CathNews New Zealand

My granddaughter was young and it was her first orchestral concert. Everything was exciting for her – the programme, the crowd, the musicians walking onto the stage.

Then those players started tuning their instruments; the concert hall filled with discordant noise.

My granddaughter thought this was the first item.

The pain on her face was relieved when I explained what was happening.

We both settle back in our seats, and  I thought we had just created an interesting parable.

We are all sacred instruments.

Each of us needs God’s tuning so that we can be together in harmony.

What instruments were we in our parable?

Thoughts roamed through favourite instruments that reminded us of people we knew and we decided that an instrument on its own was inadequate. It needed company.

The richest sound came from a full orchestra well-trained and well-tuned. The music that held it together, celebrated all instruments.

And the conductor?

In my parable, it was Jesus.

It always is Jesus the Word made flesh.

That thought brought me back to the Gospel of Matthew and the words “Jesus spoke all things in parables…”

The NZSO had brought a meaningful parable about the work that goes into the harmony of the community.

How do I value each individual?

How do I regard my need for personal tuning?

I think of the gifts in my Parish, sacred instruments of different shapes and sounds, who come together in the oneness of Faith.

I name the string instruments, the mellow wind instruments, and the lively percussion groups, and offer a prayer of gratitude for the way we come together in the music of the Mass.

But what about a prayer of thanks for all the other parables in our lives?

Doesn’t Jesus’ example encourage us to find parables in God’s creation?

A tree may look dead in Winter. Yet winter is preparation for the season of greatest growth.

How do we see that in our lives?

The wind blows across the sea. The shallow water is disturbed but out in the deep, only the surface is ruffled.

How do the winds of change affect my Faith?

The horizon appears to be a straight line with nothing beyond it. So it seems, does death.

Is death a limitation of vision? Is death actually about restored sight beyond death?

That brings me back to the orchestra. The concert is over. The instruments are silent, packed for another time and venue.

That reminds me that all music comes out of silence.

So it is with prayer.

Let us follow Jesus’ example, and find our own parables in God’s creation They are usually exactly what we need for the moment.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

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