Music is an experience that can evoke thoughts, emotions and memories in each of us that we thought we had forgotten. Distinct from any other type of artistic experience, music speaks to each of us in a different way and it can be an instrument of social cohesion thanks to its universal language that reaches everyone regardless of the culture they belong to.

For this reason, music has been the subject of reflection throughout the course of history, from the Greek philosophers to the present day. For the Fathers of the Church, our song is nothing but an echo, an imitation of that of the angels. Music was invented in the heavens where angels sing around and above us. If a man is a musician, it is by revelation of the Spirit of God. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said that “the origin of music is the encounter with the divine, which from the beginning is part of what it defines what is human” (4.07.2015).

In bringing to our hears the idea of the composer who wrote the text of a song or of a symphony, a key role is played by the interpreter.

Addressing the participants at the conference “Church, music, interpreters: a necessary dialogue” on Saturday November 9^th last, Pope Francis said: “The interpreter of music has much in common with the biblical scholar, with the proclaimer of God’s word, but also with those who seek to interpret the signs of the times, and, even more generally, with all those – and each of us should be one of them! – who are open and attentive to others in sincere dialogue (…). There is a dialogue between the author, the work and the interpreter.  It is a three-way conversation.  (…) The artist, the interpreter and the listener, all have the same desire: to understand what beauty, music and art allow us to know of God’s grandeur.  Now perhaps more than ever, men and women have need of this.  Interpreting that reality is essential for today’s world”.

I am honored to greet all of you who have come to this concert, which is part of the activities to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel. While I thank my colleague, Ambassador Ilan Mor, for the dynamism shown in commemorating this important anniversary and for making possible this extraordinary event, I hope that, by listening to these musical prayers belonging to the Catholic and Jewish traditions, we may already experience on earth the heavenly harmonies.

I therefore invite everyone to raise our mind to the Jerusalem that is above, who “is our mother” (Gal 4,26), and which is represented in the Book of Revelation with “three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west” (Rev. 21,13), what means fully open, awaiting all the peoples of the earth: “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue” (Rev. 7,9).

Thanks and enjoy the music!