the short days of his pontificate, caused scandal by stating with courage and a prophetic gaze that God was also Mother?
If we calculated a percentage of type within the Trinitarian mystery we would see without a shadow of a doubt that 66.66...% is of an indefinable gender, and that only 33.33...% (from the evangelical story of circumcision) is certainly of the male gender, Jesus of Nazareth in fact.
In the Trinity two out of three people are queer (umbrella term used by the LGBT+ community to indicate those who do not want to have a label, contrary to what we usually think): “queer”, from archaic English means “eccentric, unusual"; in german it means "crosswise”, “diagonally”.
Queer, crooked, not straight, not normal, out of the norm, unusual, unclassifiable, unlabelable…
Therefore we could consider the Trinity as the only true expression of love from the trait queer, an unclassifiable, unlabelable relationship, a relationship between three people (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) that remains a mystery, just like when we can't say what we feel in our stomach when we fall in love.
God is never solitude, but communion of three presences: He, the radical unity, coexists with personal diversity. This is the peculiarity of the Christian faith: love relationship.
The Holy Trinity, therefore, remains a mystery. A mystery of love.
COME, CREATRIX MUSICA
Also a mystery is the deleterious phenomenon in the musical field that we have been witnessing in our parishes for decades now: the last three pontificates have allowed a certain way of making music to enter the Liturgy for fear of no longer having a sequel.
Why do we worry about filling celebrations with hysterical voices and performing musicians instead of striving to fill the hearts of the faithful with the Word of God?
Why do we prefer saccharine melodies which, beyond their musical artistic value, are incapable of orienting hearts to God in the slightest?
Is there still music that elevates the Spirit because it is inspired by the same Spirit at the moment of its composition?
Or is there only music left that debases the soul and exhausts the liver like an RnS song on the harmonic successions of Zombie by the Cramberries or the Our Father on the melody of The Sound of Silence by Paul Simon (without taking anything away from the Cramberries and Paul Simon)?
Where does the creative Spirit end? And when does a spiritual musical creation begin?
Benedict XVI wrote “music has the power to open minds and hearts to the dimension of the spirit and lead people to raise their gaze upwards, to open up to the absolute Good and Beauty, which have their ultimate source in God” (Speech “On Music” 29.4.10)
Today, more than ever, our community needs to be the subject of the liturgy, it needs to feel like a co-celebrant with the priest, and not a passive assembly, waiting to hear the next reading or the next song, page 3, number 2, sung as best as possible by unnecessarily crowded choirs.
And those who are called to animate the liturgy with the gift of singing and music must in no way be the centrifugal force of the liturgy, but on the contrary must humbly render their service to lead their brothers and sisters to the mystery Easter: the soul is not the choir, it is not the organist or the guitarist, it is not the harpsichord and bong player nor even the priest; the soul is Jesus, alive and present in the Eucharist.
Singing and music remain and will always remain a very precious instrument of praise and a creative force of communion for Christ, with Christ and in Christ.
Therefore sacred music will be all the more holy the more closely it is united to the liturgical action and to the mystery of the Trinity which through the work of the Spirit makes us prophets.
COME, CREATOR PROPHET
The musician or chorister, during a Eucharistic celebration, must not forget that in that moment the soil's role is prophet it is important, even more than other baptized people who are also baptized can feel it kings-priests-prophets.
In Psalm 1 we read: “You will arrive at Gibeah of God, where there is a garrison of Philistines, and upon entering the city you will meet a group of prophets who will come down from the hill preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes and lyres, who will act as prophets”
Singing, music, musical instruments always remain a blessed means of becoming aware of something, whether bitter or happy, or both together.
In Exodus (15,19-21) we read. “When Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his riders entered the sea, the Lord caused the waters of the sea to return over them, while the Israelites had walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. Then Miriam, the prophetess, sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; behind her the women came out with tambourines and dancing. Miriam sang the refrain for them: Sing to the Lord, for he has wondrously triumphed: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!”
When the prophecy runs out, then the song remains, the music remains, an invisible voice.
The mission of a choir and musicians called to liturgical animation is a prophetic mission: to be present, prayer and an invisible voice.
