All Saints 2021
In 2007 Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for a story he wrote in the Washington Post about a social experiment carried out by Joshua Bell. Bell is an American violinist and conductor who plays the Gibson Stradivarius worth $4 million. At 17 he made his debut in Carnegie Hall, in 2007 he won the Avery Fisher Prize and in 2008 received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
On 12th January 2007, Bell donned a baseball cap and played for 45 minutes as an incognito busker at the Metro subway station L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. 1,097 people hurried past, but only 7 stopped to listen and only one recognised him. He collected $52.17 from 28 different people; $20 coming from the man who recognised him! He played the exact same music three days earlier to a packed concert venue where people payed top dollar for a seat. If you want to hear him yourself he is playing Beethoven with the New York Philharmonic on 24th of this month in Tully Hall at the Lincoln Centre, New York, where a front row seat will set you back $468!
So many people hurried past this once in a lifetime opportunity to hear up close one of the world’s greatest musicians. However, the really fascinating question is, what was it about those 7 individuals who stopped and listened, that allowed them to hear what so many could not? They saw past the externals and really heard the music which resonated deep down with their own humanity.
“If you desire to know yourself and to possess yourself, go into yourself, and do not search for yourself outside” says St Isaac of Stella, “Distinguish between what is around you, what belongs to you, and your self!” A saint is a person who realises that they are made in the image and likeness of God and that God’s own music, that infinite Wisdom, is resounding deep within. Can you hear it?
This is why Jesus could exclaim “Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We can choose to live like this if we want, or we can choose to live life in a state of semi-death, refusing to hear the music; to be a person who hardly hears, who seldom sees, who barely or rarely loves, who refuses to forgive, who struggles to possess rather than share. This is why St Irenaeus of Lyons said, “the Glory of God is the human person fully alive.”
Isaac of Stella reminds us “If someone has never seen light they will not recognise darkness either.” “The Lord Jesus and perhaps he alone, could be in a crowd, be undisturbed by it, and so could see it.” Remember Jesus knew that the woman who was haemorrhaging had touched the hem of his garment in the vast crowd and power went out from him. Have I worked up the courage to begin that inner journey, or do I remain on a superficial level?
The saint has heard the voice of God calling out, ‘O Adam, O Eve, where are you?’ Still in the shadows perhaps, so that you cannot see yourself? Sewing together foolish fig leaves to cover your shame? Look within and see yourself, face the truth, whatever that might be. Listen to the precepts of the Master and incline the ear of your heart. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Become a saint, exchange those fig leaves for your white garment and hear the heavenly score resounding.